Research students at the Tamil University here were taken on an intellectual odyssey of the archaeological findings that have impacted Indus, Dravidian civilizations, and Vedic culture by distinguished epigrapher Iravatham Mahadevan and Director, Archaeological Survey of India, Mumbai, D. Dayalan, who in separate lectures threw light on the salient features that influenced one another over a wide canvas.
Delivering the Prof. Y. Subbarayalu and Prof. S. Raju Endowment Lecture Dr. Mahadevan on Wednesday was speaking on “Dravidian Proof of the Indus Script via the Rig Veda: A case study,” Dr. Dayalan spoke on Thursday on “Aspects of Indus Civilization in Tamil culture”.
The delightful and informative lectures exposed the audience to a range of probing ideas that influence the contemporary studies on Indus and Dravidian civilizations and Vedic culture findings.
Dr. Mahadevan, taking cue from four significant signs from the Indus texts, indicated the Indus language had been correctly identified as an early form of the Dravidian languages.
The southern migration of elements of the Indus population influenced South Dravidian languages, especially the Old Tamil significantly, he said.
Research revealed that the descendants of the Indus civilization adopted the Indo-Aryan speech and that there was a long gap between the Indus civilization and the early Vedic culture.
The Indo-Aryan survivals in the Rig Veda were attested much earlier than those in the old Tamil. However, old Tamil had retained the advantage of linguistic continuity while the Indo-Aryan survivals were represented by loan translations from the earlier Indus-Dravidian, he said.
Speaking on a different yet related plane, Dr. Dayalan remarked that the Neolithic Tamils seemed to have been influenced by the Harappan civilization. Residues of that cultural feature could be observed in the excavations of Neolithic and even Megalithic sites in the Tamil region, he said.
“There is resemblance of the graffiti, pottery, burial practice, tools, and art objects. Such similarities in these cultures are not mere coincidence but they are the result of infiltration of human thought and imagination from one culture to another,” the ASI Director said.
Dr. Dayalan goes on to say that “it is reasonable to presume that the Harappan people might have maintained trade contact with the contemporary Neolithic people in the south. A part of the Harappans might have moved south and amalgamated with the southerners.”
The noted archaeologist concludes that the resemblance of some of the features found in the megalithic culture of Tamil Nadu with the Harappan culture was perhaps because of the influence of the latter’s degenerated culture, directly or indirectly.
Tamil University Vice-Chancellor M. Thirumalai; and S. Rajavelu, Dean, Faculty of Manuscriptology, were present.
