Keezhadi- Cradle of Tamil Civilization-Ep-1
Keezhadi, this name is synonymous with everything Tamil in the past year or so. It has renewed interest in the Tamil language, culture, and civilization. We have had archaeological excavations in the past, but this specific one is a blockbuster. Let us find out why?
Irony disclaimer: Article about ancient Tamil civilization in one of the most modern and new languages penned by a person whose mother tongue is Tamil :)
Keezhadi is a place near Madurai, and it is a vaigai river valley civilization. Technically keezhadi belongs to sivaganga district. It is a child's knowledge that all ancient civilizations were started in the river valley for the obvious reason-water. There are about 40 places in Tamil Nadu where excavations happened since the 1960s. Almost 14 of them belong to early age civilization due to the age of the artifacts discovered. Arikamedu, Kaveripatinam, Korkai, Karur, Kodumanal all yielded similar age items, but the volume and variety from this place-keezhadi make it amazing.
Due to urban settlements and agrarian land destroyed for the purposes of factories, many archaeological settlements were lost before they were found. But keezhadi escaped the brunt of time, due to the fact it was situated in a coconut grove, and it stayed intact until now. More brick foundations were discovered in this site than any other. Also were Tamil-Brahmi inscribed pottery items. So you have a site which is 600 BCE., almost 2600 years ago, where people knew how to write, convey their expressions, made a settlement along a river bed. They are teaching civility to the current civilization two millennia later. Research has started with the connections between Indus Valley civilization of the period 3300 BCE and Keezhadi, as Indus Valley graffiti and Keezhadi graffiti are similar in nature.
Only 1 % of the site has been dug yet, igniting cultural excitement. Animal bones were recently found in cluster village excavations. New history books would need to be written, and unknowns filled with knowns, once this finding is completed. Also when you find the stone foundation, you know people have morphed from their nomadic life to more urban and civilized life, lending the name to civilization. All such excavations, answer many questions, but also create new riddles.
History is limited by your understanding of your known knowledge until that moment.
Not without critics, we have a small section of people questioning if digging the past is worth it?- Yes, it is, the future is nothing but an extension of the path. If we know and understand our history well, we shall be able to live our present. Cave graffiti morphed into pottery scratches, and then to language form. Discovering this connection throws open an expansive world of history for us. It is our duty and right to know our history. As mentioned earlier, most of the sites offered us burial grounds, they denote that humans lived nearby and were cremated here. Living happens before dying, so where did they live. In Keezhadi, we have for the very first time, a living site of our ancestors. We have to extract it piece by piece, then piece it together for our past to unfold. Gold ornaments in an exquisite art form were also found. We have heard of antique jewelry, how antique are these-about 2500 years old...
The Tamil language has a rich history literature dating thousands of years. Five Big Epics, offers a glimpse of ancient Tamil tradition and living. But literature is not science, we need actual artifacts, carbon-dated to prove our existence. Burial pits, roman coins, pottery kilns, all tell us, that we have lived, but did we live in a civilized way as depicted in the classics. Keezhadi offers those answers with a thump. Items discovered included a comb made of ivory as depicted below.
Imagine this, you need to have the knowledge of ivory tusk of an elephant, and the means to extract it. Even now an elephant is a gigantic beast, even more so then. You should know, that you could make meaningful products out of it. Ivory is brittle, you need the artistic skills to get it right with minimal tools available then. The collective wisdom of a million experiments are needed to make such items, and we have many such found in the site.
It is ironic that English version copies of Keezhadi were sold in the book fair-2020 than the Tamil version. Is it good that Tamil is reaching in English and henceforth hope that she will magnetize them via her eloquence.
Inputs: Google, Keezhadi archaeology magazine, Wikipedia
