Keeladi Vaigai Valley Civilisation

 

Keeladi Vaigai Valley Civilization

India had one of the earliest known urban civilizations in the world, near the Indus River. Archaeologists excavated two towns to draw this conclusion: Harappa, in the Punjab province excavated in 1921 and Mohenjo-Daro on the banks of Indus River, in the Sindh province, found in 1922. Both the sites are in the present-day Pakistan. There were also other towns and settlements related to this period of civilization extended to eastern and southern side of India. This civilization has been dated between 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, known as Indus valley civilization.

There are many significant architectural features seen in this urban civilization. A fundamental feature is the organized town planning. The notable other architectural takeaways are massive city walls and gateways, well-planned network of roads and centralized drainage system. Streets were oriented east to west; houses were constructed in view north south to utilize the prevalent wind. Good water supply system, massive granaries (150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 15 feet high), great bathing complex (179 feet long and 107 feet wide with a swimming pool 39 feet long, 23 feet wide and 8 feet deep) with galleries and rooms around for ritualistic purposes, no temple architecture, and no weaponry buildings. The archaeologists found a central depression in Harappa, as a public area where water was available for drinking and washing purposes; there were many private wells too. The houses had doors with provision for hanging curtains. Urban houses made of baked bricks that too of standardized dimensions and, multistoried buildings, whereas rural houses were made of mud bricks. Thus, the remnants of Indus Valley Civilization display remarkable planning skills of the people of the times, especially in sanitation and drainage and essential space utility in their construction. Largely, it can provide inputs to the present-day urbanization planning and construction.

In the early 21st century, Hindutva groups rechristen the Indus Valley Civilization as Sarasvati Culture, or the Indus-Sarasvati Civilization or the Sindhu-Sarasvati Civilization. These believers propagate and misrepresent, using selected studies to suit their political narrative, the Hindutva concept of imaginary India, although there is no established evidence. The focus of claim is that the Sarasvati mentioned in the Vedas was a river, which dried in time, and that led to the end of the civilization; also, both the Indus Valley Civilization and the Vedic culture were the same. Based on these presumed premises, they reject the Indo-Aryan migration theory to claim that the Vedic Hindu population is indigenous to the land. However, the commonly accepted period of early Vedic age is second millennium BCE after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization around 1900 BCE. From the existing evidence, scholars do not see any similarities between these two cultures. The Indus Valley Civilization was urbanite, and the main occupation of the people was trade and commerce whereas Vedic people were rural and purely pastoral nomads who took up agriculture and cattle rearing in the later period. There were also linguistic differences between these two cultures. One of the major differences between the two cultures is that the Indus Valley Civilization is an urban civilization that had well-planned cities with monumental buildings with the use of mud and fire bricks, elaborate drainage systems, good fortifications, unique arts and crafts whereas Vedic culture is rural.

A similar, yet another civilization is found at Keeladi near Madurai, Sivagangai District of Tamil Nadu, South India. The Keeladi (Keezhadi) archaeological excavations in the banks of river Vaigai that started in 2015 (continued) has opened new vistas in understanding ancient South Indian history and lifestyle. The skeletal remains excavated reveal the presence of many animals: cow, ox, buffalo, sheep, goat, nilgai, blackbuck, wild boar, and peacock. There were few ancient Tamil-Brahmi script found. Scholars identify this as an urban society of agrarian nature. Since there were no significant architectural monuments seen in the site so far, it is too early to define the architectural style of this civilization. The current findings establish that there was a good urban planning and drainage system in the houses and scholars connect it with the famous Sangam era of Tamil literature. Based on the carbon dating results goes back to 580 BCE, and therefore, the Keeladi civilization could be of 6^th to 3^rd century BCE. Based on ancient Tamil literature, the age of Sangam era, the glorious period of Tamil Culture is between 300 BCE - 300 AD. The many materials mentioned in the Sangam literature unearthed in Keeladi prompt the scholars to redefine the Sangam age between 600 BCE and 100 AD. As of 2019, the findings at Keeladi are not sufficient to draw major conclusions about the civilization and the language of the people.

There are some controversies regarding the Keeladi excavations too. The archaeological site of Keeladi became the center of political controversy in 2017-2018 when the government of India delayed allocation of funds and the reluctance shown to continue the excavations. When the archaeological excavations were in the beginning stage, the superintending archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishnan was transferred to Guwahati, Assam, and a good number of his teammates to other places. Added to that, the principal investigator Amarnath Ramakrishnan who submitted the interim report on Keeladi did not get permission to write the final report. The central government did not allow him to visit America to deliver a lecture on the Keeladi finding in The Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America. Political parties in Tamil Nadu openly accused the central BJP government of sabotaging the excavations. A major agenda of the BJP government’s Hindutva ideology is to establish the Vedic culture as the only ancient Indian culture and oppose the accepted Aryan migration theory to state that all the North Indian population are indigenous. The Keeladi archaeological findings that show traces of non-Vedic ancient Tamil civilization would support the non-Vedic Indus Valley urban civilization too. The Keeladi findings further reveal several highly expected proofs to the ancient Tamil culture and further excavations would bring big honor to Tamil society and pride to the Tamil people. Therefore, the BJP government delayed and stalled the archaeological excavations at Keeladi, argues the Tamil political proponents and scholars who take pride in their language, culture, and civilization. Since the Central Government refused funds and denied permission to continue the excavations, the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department continues the project. As per the newspaper reports the sixth phase of Keeladi excavations started in Agaram village (six kilometers south of Keeladi) on February 19, 2020, by TNAD.

Both the ancient Indian urban civilizations do not give any significance to temple architecture or similar monuments. The cultures show some highly developed urban planning and the related architectural design. However, in the latter period, during the time of kings and empires, temples and other similar monuments came into existence.

Janetius, S.T. (2019). Architectural Psychology: Space, Psyche, Enigma & Symbol, Mishil & Js Publishers, Thrissur, ISBN: 9781974307715