KARAIKUDI
The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, and Alagappa University have proposed to launch a comprehensive study to survey seabed configuration of Poompuhar region.
“The inter-institutional and inter-disciplinary study, to be undertaken in coordination with more than a dozen academic institutions and research organisations, has been planned to retrace the already-known spreads and bring out new possible areas of submerged Poompuhar, known as Kaveripoompattinam,” SM. Ramasamy, Distinguished Professor, Alagappa University and coordinator of the project, said.
The study mooted by Murali Mohan, advisor, DST, was also aimed at bringing out a computerised visualisation model on the total life history of Poompuhar in three- dimensional animation mode, he said.
The DST, the funding agency, had given its approval and the project was likely to be launched by the year-end, he told The Hindu on Sunday.
The modules were ready and the study would be carried out for four years in the first phase. The study would throw more light on India’s social systems, culture and civilization, existing for several thousands of years, which could be seen from the ruined palaces and ancient port cities of maritime importance like Dwaraka on the west coast and Poompuhar on the east coast, he said.
The study might bring out more facts, using unmanned vehicles, multi-beam side scan scanner surveys, underwater photography for locating exposed, fragmented and buried objects and structures in their three-dimensional visualisation and assemblages of broken structures, he said.
Geographical information system (GIS) data based on the life history of Poompuhar from the Sangam literature, archaeological evidence, epigraphical citations and historical references would be taken into account while carrying out the study, he said.
“The amalgamation of all, using digital, GIS and data analytics, would give bring out a clear picture of the original location of Poompuhar, its later shifts, if any, along with periods, the age and the time series spatial evolution of the city,” he said. The study would focus on how and why such a city of intercontinental maritime importance became suddenly defunct.
Poompuhar (in Nagapattinam district) had served as the capital of the early Chola kings during the Sangam age. It remained as one of the leading ports, having intercontinental trade links with Asian, Arabian and Mediterranean countries. The city seems to have disappeared around AD 1100.
