The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday permitted Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to shift artefacts excavated by it from Pallichanthai Thidal of Keezhadi in Sivaganga district, showing signs of possible existence of an ancient Tamil civilisation that could have thrived on the banks of Vaigai river, either to its Laboratory of Archaeological Chemist in Dehradun in Uttarakhand or any other lab in the country.
Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran granted the permission after the ASI informed the court that shifting the artefacts to a laboratory in Chennai would not serve any purpose since the latter lacked facilities required for scientific cleaning, analysis and documentation. The judges, however, ordered that the Commissioner of State Archaeological Department must take stock of the antiquities before they were moved out of Keezhadi.
The Commissioner was ordered to personally monitor the work of noting down details of every artefact besides shooting videos and photographs of those antiquities excavated during 2015-16 season. In so far as around 1,800 artefacts excavated from Keezhadi during 2014-15 season were concerned, the court was informed that those things had been already moved to the Bangalore Circle Office for scientific cleaning and analysis.
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The judges directed the Commissioner to depute one of his subordinates to visit the Bangalore lab for collecting details and shooting videos and photographs of those artefacts too. “After scientific analysis of the antiquities are over and necessary reports are prepared, the excavated materials should be brought back and kept either in Keezhadi or Sivaganga district museum or any other suitable building,” the court ordered.
In so far as the possibility of establishing a site museum at Keezhadi was concerned, the ASI told the court that “it receives more than 120 exploration and excavation proposals in every field season and it is a tedious process to propose a site museum at any of the sites because the importance of the site is established only after extensive excavation and post-excavation analysis signifying the archaeological importance and historical value of the site.”
Submitting a list of 50 excavation and exploration proposals received by the ASI from various places, Assistant Solicitor General G.R. Swaminathan said there was no immediate possibility of establishing a site museum since the matter could be looked into only after ‘report writing’ which might take a couple of years.
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Observing that a decision on establishing a site museum was kept open to be decided by the Director General of the ASI at an appropriate time after the record writing process was over, the judges adjourned the hearing on a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate Kanimozhi Mathi till February 7 and directed the ASI to submit a progress report on that day. The petition had been filed to restrain the ASI from shifting the artefacts out of Tamil Nadu.