What has been touted as legends without basis and figments of imagination is found to be true.
The Rig Veda has been dated beyond accepted 5000 BC.
Dwaraka is about 30, 000 years old..
Poompuhar, Tamil Nadu is 20,000 years old.
Million Years old advanced Tamil Site has been found in Chennai.
Lord Rama is dated at 5114 BC.
Million year old Kannada Brahmi script was found in Karnataka.
Tamil Brahmi is found in Harappa.
Madurai, Tamil Nadu has a hoary past.
Lord Krishna and Arjuna married Pandyan Princesses at Madurai, had children..
Lord zkrishna visited Yanai Malai,Elephant Hill near Madurai.
Madurai is called Moodur in Tamil, meaning old city.
Vedic people and Greeks/Italians had trade with Madurai.
The present Madurai is later one
Earlier there was another Madurai, south of the present Madurai, called Then Madurai, South Madurai.
It was near Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
This was here Lord Rama’s ancestor Vaivswatha Manu meditated.
Rama’s ancestor migrated from here to Ayodhya.
This city hosted Tamil Poets’ Conclave.
The city, along with Huge landmass , Lemuria was inundated by a Tsunami.
All this sounds pure imagination!
Please read my articles on each of these by Googling the search term +ramanan50.
Now there is further evidence that Madurai existed at least by 3 BC.
Carbon dating dating is yet to be carried out.
Archaeologists opine that it could date back to another 10,000 years back.
Burnt Bricks used to Build houses, Chess Pieces, Micro Pearls, intricate potteries were found.
Archaeological report.
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At Keezhadi, a village not far from the southern bank of the Vaigai river near Madurai, the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) is undertaking a massive excavation, possibly its biggest to date in Tamil Nadu. Already 42 trenches have been dug in two locations in a coconut grove at a place called Pallichandai Thidal in the village. K. Amarnath Ramakrishna, Superintending Archaeologist, ASI’s Excavation Branch VI, Bengaluru, is leading the excavation, which has thrown up quite a few surprises and is attracting many visitors, among them schoolchildren and tourists. Amarnath takes time off to explain to visitors the significance of the finds. One such is a “deep terracotta ring well with 13 rings” that promises to go down further. “Here we have a ring well in association with a structure built of big-sized bricks. This is a peculiarity,” he tells a few visiting archaeology buffs. He contrasts this with the ring well excavated at Vasavasamudram near Kalpakkam (near Chennai), which stood independent of any other structure. The same is the case at Arikkamedu near Puducherry, he adds.
The structure associated with the well is made of burnt bricks, and the floor is also paved with big bricks. In fact, trench after trench, each five metres long and five metres wide and several metres deep, has structures made of burnt bricks. No mud bricks have been used. One trench features two brick walls, looking imposing and meeting each other. One of the walls is ten bricks thick and set in mud mortar. Each brick is 36 cm long, 24 cm wide and 6 cm thick. Another trench features a rectangular brick structure that looks like an antechamber. Large-sized hand-made grooved tiles have also been found in this trench, suggesting that the structure may have had a tiled roof. One trench has a channel made of bricks, perhaps for releasing water. In most of the trenches, below a certain level, layers of river sand have been found, signalling the existence of paleochannels in the area many centuries ago. There are big storage jars, pots with spouts, twin pots, big decorated pots, black and red pottery, white-painted black ware, and so on, jutting out of the trench walls.
“It is a fish,” exclaimed one of the children. Vadivel took out artefact after artefact and held them up for the children to see —pearl micro-beads, a big quartz bead with a superb engraving, ivory dices, terracotta human figurines, a copper rod for painting eyelashes, bangles made of conch shells, potsherds with Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, arretine ware, and shining white-painted black pottery. At the end of it, the children appeared mesmerised. “Were all these that were shown now found here?” asked one of them.
In fact, all these and more found here point to this being a Sangam Age site. “This is definitely a Tamil Sangam Age site…. It was a habitation site. It was purely a Sangam Age site,” said Amarnath Ramakrishna. What is “impressive” is the discovery of big brick structures in the trenches. “We have got good structures. We have found big-sized walls.” Similar brick structures were found at Arikkamedu, Kancheepuram, Uraiyur, Kaveripoompattinam and Azhagankulam. “On the basis of a comparative study of Keezhadi with these sites and the availability of black and red ware at stratigraphically lower levels, we can say that this site belongs to the 3rd century BCE. This is tentative. We have not done carbon-dating yet,” the Director of Excavation said. The Sangam Age of the Early Historic period is datable from circa 3rd century BCE to 3rd century C.E. Keezhadi derives its importance from its proximity to Madurai, the capital city of the Pandya dynasty. The Pandya kings were known for their patronage in convening assemblies or gatherings, called Sangam, at Madurai, where Tamil literature was composed and compiled…
had on them the Tamil-Brahmi script. The trenches also yielded black and red ware, Roman arretine ware, rouletted ware, hundreds of beads made of semi-precious stones, ivory dices, iron spearheads and so on. “We have got a rich haul of antiquities. They show the nature of the habitation site of the Tamil Sangam Age and provide evidence about the culture that existed then,” said Vedachalam, who retired as Senior Epigraphist, Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department.
K. Rajan, Professor of History, Pondicherry University, who visited Keezhadi, also asserted that it was an Early Historic site that had many urban components. “It was one of the urban centres on the Vaigai river basin. It was located between the capital city of Madurai and the port city of Azhagankulam of the Pandya country,” he said. Its urban components were indicated by its civic amenities, external trade, existence of a multi-ethnic society, a communication system, use of luxury items, occurrence of expensive pottery, and so on. The discovery of carnelian beads indicated Keezhadi’s external trade links—the carnelian stone came from Gujarat. Luxury items such as pearl micro-beads and ivory dices showed that the Early Historic residents of Keezhadi had surplus wealth. Potsherds with Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions showed the prevalence of a communication system. While Brahmi was the script used, the language used was both Tamil and Prakrit. The name “Tissa” inscribed in Brahmi script on a potsherd belonged to the Prakrit language. Rajan was sure that the Prakrit name signalled that Keezhadi had maritime trade with Sri Lanka.
The first season of excavation began on March 2, 2015, and ended in September. Forty-two trenches were dug and, astonishingly, many of them yielded structures made of large-sized bricks that typically belong to the Early Historic period. For instance, a trench dug in the highest point of the mound yielded a massive brick wall. They were all burnt bricks. Another trench yielded a pot with a conical bottom, whose occurrence was rare. Yet another trench yielded a small room built of bricks, whose floor had a spread of river sand. This led to a debate on whether it was a dry toilet. The centre of the mound revealed a lot of structural activity. Small brick-built rooms threw up plenty of pots.
A bonanza of artefacts was found in almost every trench. What stood out was a big quartz bead with a superbly made engraving. “We can say with confirmation that it was made about 2,200 years ago,” Amarnath Ramakrishna said. “It was found at a depth of 180 cm,” he added. A perforated shallow dish was found as well. “This is a rarity in Tamil Nadu,” he said. Prized discoveries included gleaming pearl micro-beads and hundreds of beads made of semi-precious stones such as carnelian, agate, lapis lazuli and quartz. Glass beads were also found. From the surface of the mound, Vedachalam picked up a human terracotta figurine.
Other artefacts found in the trenches included shell bangles with decorations, ivory dice incised with concentric circles, terracotta gamesmen and spindle-whorls with iron roads (indicating the existence of a textile industry).
Amarnath Ramakrishna said: “The artefacts are a confirmation that Keezhadi was a trade centre and that a big town existed there [during the Early Historic period]. Stratigraphically, in the lower levels, we get all the material such as arretine ware, rouletted ware and white-painted black ware which are associated with the Early Historic period. A wealthy, cultured society must have lived there. Stratigraphically, we have found a lot of deposits which offer good evidence to correlate Madurai with the Sangam Age. This site definitely gives a clue to the date of the Sangam Age.”
Reference and citation.( Text and Images)
http://www.frontline.in/arts-and-culture/heritage/digging-up-madurais-sangam-past/article8183616.ece
Chess pieces image credit
Hindustan Times via.
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