The Madras High Court Bench here, on Tuesday, expressed its displeasure over the slow down in excavation works at Keezhadi in Sivaganga district where an advanced, urban civilisation appeared to have thrived on the banks of River Vaigai, thereby dispelling theories that ancient Tamils primarily lived a tribal life.
A Division Bench of Justices A. Selvam and N. Authinathan also took strong exception to the transfer of Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) Superintending Archaeologist K. Amarnath Ramakrishna, who oversaw the first two phases of the excavation work at Keezhadi during 2014-15 and 2015-16, to the Guwahati circle of the ASI in March this year.
Wondering why the ASI transferred Mr. Amarnath before the third phase of the excavations, the judges directed public interest litigation petitioner Kanimozhi Mathi, who had filed the case last year with a plea to restrain the ASI from taking the excavated artefacts outside the State, to file another petition to bring the officer back to Keezhadi.
Questions over transfer
Concurring with the petitioner that the excavation works had slowed down ever since the officer, who discovered ‘Vaigai Valley Civilisation,’ was transferred, Mr. Justice Selvam told the ASI Counsel S. Shanmugaselvam that there seemed to be an “oblique motive” behind his transfer. “You spoil the excavation works by doing such things,” he added.
The judge also asked the PIL petitioner to file a petition by June 23, the next date of hearing, seeking a direction to the ASI to transfer the officer back to the Keezhadi site.
The ASI counsel, however, denied any motive behind the transfer and claimed that Mr. Ramakrishna was shifted out as part of an overhaul of archaeologists across the country.
When Mr. Justice Authinathan wanted to know what objection could the ASI have for establishing a site museum at Keezhadi, the counsel told the court that ‘Report Writing’ work with respect to the artefacts excavated so far was under way at the Archaeological Survey of India facility in Bengaluru and that the articles would be returned to the State government only after completion of the work.
List of antiquities given
He pointed out that another Division Bench of the High Court had on November 24 permitted the ASI to shift the artefacts to any of the laboratories in the country where facilities were available to study them.
Mr. Shanmugaselvam also filed a detailed list of the 5,695 antiquities, made of different materials, unearthed so far at the site.
As per the report, arrowheads made of bones, antlers and iron; spheroids made of dolerite; bangles made of copper, glass and shell; combs made of ivory; lamps, spoons and spouts made of terracotta; knives, tongs, sickles, spearheads and nails made of iron and rings made of copper, glass, iron and ivory were found apart from 557 unidentified objects made of different materials.
“In any archaeological excavation, sherds of pottery constitute the bulk of the excavated objects. Full pots are also recovered but in far less numbers. The sherds, recovered in truck loads, will be sorted at the site for typological and stratigraphical study. The important sherds will be retained for documentation and publication while the rest will be discarded in the site itself.
ASI reported to the court that more than 70 potsherds inscribed with Tamil Brahmi characters had been unearthed.
“Proper names of individuals like Athan, Tisan, Uthiran, Iyanai, Surama, Kuravan and Vasai Perumavur were inscribed.
“A majority of the names are Tamil but a few Prakrit names were also noticed. On stratigraphical and palaeographical grounds, these inscribed sherds may be dated to second century BCE to first century CE,” it added.
