Keeladi (Keezhadi), located just outside the more than 2,000-year-old great city of Madurai, has been accepted as a Sangam-era settlement. The Sangam period is widely believed to be the six centuries between 3rd BCE and 3rd CE.

The findings of the excavations at Keeladi, an urban settlement, dated to at least the 4th century BCE have been mired in controversy. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and its own senior officer, Ramakrishna Amarnath, are at loggerheads over whether there is sufficient evidence showing that Keeladi was thriving as a settlement 2800 years ago.

Amarnath in his 2023 report relied on Carbon dating, stratigraphy and other standard dating methods to show that Keeladi — and therefore the Sangam age — too, goes back to 800 BCE. Over 18,000 artefacts that have been excavated and documented from Keeladi over seven rounds of excavations. A large number of them are potsherds besides a fascinating range of items including those made of gold, iron, ivory, antimony and copper. Gold items include pendants, broken rings and a needle.

Then there are several potsherds inscribed with what archaeologists such as Amarnath postulate to be symbols that are similar to those found in sherds and seals found at Indus Valley sites, particularly, in Harappa. Local scholars have emphasised that five villages— Keeladi, Agaram, Manalur, Konthagai (a burial site) and Pasiapuram need to be designated as the Keeladi cluster. Furthermore, because of the presence of other sites along the Vaigai river and in the region, such as Adi Channallur, several TN-based archaeologists have coined the term Vaigai Valley Civilisation.

Undoubtedly, Madurai and Tirunelveli in southern Tamil Nadu are rich with history. Being closer to the coast also brought this part of the state into contact with ancient kingdoms in both the east and the west.

The archaeology department of Tamil Nadu, the only state government to have established its own department, observed in a 2019 report: “The Pandyas and their capital city Madurai were well known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Megasthenese, the Greek ambassador of Seleukos Nikator at the court of the Chandra Gupta Maurya (320 B.C.), in these accounts gave a vivid picture of a South Indian Kingdoms. Strabo (C. 25. B.C.) stated that a Pandya king sent an embassy to the Roman Emperor Augustus. Pliny (C. 75 A.D.) mentioned the Pandya, King Pandya and his capital Madura. Ptolemy (C. 130 A.D.) also referred to Madurai as the royal city of the Pandyas. The Arthasastra of Kautilya, while describing the trade between Northern and Southern India, spoke about the pearls and muslins of the Pandya country. The astronomer Varaha Mihira referred the Pandya kingdom in his Brhatsamhita. Kalidasa, the great Sanskrit poet and dramatist referred the Pandya kingdom as one of the provinces visited by Raghu during his tour of conquest.”

Also Read: Konthagai burial site reveals ancient practices of Keeladi

In fact, a few researchers have even suggested, albeit tentatively at this stage, that the Ashokan Brahmi script was preceded by Tamil Brahmi, specimens of which have been found in Keeladi, and other sites. The jury is still out on both the similarities, if any, between symbols on pothsherds excavated at Keeladi and the Indus Valley script, which remains undeciphered, as well as the Tamil Brahmi being a precursor to Ashokan Brahmi.

Adi Channallur: Oldest excavated site, ancient burial urns

While cremation is considered the most common funerary process for Hindus, burials are also widely practiced, particularly in south Indian states. In the north too, burials are prevalent among certain communities. In Tamil Nadu, the ancient site of Adi Channalur provides us a unique glimpse into people’s beliefs and customs related to death and after-life. It is also one of the oldest excavated sites in not just the state but the entire subcontinent.

First brought to public attention in 1876 by A F Jagor, a 19th century German explorer, this ‘perumba’ or elevated ground or a mound close to the Tamirabarani or Porunai river, has since then thrown up hundreds of burial urns.

Burying the dead seemed to have been a common custom since pre-historic times, as is evidenced by some of the burial urns dating back to the 4th century BCE. The practice seems to have continued in the historical period – roughly 3rd BCE onwards. For example, in the Padirrupattu, a Chera kingdom collection of poems of war and worldly concerns, there is clear reference to the entombing of a dead king. “’where lay the burial-urn (tali) that entombed the king, was the vast expanse below the vanni (Prosopisspicigera) tree’.

Also Read: Ancient terracotta pipelines excavated at Keeladi in Tamil Nadu

Similarly, after an early Chola king Killi Valavan died, poet Aiyur Mudavanar, wrote addressing the potter, “You, perforce, need make a large, wide-mouthed urn for entombing such an exalted monarch. Could you do less than use the great earth as your wheel and the great mountain as the clod of clay?’

The sizes of the excavated urns vary from three feet to less than a foot. Sometimes they have been found to be fixed in holes dug out for the purpose in the quartzite rock formation found in a portion of the more than 100 acres large site.

Besides the urns the site also contained evidence of a potter’s kiln, and a possibly a workshop for making couex beads. Within the urns, sometimes all the bones of a body were found to be placed. In most others, only a few bones were placed. Along with the bones of the deceased, items of daily use, like tumblers, personal jewellery made of copper, and rice was found inside the urns or just outside in the pits.

Also Read: TN govt commences archaeological digs at 8 sites to ‘rewrite’ India’s history from Tamil landscape

Writing about the findings related to a metre-tall burial urn excavated at Adi Channallur, the ASI wrote in its 2020 report: “Inside the urn the skeletal remains were noticed in damaged condition. The grave goods found outside the urn were of Black-and-Red ware – shallow dish cum bowl with conical base and thickened rim, bowl with broken rim sager base, small shallow dish cum bowl with broken rim, two partially polished black ring stands. Husk was collected from the shallow dish and bowl inside the urn and also from the pit on its southern and eastern sides. Iron spear head and chisel were noticed outside the urn at a depth of 2.12 m in the eastern corner”.

Another most interesting finding from the site was the presence of Pott’s puffy tumor in the over 2,000-year-old remains. It’s a kind of swelling on the forehead, often spreading inwards and therefore causing the creation of an abscess. Today the disease has become quite rare due to the use of antibiotics but in the ancient world its primary targets were seamen, and deep-sea divers. Adi Channallur too is close to the sea and therefore this seems quite plausible.

HistoriCity is a column by author Valay Singh that narrates the story of a city that is in the news, by going back to its documented history, mythology and archaeological digs. The views expressed are personal.