The traditional web site that has develop into a political flashpoint in India

[ad_1] Cherylann Mollan BBC Information

Reporting fromKeeladi, Tamil Nadu <img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/1392/live/8ed6e6e0-6792-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/1392/live/8ed6e6e0-6792-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1392/live/8ed6e6e0-6792-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/1392/live/8ed6e6e0-6792-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/1392/live/8ed6e6e0-6792-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/1392/live/8ed6e6e0-6792-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/1392/live/8ed6e6e0-6792-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1392/live/8ed6e6e0-6792-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="ASI Top view of an ancient brick structure in Keeladi in Tamil Nadu, India." class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> ASI A view of an excavated web site in Keeladi the place archaeologists have discovered proof of business exercise

The Keeladi village in India's southern Tamil Nadu state has unearthed archeological finds which have sparked a political and historic battle.

Amid coconut groves, a sequence of 15ft (4.5m) deep trenches reveal historical artefacts buried in layers of soil - fragments of terracotta pots, and traces of long-lost brick buildings.

Specialists from the Tamil Nadu State Division of Archaeology estimate the artefacts to be 2,000 to 2,500 years previous, with the oldest relationship again to round 580 BCE. They are saying these findings problem and reshape present narratives about early civilisation within the Indian subcontinent.

With politicians, historians, and epigraphists weighing in, Keeladi has moved past archaeology, turning into an emblem of state pleasure and id amid competing historic narratives.

But historical past fans say it stays one among trendy India's most compelling and accessible discoveries - providing a uncommon alternative to deepen our understanding of a shared previous.

Keeladi, a village 12km (7 miles) from Madurai on the banks of the Vaigai river, was one among 100 websites shortlisted for excavation by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishnan in 2013.

He chosen a 100-acre web site there due to its proximity to historical Madurai and the sooner discovery of red-and-black pottery ware by a schoolteacher in 1975.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/755c/live/12016080-66d6-11f0-b67d-756a7df7e209.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/755c/live/12016080-66d6-11f0-b67d-756a7df7e209.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/755c/live/12016080-66d6-11f0-b67d-756a7df7e209.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/755c/live/12016080-66d6-11f0-b67d-756a7df7e209.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/755c/live/12016080-66d6-11f0-b67d-756a7df7e209.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/755c/live/12016080-66d6-11f0-b67d-756a7df7e209.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/755c/live/12016080-66d6-11f0-b67d-756a7df7e209.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/755c/live/12016080-66d6-11f0-b67d-756a7df7e209.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology Burial urns embedded in the soil at the Kondagai excavation site in Tamil Nadu, India." class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Tamil Nadu State Division of Archaeology Burial urns close to Keeladi, containing human skeletons and items equivalent to meals and pots

Since 2014, 10 excavation rounds at Keeladi have uncovered over 15,000 artefacts - burial urns, cash, beads, terracotta pipes and extra - from simply 4 of the 100 marked acres. Many are actually displayed in a close-by museum.

Ajay Kumar, main the state archaeology workforce at Keeladi, says the important thing finds are elaborate brick buildings and water techniques - proof of a 2,500-year-old city settlement.

"This was a literate, city society the place folks had separate areas for habitation, burial practices and industrial work," Mr Kumar says, noting it is the primary massive, well-defined historical city settlement present in southern India.

Because the Indus Valley Civilisation's discovery within the early 1900s, most efforts to hint civilisation's origins within the subcontinent have targeted on northern and central India.

So, the Keeladi finds have sparked pleasure throughout Tamil Nadu and past.

William Daniel, a instructor from neighbouring Kerala, mentioned the discoveries made him really feel proud about his heritage.

"It provides folks from the south [of India] one thing to really feel proud about, that our civilisation is simply as historical and necessary because the one within the north [of India]," he says.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/b230/live/ec96e930-6790-11f0-94a8-69eef628e32a.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/b230/live/ec96e930-6790-11f0-94a8-69eef628e32a.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b230/live/ec96e930-6790-11f0-94a8-69eef628e32a.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/b230/live/ec96e930-6790-11f0-94a8-69eef628e32a.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/b230/live/ec96e930-6790-11f0-94a8-69eef628e32a.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/b230/live/ec96e930-6790-11f0-94a8-69eef628e32a.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/b230/live/ec96e930-6790-11f0-94a8-69eef628e32a.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b230/live/ec96e930-6790-11f0-94a8-69eef628e32a.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Red and black pottery excavated from the site has been placed in glass display box at the Keeladi Museum, Tamil Nadu" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Crimson and black pottery excavated from the location, displayed on the Keeladi Museum

The politics surrounding Keeladi displays a deep-rooted north-south divide - underscoring how understanding the current requires grappling with the previous.

India's first main civilisation - the Indus Valley - emerged within the north and central areas between 3300 and 1300 BCE. After its decline, a second city section, the Vedic interval, rose within the Gangetic plains, lasting till the sixth Century BCE.

This section noticed main cities, highly effective kingdoms and the rise of Vedic tradition - a basis for Hinduism. Because of this, urbanisation in historical India is commonly considered as a northern phenomenon, with a dominant narrative that the northern Aryans "civilised" the Dravidian south.

That is particularly evident within the mainstream understanding of the unfold of literacy.

It's believed that the Ashokan Brahmi script - discovered on Mauryan king Ashoka's rock edicts in northern and central India, relationship again to the third Century BCE - is the predecessor of most scripts in South and Southeast Asia.

Epigraphists like Iravatham Mahadevan and Y Subbarayalu have lengthy held the view that the Tamil Brahmi script - the Tamil language spoken in Tamil Nadu and written within the Brahmi script - was an offshoot of the Ashokan Brahmi script.

However now, archaeologists from the Tamil Nadu state division say that the excavations at Keeladi are difficult this narrative.

"We've discovered graffiti within the Tamil Brahmi script relationship again to the sixth Century BCE, which exhibits that it's older than the Ashokan Brahmi script. We imagine that each scripts developed independently and, maybe, emerged from the Indus Valley script," Mr Kumar says.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/a81e/live/40b3b290-6792-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/a81e/live/40b3b290-6792-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/a81e/live/40b3b290-6792-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/a81e/live/40b3b290-6792-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/a81e/live/40b3b290-6792-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/a81e/live/40b3b290-6792-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/a81e/live/40b3b290-6792-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/a81e/live/40b3b290-6792-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Keeladi Museum Graffitti found on a potsherd, placed on display at the Keeladi Museum in Tamil Nadu, India" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Keeladi Museum Archaeologists say some graffiti present in Keeladi resembles that of the Indus Valley

Epigraphist S Rajavelu, former professor of marine archaeology on the Tamil College, agrees with Mr Kumar and says different excavation websites within the state too have unearthed graffiti within the Tamil Brahmi script relationship again to the fifth and 4th Century BCE.

However some consultants say that extra analysis and proof are wanted to conclusively show the antiquity of the Tamil Brahmi script.

One other declare by the state division of archaeology that has ruffled feathers is that the graffiti discovered on artefacts in Keeladi is just like that discovered within the Indus Valley websites.

"Individuals from the Indus Valley might have migrated to the south, resulting in a interval of urbanisation happening in Keeladi on the identical time it was happening within the Gangetic plains," Mr Kumar says, including that additional excavations are wanted to totally grasp the settlement's scale.

However Ajit Kumar, a professor of archaeology at Nalanda College in Bihar, says that this would not have been potential.

"Contemplating the rudimentary state of journey again then, folks from the Indus Valley wouldn't have been in a position to migrate to the south in such massive numbers to arrange civilisation," he says. He believes the finds in Keeladi might be likened to a small "settlement".

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/140c/live/03814380-6790-11f0-94b8-27d2d011118c.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/140c/live/03814380-6790-11f0-94b8-27d2d011118c.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/140c/live/03814380-6790-11f0-94b8-27d2d011118c.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/140c/live/03814380-6790-11f0-94b8-27d2d011118c.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/140c/live/03814380-6790-11f0-94b8-27d2d011118c.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/140c/live/03814380-6790-11f0-94b8-27d2d011118c.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/140c/live/03814380-6790-11f0-94b8-27d2d011118c.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/140c/live/03814380-6790-11f0-94b8-27d2d011118c.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Keeladi Museum Terracota pipes excavated from Keeladi in Tamil Nadu, India" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Keeladi Museum Pipes fabricated from terracota had been used to move water

Whereas archaeologists debate the findings, politicians are already drawing hyperlinks between Keeladi and the Indus Valley - some even declare the 2 existed on the identical time or that the Indus Valley was a part of an early southern Indian, or Dravidian, civilisation.

The controversy over ASI archaeologist Mr Ramakrishnan's switch - who led the Keeladi excavations - has intensified the location's political tensions.

In 2017, after two excavation rounds, the ASI transferred Mr Ramakrishnan, citing protocol. The Tamil Nadu authorities accused the federal company of intentionally hindering the digs to undermine Tamil pleasure.

The ASI's request in 2023 for Mr Ramakrishnan to revise his Keeladi report - citing an absence of scientific rigour - has intensified the controversy. He refused, insisting his findings adopted normal archaeological strategies.

In June, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin referred to as the federal authorities's refusal to publish Mr Ramakrishnan's report an "onslaught on Tamil tradition and pleasure". State minister Thangam Thennarasu accused the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP)-led federal authorities of intentionally suppressing info to erase Tamilian historical past.

India's Tradition Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has now clarified that Mr Ramakrishnan's report has not been rejected by the ASI however is "beneath overview," with knowledgeable suggestions but to be finalised.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/f2d9/live/8318e110-6791-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/f2d9/live/8318e110-6791-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/f2d9/live/8318e110-6791-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/f2d9/live/8318e110-6791-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/f2d9/live/8318e110-6791-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/f2d9/live/8318e110-6791-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/f2d9/live/8318e110-6791-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/f2d9/live/8318e110-6791-11f0-bb36-0d40aadb5bb7.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology A terracota ringwell embedded in the soil in Keeladi in Tamil Nadu, India" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Tamil Nadu State Division of Archaeology A terracota ring properly buried inside the bottom

Again on the the Keeladi museum, kids discover displays throughout a faculty go to whereas development continues exterior to create an open-air museum on the excavation web site.

Journalist Sowmiya Ashok, writer of an upcoming ebook on Keeladi, remembers the joys of her first go to.

"Uncovering historical past is a journey to raised perceive our shared previous. Via small clues - like carnelian beads from the northwest or Roman copper cash - Keeladi reveals that our ancestors had been much more linked than we realise," she says.