Keeladi excavations

Also called: Keezhadi · Topic: Sangam Age and Early South India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Keeladi excavations (also spelt Keezhadi) are the digs at a site in the Vaigai river basin in Tamil Nadu. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) dug there in 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17, and the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology has run the work since 2018 [4].

The site matters because ASI says it helps us understand early urban settlement (the first towns) in the region [4][5]. It is the newest piece of ground evidence that historians use to check what the Sangam poems say about early Tamilakam.

Explanation

Background: why historians needed sites like Keeladi

• Sangam literature (the earliest Tamil poems, c. 300 BCE – 300 CE) is the main written source on chiefs, society and economy in early Tamilakam.
• But these poems are praise-poetry. Poets wrote them for kings and chiefs who paid them.
• So historians cannot take every claim at face value.

• They test the poems against dated, outside and material evidence.

• That evidence includes:

• Ashoka's edicts
• Megasthenes
• the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea

• excavations such as Kodumanal, Adichchanallur and Keezhadi [2][3][4]

• Keezhadi lies in the Vaigai river basin [4]. Ashoka's edicts link the Vaigai and Tamraparni valleys to the Pandyas. The Pandyas were based at Madurai, which is also on the Vaigai [1].

Sequence of the excavation

• 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17: the ASI excavated the site over three seasons [4].
• From 2018: the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology took over the digging [4].

• ASI gives no funding to this state-run work [4].

• ASI excavation report: ASI has published its report on the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons [4][5].

• The report was vetted by scholars, meaning experts checked it before release [5].
• ASI says it followed scientific protocols (standard rules for checking and publishing results) [5].

What it shows

• ASI says the site is important for understanding early urban settlement in the region [4][5].
• The site is a settlement (a place where people lived). Most older Iron-Age finds in the south are burials.
• Example: megaliths, which are large stone structures used to bury the dead.

• Example: the urn burials at Adichchanallur [2].

• Different sets of seasons were dug by different agencies. When you read about results, always check which agency dug and which seasons the report covers.

Time, place and evidence

• Place: Vaigai river basin, Tamil Nadu [4]. This is Pandya country, the valley that Ashoka's edicts link to the Pandyas.
• Wider region: Tamilakam, the ancient Tamil country. It covered Tamil Nadu plus parts of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
• Period studied: the Sangam Age and early south India, roughly c. 300 BCE – 300 CE. Dates for the site's earliest layers are still being worked out. Follow the latest official reports.
• Who dug it:
• the ASI, a central government body: 2014-15 to 2016-17

• the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology: from 2018 [4]

• How we know:

• Press Information Bureau statements on the excavation findings [4]
• Ministry of Culture notice on the ASI report [5]
• the ASI excavation report for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons [4][5]

Don't confuse with

• Adichchanallur: an Iron-Age urn burial site on the Tambraparani (Porunai) river in Thoothukudi district. It was first noticed by Jagor (1876) [2]. Keezhadi is a settlement site in the Vaigai basin.
• Megaliths: stone burial structures found across central and south India from the first millennium BCE. They are graves for the dead. Keezhadi is studied for urban settlement, meaning places where living people stayed.
• Madurai (Sangam academies): tradition says the three sangams, or assemblies of poets, met at Madurai [1]. That is a literary tradition. Keezhadi is an archaeological site in the same Vaigai basin.
• ASI vs Tamil Nadu State Archaeology: the ASI dug only 2014-15 to 2016-17. From 2018 the work belongs to the state department, with no ASI funding [4].

Prelims Hooks

• Keezhadi / Keeladi lies in the Vaigai river basin, Tamil Nadu, not on the Kaveri or the Tambraparani [4].
• The ASI excavated it in three seasons: 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 [4].
• Since 2018, the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology has done the digging, and ASI gives no funding [4].
• ASI's published report covers only the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons and was vetted by scholars [4][5].
• Trap: the Vaigai valley belongs with the Pandyas in Ashoka's edicts. The lower Kaveri valley belongs with the Cholas.
• Trap: Adichchanallur = Tambraparani, urn burials. Keezhadi = Vaigai, early urban settlement [2][4].

Mains Points

• Testing literature with the spade:
• Sangam poems are the main source on early Tamil chiefs and society, but they are praise-poetry.
• Keezhadi, together with Kodumanal and Adichchanallur, gives material evidence to check those literary claims [2][4].

• A good answer shows this method: read the poems alongside Ashokan edicts, the Periplus and excavation finds.

• From burials to towns:

• Earlier south Indian archaeology was mostly about iron-rich megalithic burials.
• Keezhadi adds evidence of early urban settlement [4][5].

• This helps trace the path from Iron-Age communities to the chiefdoms and kingdoms of the Sangam Age, like the Pandyas of the Vaigai valley.

• Heritage and how evidence is handled:

• The site was dug first by a central agency (ASI) and then by a state agency.
• ASI stresses that its report was scholar-vetted and followed scientific protocols [5].
• So any claim about the site should rest on published, checked reports for named seasons, not on unverified dates.

Related concepts

• Tamilakam
• Sangam age
• Sangam literature
• Tamil Sangams
• Akam and puram
• Tinai
• Ettuthokai
• Akananuru
• Purananuru
• Pattuppattu

Read more

• Tamilakam and its sources