V.

Cultures in transition

National Coordinator : Dr. Upinder Singh, Professor

Department of History, University of Delhi

Language Editor: Naina Dayal and Veena Sachdev

Formating Editor: Ashutosh Kumar

1. North India, c. 1500-600 BCE

Author : Jaya Tyagi

2. The archaeological picture : North India

Author : Deeksha Bhardwaj

3. Central Inda and the Deccam, c. 1000--300 BCE

4. The Archaeological Picture: South India
Author : Supriya Varma

5. Early Tamil Literature and Society

Author : Meera Viswanathan

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Clearly the theoretical approach used by Darsana for her interpretation has largely been
drawn from the work of Colin Renfrew, Julian Thomas and Christopher Tilley who have
worked on the ‗megaliths‘ of Europe.

5.4: Early Tamil literature and society

Early Tamil literature: the legend of the three sangams

The Tamil tradition speaks of three ancient ‗sangams‘ or gatherings of poets. The first
sangam was held at Madurai and is said to have lasted 4040 years. The second sangam,
held at Kapatapuram, lasted for 3700 years. The third sangam, convened once again at
Madurai, lasted for 1800 years. To this third gathering is attributed the composition of the
Ettutokai or ‗the Eight Anthologies‘ which form the bulk of early Tamil literature. After
each sangam, the legend tells us, the city was submerged by the sea, the tide taking over
sacred spots where saints and poets had once assembled.

This legend of the sangams is usually where most accounts of Tamil literature begin.
Despite the improbable time frame and the mythical details, many scholars hold that the
third sangam, at least, possessed a historical kernel. Hence the tendency to refer to
‗Sangam literature‘ and to this period as the ‗Sangam age‘.

But this is an argument that is no longer accepted by many scholars. As George Hart points
out, none of the poems that survive make any reference to the legend of the sangams. This
is strange, for such a gathering would have been an event of great importance (Hart 1987,
9). Furthermore, the poems appear to have been composed not at one large gathering, but
at many different settings and over time. So, even if the legend of the sangams possesses
any basis, it has been so distorted that it is problematic to label either these texts or the
historical period to which they refer in terms of these gatherings. Hence, we will refer to
these poems not as ‗Sangam literature‘ but as ‗early Tamil poetry‘.

Understanding the conventions of early Tamil poetry

The ancient Tamil poems are collected into eight anthologies. These are -- the Narrinai,
Kuruntokai, Ainkurunuru, Padirrupattu, Paripadal, Kalittogai, Ahananuru, and Purananuru --
consisting of a total of 2381 songs. The Pattupattu consisting of ten longer poems in a
similar style belongs to a slightly later period.

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Value addition: life stories

The discovery of the poetic anthologies
That the early Tamil poems exist at all for us to study is entirely due to the efforts of
19th century Indologists. Foremost amongst them stands the figure of U.V.
Swaminatha Aiyer (1855-1942). In his autobiography, En Charittram (My Story),
Aiyer recounts how on Thursday, 21 st October 1880, he met Ramasami Mudalier, a
munsif at Kumbakonam. Mudalier asked the young scholar whom he had studied
under and what he had read. As Aiyer listed the many texts that he knew, the munsif
seemed unimpressed. ―Is that all?‖ he said, ―What use is all that? Have you studied
any of the old texts?‖ Stunned, Aiyer admitted that he was unaware of their
existence.

From then on, he spent many years of his life ferreting out and preserving ancient
Tamil texts. Returning one day to the monastery where he had studied, he found a
bundle of palm leaf manuscripts lying in a corner: these were the Eight Anthologies
of early Tamil poetry. Hundreds of manuscripts collected by Aiyer were stored after
his death in the U.V. Swaminatha Aiyer library in Chennai.
Source: Ramanujan, A. K. 1999. Classics Lost and Found. The Collected
Essays of A.K. Ramanujan, ed. Vinay Dharwadker. Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 186-188.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2205/stories/20050311002109800.ht
m

Dating the poetic texts

The dating of the poems is still a matter of dispute, but we can be reasonably certain that
they were composed in the centuries before the emergence of the Pallavas of Kanchi
(around 350 CE). Most historians assign their composition to c. 300 BCE to 300 CE, which is
the beginning of the early historic period in South India. The compilation of the poems into

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the anthologies and the super-anthologies came much later, beginning in the seventh
century and continuing for another five centuries.

A number of transitions were underway in the time when these poems were being
composed. These included the spread of a script, the use of coins, the expansion of trade
routes, the diversification of settlements, and the rise of new groups to political power. But
to understand this period, it is not enough to study the poems alone. Rather, they must be
correlated with other sources such as the archaeological record from megalithic sites,
inscriptions in the Tamil—Brahmi script, local and foreign coins, as well as Greek and Roman
accounts describing the region‘s involvement in international trade. These many sources
must be correlated so that this period can be understood in its totality.

Value addition: new leads

Exceptional discoveries at Adichanallur

At the iron age burial site of Adichanallur, recent excavations have uncovered
exceptional new material that is helping archaeologists and historians redefine the
ways in which we understand the megalithic-early historic transition in South India.
Among the discoveries is the potsherd shown above with its depiction of a woman, a
stalk of paddy, a crane, a deer and crocodile. While only the burial site (marked by
urn burials) had been known before, the excavations uncovered the remains of the
habitation area as well marked by the presence of a rampart wall, a potter‘s kiln,
craft areas etc.

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Iron knives unearthed in the excavations

A twin-pot urn burial, with skeletons inside. An individual was buried in one urn,
which was then covered with another on top, indicating the tremendous care and
effort that was involved in such burial practices.
Source:
http://www.thehindu.com/fline/fl2213/stories/20050701000106500.htm

The authors of the anthologies

Who composed the poems of the anthologies? The colophon that accompanies each poem
usually gives the name of the poet but little by way of biographical detail. By and large, the

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tradition is an anonymous one. A poet was identified by his skill, by his distinctive voice.
Even the names that exist are often epithets: for instance, there is a poet called
Cempulappeyanirar or ‗The Poet of the Red Earth and Pouring Rain‘; another goes by the
name of Netuvennilavinar, ‗The Poet of the Long White Moonlight‘ (Ramanujan 1970, 99).

A larger debate exists over whether the poems are oral or literate compositions. The debate
is a complex one. In a pioneering study K. Kailasapathy ([1968] 2002) argued that the early
Tamil poems were oral compositions, marked by themes and formulae common to oral
poetry across the world. In fact, the poems refer to an assortment of poets and bards --
kinaiyans, tutiyans and panans -- who wandered across the Tamil land seeking the
patronage of chieftains and kings.

In contrast, George Hart (Hart 1987, 156-158) argues that the line between oral and
written is often blurred in these texts. He argues that the structures of the poems indicate
that they were ―far too complex to be extemporized.‖ Rather, they were written down by
pulavans, poets who belonged to literate, privileged groups. But their authors drew upon
the models and themes that preceded them -- the oral compositions of the wandering, tribal
bards. They also copied the lifestyle of these bards, wandering from place to place in search
of patronage and support. Thus, these poems are the products of a society where writing
was known.

The literary devices used in early Tamil poetry

The early Tamil poems are marked by a number of literary conventions and devices. Within
the poems, the most basic division is between ‗akam‘ and ‗puram‘, where akam refers to the
‗interior‘ and puram to the ‗exterior‘. Where the akam poems are concerned with love in all
its varieties, the puram poems possess a more public character. The akam poems lack
names or specific references. In contrast, the puram poems provide more historic detail,
alongside meditations on patronage, statecraft and martial heroism. Despite these
distinctions both kinds of poems are marked by similar landscapes and references. And the
poets of the age composed both kinds of poetry.

Value addition: what the sources say

Examples of akam and puram poetry
Below, the first poem is an akam poem, the second is a puram composition:

Kuruntokai 40
What could my mother be
to yours? What kin is my father
to yours anyway? And how
did you and I ever meet?
But in love our hearts are as red
earth and pouring rain:
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mingled beyond parting.

Purananuru 357
Though this world linked together by mountains joined with hills
Is thought to be shared in common by the three kings,
There have been those who alone held power and yet their years
Have passed until all their wealth could not help them
But only the righteous actions they had sown could be
Of any aid to them at all. As Death seizes lives
And the relatives assemble and weep, such help is hard
To gather for those who have given up
The raft which carries one from this to the other shore!

What differences, if any, do you notice between the two poems?

Source: Ramanujan, A. K. (trans.). 1970. The Interior Landscape: Love
Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology. London: Peter Owen, 37; Hart,
George L. and Hank Heifetz (trans.). 2002. The Purananuru. Delhi: Penguin,
202-203.

Another literary device which informs the poems is the system of tinais, where tinai is
defined as ‗place, region or site‘. These are not only the settings of the poems, but also
elaborate modes of classifying landscapes and behaviour. Each tinai is used by the poets to
describe a particular action or a particular mode of love.

Value addition: interesting details

The akam aintinai (the five tinais of akam poetry)
TINAI BEHAVIOR
Kurinji Mountains Punartal The sudden meeting of lovers, falling in
love, the immediate union
Palai Arid desert Pirital Anxiety before marriage, the symptoms of
love, elopement and possible marriage
Marutam Riverine Utal Infidelity and then reconciliation
country
Neytal Seashore Irankal The lover leaves in search of wealth and
fame, the wife or beloved pines away
Mullai Pastoral Iruttal Patient waiting and the hero‘s return
Source: Ramanujan, A. K. (trans.). 1970. The Interior Landscape: Love
Poems from a Classical Anthology. London: Peter Owen, 107.

Historians in turn have used the tinais to understand how people viewed the landscapes that
they lived in. They often seek to correlate different landscapes with economic activity and
occupations. Thus, the kurinji is associated with hunting-gathering; the mullai with stock-
rearing and shifting-cultivation; palai with plundering and cattle-lifting; marutam with
plough-cultivation; and neytal with fishing and the sale of salt (Gurukkal 1989). This
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diversity of landscapes is also mirrored in the complexity of the archaeological record. While
the earlier focus was mainly on the riverine tracts where agriculture and warring chieftains
first arose, historians and archaeologists have now begun to show how people living in
different regions exploited the resources that were available to them and participated in the
political and economic networks of the period.

Value addition: did you know?

When the Kurinji flowers

The Kurinji flower grows only in Tamil Nadu, in the belt of the Annamalai, Nilgiri and
Palni Hills. While biologists have identified 50 varieties of this flower, the blue
coloured variety blooms only once in 12 years. The flowering of the Kurinji is used in
the early Tamil anthologies as a metaphor for love‘s first flowering, as can be seen in
this poem from the Kuruntokai:

Bigger than earth, certainly,

higher than the sky,
more unfathomable than the waters
is the love for this man

of the mountain slopes

where the bees make rich honey
from the flowers of the kurinji
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that has such black stalks.

Source:
http://www.thehindu.com/2006/03/18/stories/2006031811480600.htm;
Ramanujan, A. K. (trans.). 1970. The Interior Landscape: Love Poems from
a Classical Tamil Anthology. London: Peter Owen, 19.

Creating the Tamil land: using language to define identity

The poets speak of ‗Tamilagam‘ or ‗the Tamil land‘, a region which comprises not only
modern Tamil Nadu but the region of Kerala as well. It extended from Venkatam in the
north to Kanyakumari in the south and was bound on the east and west by the sea.

The ‘three crowned kings’

The Tamil region is said to have been ―held in common‖ by the ―three crowned kings‖
(muventar): these were the Chola, Chera and Pandya dynasties who ruled from their
capitals at Vanchi, Uraiyur and Madurai respectively. The edicts of the Mauryan emperor
Ashoka refer to these three lineages as rulers over the territories bordering his lands,
indicating that they had acquired political preeminence in these regions at a very early time.
Located in the rice-producing tracts of the Kaveri, Periyar, Vaigai and Tamraparni valleys,
the muventar fought each other for dominion over the Tamil land. Each lineage had its own
emblem, festival and flower. These emblems also appear on their coins -- the Chola coins
are marked by a tiger, the Pandyas‘ by a fish, and the Cheras with a bow. Beneath the
muventar, the political hierarchy comprised a number of lesser chieftains known as velir and
kilar.

The uses of old Tamil

From the outset, the use of Tamil was an important cultural marker for this region. But the
Tamil used in the poetic texts is old Tamil, considerably different from the Tamil spoken
today.

Although trade, travel and imperial rule facilitated contact between the north and south, the
Tamil poems are remarkably free of Sanskrit and Prakrit words. An analysis of the
Tirumarkarruppadai, a poem belonging to the Pattupattu, shows that less than 2% of its
words can be considered of Sanskritic origin. Even when there was cultural contact and
borrowing, Tamil equivalents were used for most words: thus, shruti becomes kelvi and
veda becomes marai. Even Brahmanical deities could not be named in Sanskrit; instead,
they are referred to by Tamil epithets and names (Hart 1999, 11-12). Evidence of old Tamil
occurs not only in the poetic texts but also in the wealth of inscriptions found across the
region.

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Inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi

In 1903, Venkoba Rao discovered the first Tamil-Brahmi inscription in a cave at Kilavalavu
in the Madurai District. Until then, historians had been perplexed by the absence of
inscriptions in the Tamil region until the apparently sudden emergence of the Vatteluttu
script around the seventh century CE. But even after this discovery, confusion persisted
over these inscriptions with some scholars holding that they were similar to Ashokan Brahmi
and that their language was Pali. Subsequently it has been shown that the contents of these
inscriptions are definitely in Tamil, and their script is Tamil-Brahmi (Mahadevan 1995, 174-
175).

The Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in the caves of the Madurai District are records of gifts,
mainly to Jaina monks. They record the names and occupations of the donors, as well as
specific endowments made such as the gift of a stone bed, a seat or caves for monks to
reside in. A recent estimate states that 83 short cave inscriptions have been found from 26
sites.

But the usage of this script is not confined to votive inscriptions in religious contexts alone.
Rather, it occurs on a wide range of materials in a diversity of sites in the Tamil country.
These include inscriptions on different kinds of pottery, rings, seals, coins, metals, and most
recently, memorial stones.

Value addition: new leads

Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions on memorial stones
Among the many funerary rituals described in the early Tamil poems is the erection
of nadukals or herostones. A poem in the Purananuru (264) describes this ritual:

Now they have raised a memorial stone and set it up on a mound

erected on stony ground and they have circled it with a garland
of red flowers strung on split hemp and they have placed a feather
from a lovely peacock there and inscribed his name on the stone.
Ignorant of the death of that noble man who brought in
cows and calves and drove off
his enemies, will the families of bards come here still?

While herostones are found in the archaeological record, it was difficult to date any
of these specimens to the early historic period. But in March 2006, from the village
of Pulimankombai in Teni district, on the southern bank of the river Vaigai,
excavators found herostones inscribed in the Tamil-Brahmi script of the 3rd century
BCE. These were found in association with a number of urn burials of the site.

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The inscription on one of the herostones reads:

kal pedu tiyan antavan kudal ur akol.

"This herostone was raised to a man called Tiyan Antavan of Pedu village who died in
a cattle raid that happened at Kudal ur.‖

This is the first inscriptional reference to a cattle raid, an event which is commonly
referred to in inscriptions of later periods.
Source: Hart, George L. and Hank Heifetz (trans.). 2002. The Purananuru.
Delhi: Penguin, 160; Rajan, K., V. P. Yatheeskumar and S. Selvakumar.
2007. The Earliest Hero stones of India. International Journal of Dravidian
Linguistics, XXXVI [1], 51-62;
http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/05/stories/2006040518340600.htm

The origin and date of Tamil-Brahmi

A debate has been unfolding over the origin and date of Tamil-Brahmi. So far, it was
generally accepted that ―the Brahmi script spread to Sri Lanka and South India during the
Mauryan period, largely due to the labors of the Jaina and Buddhist monks‖ (Mahadevan
1995, 176). On this basis, Iravatham Mahadevan argued that the origin of Tamil-Brahmi can
be dated to the end of the 3rd century BCE or the beginning of the 2nd century BCE.

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Value addition: life stories

The work of Iravatham Mahadevan

The photograph shows Iravatham Mahadevan copying a Tamil-Brahmi inscription at

Tiruvadavur. A bureaucrat turned scholar, Mahadevan pioneered the decipherment
and study of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions with his work which began in the 1960s and
continues till today.
Source:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2013/stories/20030704000207100.ht
m

But recently K. Rajan has put forward a different set of arguments. Rajan argues that
Mahadevan‘s dating of Tamil-Brahmi is based entirely on palaeography and does not
consider the evidence of stratigraphy and archaeology. Rajan argues that by taking the
Ashokan inscriptions as a base-mark, scholars have so far provided a uniform date of the 3 rd
century BCE for the introduction of the Brahmi script into the region. Their analyses make it
appear as if the script was uniformly introduced, at a single stroke! Rajan argues that if
Brahmi was introduced from the north, then surely inscriptions from sites in northern
Tamilagam should have an earlier date, but this is not the case (Rajan 2008, 63).

In his excavations of the site of Kodumanal in the Kongu region, Rajan has argued for the
need to study the Tamil-Brahmi script not only in terms of its stratigraphic positioning, but
along with associated cultural material. At Kodumanal, from the habitation and burial areas,
graffiti marks and Brahmi letters on pottery have been uncovered, along with beads made
of carnelian and agate, iron objects such as swords and arrowheads, as well as different
kinds of pottery. The earliest inscribed potsherds are found at the lowest levels of the site,

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which Rajan dates to the 4th century BCE, much before the commonly accepted date for the
introduction of the script in this region.

Where both Rajan and Mahadevan concur is in the argument that the widespread
occurrence of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions indicates the prevalence of literacy in this region.
Almost all recently excavated early historic sites have yielded potsherds inscribed with
Tamil-Brahmi. These include not only capital cities, port towns and trade centres (such as
Uraiyur, Karur, Korkai, Mangadi and Kodumanal) but also more remote village sites like
Mayiladumprai, Pulumankombai, Thathapatti and Teriruveli (Rajan 2008, 57-61). Thus, the
script was being used by a wide range of people and was not confined merely to a restricted
elite.

Value addition: new leads

The many contexts of Tamil-Brahmi
Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions have been found from many different contexts and on
many different materials as can be seen below.

Tamil-Brahmi rock bed inscription, 2nd century CE, from the site of Arunattarmalai.

A silver ring inscribed with the personal name ‗Peravatan‘, 1st century BCE, Karur.

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Black-and-Red ware inscribed with Tamil-Brahmi letters, 1st century CE, Teriruveli,
Ramanathapuram District.
Source: http://www.tnarch.gov.in/epi/ins1.htm

The use of a script allowed for many things. It made possible the writing of poems and texts
composed by the bardic tradition. With the spread of Buddhism and Jainism, monks and
nuns learnt the local language and script, and used it to communicate their teachings and
develop scripture in the local language. The expanding networks of trade required forms of
recording to control and document transactions. They also brought this region into contact
with other literate cultures and societies.

Networks of exchange in early Tamil society

The Tamil country, with its long coastline, was involved in a series of trading networks
which linked it with the Mediterranean in the west and Southeast Asia in the east. Historians
have attempted to study these networks through archaeology, epigraphy and the evidence
from literature. These networks expanded with time and need to be understood in all their
complexity.

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Figure 5.4.1 & 5.4.2: A wharf structure with the remains of a canoe from the early historic
site of Pattanam in Kerala
Source: http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jul252009/236.pdf

In this regard, we can speak of ‗different levels of exchange‘ in early Tamil society. These
range from day-to-day barter, hawking and peddling to larger transactions in luxury and
high-value goods undertaken for long-distance or maritime trade. While exchange led to
interaction between regions and sub-regions, at the same time, differences in the
availability and utilization of resources also bred differentiation, competition and war.

Value addition: what the sources say

A warrior in difficulty
After he gave what he owed to the creditors who besieged him,
whatever was left to him of his small-low yielding harvest
of millet that required only the stamping feet of boys
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rather than buffalos for its threshing was eaten up

by hungry bards. Then, since no one came to his gate,
in order to soothe the poverty of his family he told
low men what he needed and borrowed millet --
that man of worth has the strength to repel advancing kings!

What kinds of economic transactions are indicated by this poem?

Source: Purananuru 327, from Hart, George L. and Hank Heifetz (trans.).
2002. The Purananuru. Delhi: Penguin, 187.

Regular local exchange would have been based on barter, both within and between sub-
regions. Thus, hill produce such as honey and pepper, the dairy products of the woodlands,
the salt of the coast and the paddy of the plains would all have circulated through the
region. Terms such as vilainar (seller), pakarnar (hawker), vanikar (trader) and umanar
(salt merchant) occur in the Tamil texts. Caravans (cattu) of itinerant traders also traversed
the region, with exchanges taking place at exchange centres or nodal points.

Cave sites with donative inscriptions also tell us of the existence of internal networks of
trade. These cave sites are found in the Tirunelveli, Ramanathapuram, Tiruchirapalli,
Coimbatore, North Arcot and Chingleput districts, with a concentration in the Madurai
district. The inscriptions record merchants with many different specializations making gifts
to these sites. The many kinds of merchants include: panitavanikan (toddy merchant),
koluvanikan (iron ploughshare merchant), ponvanikan (gold merchant), aruvaivanikan
(textile merchant), and uppuvanikan (salt merchant). Not only traders, but monks, pilgrims
and travellers would also have frequented these routes.

Gift giving and receiving transactions were also a means of exchange. The gift (kodai)
included subsistence goods as well as booty obtained through plunder. The king or chieftain
received tribute from his kinsmen and subjects; this signified his dominance and called on
him to act as a protector. He also obtained goods through plundering raids carried out on
neighbouring kings and chieftains. These were then redistributed through various pathways
of exchange, often determined through political or kinship relations. On festive occasions,
the king distributed food and subsistence goods amongst his subjects.

The coins of this period occur in negligible quantities in trade centres and megalithic sites.
But they do occur as hoards found along trade routes. It follows that their use must have
been restricted to larger transactions and long-distance trade. The texts refer to kasu, pon
and kanam as currency units but no indication is given of their metallic content and weight.

Increasingly, archaeology has provided evidence of the dynastic issues of the Chola, Chera
and Pandya dynasties. In addition, even lesser chiefs like the Malaiyaman and Nannan
seem to have issued coins. The relationship between these local issues and Roman coins is
not easy to understand. The earliest known Roman coins, dating to the 1st century BCE, are
confined to the Kerala region. Roman coins occur in Tamil Nadu and Andhra by the early
centuries CE. Byzantine coins of the 4 th century CE have been found in coastal Tamil Nadu
and Sri Lanka.
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Figure 5.4.3: Coin issued by the Chera dynasty is dated to the 3rd century CE
Source: http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2013/stories/20030704000207100.htm

There is no doubt that these coins were in limited circulation, a fact that is underlined by the
use of Roman coins as jewellery. Arguably, there need not be a single explanation for the
occurrence and use of coins. Thus, they could have served as deposits or sureties, as
protection money for the safe passage of goods, as ‗primitive valuables‘ or as items in gift
exchange.

The emphasis in foreign trade was on luxuries and exotic goods. Semi-precious stones,
precious gems, iron and steel, textiles, ivory, spices, forest goods like teak, sandalwood and
pepper were exported from the Tamil region. In return, western merchants brought Roman
wine, gold, horses and gems. Two kinds of markets are spoken of -- the nalangadi or day
market and the allangadi or evening market. Merchants from near and far would have
engaged in commercial transactions in these markets.

The pattern of the monsoon winds was such that western traders had to stay in the Indian
ports for a couple of months. The Tamil texts refer to westerners as yavanas and describe
them as staying in the cities in separate settlements or enclaves of the cities.

For long, historians spoke of western merchants coming to the subcontinent, trading in
cargoes of spices and precious metals. But now it is clear that Tamil merchants too travelled
to other lands and engaged in complex commercial transactions. The knowledge of the
monsoon winds made it possible to cross the Arabian Sea in a span of 40 days from Muziris.

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Value addition: new leads

Has ancient Muziris been found?
Greek and Roman accounts speak of the ancient port of Muziris on the west coast of
India which played a central role in the Indian Ocean trade. The Tamil texts also
refer to Muchiri, where the boats of the yavanas raised the foam on the Periyar, as
they came with gold and left with pepper.

Historians and archaeologists have long been preoccupied with finding the site of
Muziris. Recent excavations in the lower Periyar basin have made a claim for
identifying the settlement of Pattanam in the Ernakulam District of Kerala with
Muziris of yore. Pattanam is also the first early historic urban site on the Kerala coast
which has provided evidence for the Indo-Roman trade.

Finds of Roman amphorae clearly indicate that trading activity went on at this site.
Other finds from the excavation include ring wells, spindle whorls, architectural
remains, potsherds inscribed with the Brahmi script as well as iron age occupation
below the early historic levels. The image shows a brick structure dated by
excavators to this period.

Source: Shajan, K. P., V. Selvakumar and Roberta Tomber. 2005. Was

Pattanam Ancient Muziris? Man and Environment, XXX (2): 66-73;
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2009/05/03/stories/2009050356481800.ht
m

Indications of such contact have come to light with the finds of inscribed potsherds in Tamil-
Brahmi during excavations of ports on the Red Sea coast in Egypt. Excavations at the
Roman town of Quseir-al-Qadim in Egypt brought to light potsherds inscribed with the
names ‗Catan‘ and ‗Kanan‘ in the Tamil-Brahmi script, dating to the first century CE. From
Berenike comes a Tamil-Brahmi potsherd inscribed with the name 'Korpuman'. These are
clearly names of traders who travelled to these regions.

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 V. Cultures in transition

Figure 5.4.4: A potsherd inscribed in Tamil-Brahmi bearing the name ‗Catan‘ which was
found at the site of Quseir-al-Qadim on the Red Sea coast of Egypt
Source: http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2007/stories/20030411001208100.htm

Figure 5.4.5: A pottery inscription in Tamil-Brahmi found in Thailand by a team of Thai and
French archaeologists
Source: http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/16/stories/2006071603952000.htm

Equally fascinating is the discovery of a papyrus in the collections of a museum in Vienna,

which is dated to the mid-2nd century CE. The document, in Greek, is a trade contract
between two merchants, one of whom undertakes to be an agent for the other‘s cargo and
ensure its shipment from Muchiri to Alexandria. While the names of these merchants are
lost, what is fascinating is that the Tamil country was witness to and engaging in cultural
and commercial transactions of such a complex and expanded scale.

In this regard, it is also necessary to examine the role played by political entities with
regard to control over this trade. The velir chieftains were often located in fertile or raw
material producing areas, or along trade routes, or at central points that developed into

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relatively large exchange centres, indicating a conscious attempt to bring local resources
and networks under their control. With regard to the Mediterranean trade, the chieftains
wished to have a stake in it since it provided them with luxury goods which served to
increase their status. They took to consciously developing ports of trade by levying tolls and
customs duties and issuing coins. There was also the emergence of dual centres of political
and commercial power in the case of the muventar such as Uraiyur and Kaveripattinam for
the Cholas, Madurai and Korkai for the Pandyas, and Vanchi and Muchiri for the Cheras.
Clearly, in the fertile agrarian tracts, the surplus produced was enough to sustain artisans,
craftsmen and traders as well as poets, dancers, magicians and astrologers.

While various groups are referred to in the texts of this time, they seem to have been
divided on a regional and professional, rather than a caste or class, basis. Hunter-gatherers,
pastoralists, fisher people, farmers, sailors, soldiers, warriors, bards and brahmanas are
some of the groups which find mention.

Brahmanas find mention, performing certain sacrifices, but they do not seem to have had
ideological hegemony in this period. The varna-jati system had not been put in place. While
certain groups like the panans, tutiyans and paraiyans are spoken of as being a source of
polluting power, there is nothing to indicate that they were treated like the untouchables of
later times. Rather, the evidence seems to show that groups later treated as untouchables
by brahmanical society had positions of dignity and status in this early period. Thus, the
paratavas, a fishing group, were later treated as untouchables, but in this period are
described as possessing considerable wealth and status. Evidently, social conditions of this
period, while unequal, were not rigid, being flexible enough to allow marriage and inter-
dining between different groups.

5.5: The archaeological picture – South India

Port-towns, craft centres and trade in South India (300 BCE – 300
CE)

The Periplus Maris Erythreai, an account by an Egyptian Greek merchant during the mid-
first century CE, is perhaps the best source for information on the Indian Ocean trade with
the Mediterranean region. This text, surviving in fragments, mentions several ports on the
western and eastern coasts of the Indian subcontinent, products being traded at these
ports, and also cities and other centres in the hinterlands. Important ports on the
southwestern coast are Muziris and Nelkynda. ―Mouziris…is a flourishing [place] with ships
from Ariake [the country behind Barygaza and Gujarat] coming to it, and also Greeks. It
stands on a river, and is…20 stades from the mouth of the river…Among the marts and
harbours in this region [southeastern coast] to which come those who sail from Limurike
[Tamilakam] and the north, the more important, in the order in which they occur, are the
marts of Kamara and Podouke and Sopatma, where are local ships which sail along the
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