A stumble upon Tamil Sangam Age

A broken pottery

A ring well with brick structures 

The Archaeological Survey of India has unearthed an Harappa like site near Madurai in a sleepy village called Keezhadi in Sivagangai district .The finds dates back to 1st century, another astounding proof, for the antiquity of Tamil and the Tamils. It must be remembered that the ancient 'Ten Madurai' was the seat of Tamil Sangam Age. Keezhadi village is located near Silaiman, a border town between the Madurai and Sivagangai districts. It is believed the Tamil Brahmi inscriptions on the potteries excavated from here, had Sangam age Tamil names like Thisan, Aadhan and Udhiran. Historians and archaeologists say the findings are stupendous and it could very well push back the history of ancient Madurai at least by a millennium. This again goes to prove the oldest and ancient most city of the world is Madurai. The ASI had already identified nearly 293 Sangam Age towns along the course of river Vaigai from its origin in Theni district up  to the very end of the river in the Ramanathapuram district.

 Amarnath of ASI believes this could be a very old settlement of educated people who had trade links with Rome .Strikingly it corroborates with the findings of Poompukar and the great Tamil classic 'Chilpathikaran' of the Tamil Sangam Age. Amarntath goes on to mention “Keezhadi could as well be the ‘Peru Manalur’, the city of Sangam  Pandiyas mentioned in literature”. Mr. Rajesh  Assistant Archaeologist says “The level of sophistication can be gauged from luxury and pastime items like the ivory dice, a game of an elite society,” .Senior epigraphist V. Vedachalam, domain expert for the excavation, says the excavations and findings prove Tamil Nadu had a unique culture during the Sangam period and the excavation site is of abundant social, political and commercial significance. Existence of river valley civilisations in Tamil Nadu is proved. Archaeologists are confident that Keezhadi will emerge as an “index site” to determine the culture of people living between Sangam and post-Sangam periods.

ASI officials believe the ancient settlement at the village, was on the highway traveled by traders from all over the world at one point of time. This site had underground drainage system which was on par with the Harappan system. The sewage drains had been laid with "baked clay pipe lines". The officials also felt the signs of urban civilisation are much more advanced than Kaveri Poompattinam.  Sangam period Tamil literary works like Paripadal, Nedunalvaatai and Madurai Kanchi describes in detail about the personal lives of kings and queens, their palaces and the way they lived .These archaeological findings which relate to approximately 3000 year old history throws light on  the literary descriptions and corroborates to the literary evidence. More than 3000 artifacts have been excavated from the sites. All of them corroborate to the literary descriptions.

 Already two phases of the excavations are over .The third phase is still on and will continue up to September this year.