Throwing a new light on the antiquity of Sangam age, the findings in Keezhadi have pointed to the Sangam age extending from 600 BCE to 100 AD, thus bringing to light that Sangam age is older than previously thought by 300 years.
Throwing a new light on the antiquity of Sangam age, the findings in Keezhadi have pointed to the Sangam age extending from 600 BCE to 100 AD, thus bringing to light that Sangam age is older than previously thought by 300 years.
The findings are based on dates obtained from Keezhadi artefacts, which were subjected to AMS (Accelerated Mass spectrography) to determine its age by carbon dating.
Thus the finding has pushed back the antiquity of Tamil culture to 6th Century BCE.
The Tamilnadu Archeology Department which released its findings on Thursday has stated that the urbanization of Vaigai plains, on which Keezhadi is situated has started in the same period as in Gangetic plains in 600 BCE.
“Six carbon samples, collected from Keezhadi which were sent to lab analysis, to Beta Analytic Lab In USA for AMS dating. And the dates of all the six samples fell between 6th Century BCE and 3rd Century BCE” T. Udyachandran, Commissioner, State Archeology department said.
“The new findings assert the fact that an advanced urban habitation and sophisticated life existed in Keezhadi from 600 BCE. The ancient Tamil people who lived Keezhadi had learnt the art of writing and were literate as early as 6th century BCE” the findings concluded.
The letters found in the Tamil Brahmi script form in Keezhadi have been very closely linked with the Indus Valley Civilization's scripts. This is a very important discovery as this squarely links Tamil civilization with the Indus Valley Civilization. Scholars for many years have been ascerting that Indus Valley Civilization is a Tamil Civilization using Sangam literature, name similarities and the Pot Route. This finding now almost establishes Tamilians as the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization.
K. Pandiarajan, Minister for Tamil culture who released a book on Keezhadi said “It is a great achievement in the history of the department since excavation began in 2017 by the Tamilnadu State Archeology department”.
“The skeletal remains which were obtained from the excavation site point to the bones of animals including, cow, ox, buffalo, sheep, and goat. However, there were no skeletons of big animals like elephant or horse. This point to the existence of agrarian society and cattle rearing by the ancient Tamils of Sangam age” The minister said.
Here's an exclusive video of Dr. R Balakrishnan talking to SimpliCity about the links between Sangam Era and the Indus Valley Civilization last year: