{"id":106466,"date":"2020-09-10T14:01:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T21:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106466"},"modified":"2020-09-10T14:01:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T21:01:45","slug":"chera-chola-pandya-using-archaeological-evidence-to-identify-the-tamil-kingdoms-or-homelands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/10\/chera-chola-pandya-using-archaeological-evidence-to-identify-the-tamil-kingdoms-or-homelands\/","title":{"rendered":"Chera, Chola, Pandya: Using Archaeological Evidence to Identify the Tamil Kingdoms or Homelands."},"content":{"rendered":"

(Article) Published by University of Hawai’i Press DOI: 1<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Chera,\nChola, Pandya: Using Archaeological Evidence to Identify the Tamil Kingdoms of\nEarly Historic South India Abraham, Shinu Anna. Asian Perspectives, Volume 42,\nNumber 2, Fall 2003, pp. 207-223 (Article) Published by University of Hawai’i\nPress DOI: 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quote<\/p>\n\n\n\n

important\nin the identification of Tamilakam is inscriptional evidence. Within Tamil\nNadu, for example, about 80 to 90 rock inscriptions have been discovered in\nnatural caverns. Along with fragmentary epigraphs on potsherds from around 25\nsites in southern India (Zvelebil 1992 : 123) and outside South Asia (Mahadevan\n1993), they form the strongest linguistic evidence for separating Tamilakam\nfrom the rest of South India. The inscriptions range from third abraham . tamil\nkingdoms of historic south india 211 or second century b.c. to second or third\ncentury a.d., and are written in the Bra\u00afhm\u0131\u00af script, which was common\nthroughout the peninsula at the time, but the language is an early form of\nTamil. The Tamil inscriptional data varies from the Sangam texts, since they\nhave a di\u00a4erent source and were recorded for di\u00a4erent purposes. These\ninscriptions were written in what are believed to be Buddhist or Jain ascetic\ncaves, and their purpose seems to be to remind travelers of the bounty of\nvarious merchants and kings and their support for these sects (Kennedy 1976 :\n6). The inscriptions mostly contain personal and occupational names of donors\nwho endowed the Buddhist and Jain monks with stone beds in caverns (Gurukkal\n1989 : 160), and one of their greatest benefits is that they confirm certain\nking and place names that are mentioned in the earliest Sangam texts (Zvelebil\n1992 : 124). Non-Tamil South Asian inscriptions also include references to\nTamilakam. Among the most pivotal are the rock edicts of the North Indian\nMauryan emperor As\u00b4oka, dated to third century b.c. One of the edicts refers to\nfive independent states that presumably existed beyond the southern border of\nhis empire: the Choda (Chola), Pandya, Satiyaputra, Keralaputras (Chera), and\nTamraparni (Sri Lanka) (Zvelebil 1992 : 110)\u2014an indication that the polities of\nKerala, Tamil Nadu, and Sri Lanka were not incorporated into the Mauryan realm\n(Fig. 3). Also relevant is the central Indian Hathigumpha inscription (possibly\nfrom the second half of the second century b.c.), which discusses the\ndestruction of a \u2018\u2018confederacy of Tamil powers\u2019\u2019 (Zvelebil 1992 : 103). Outside\nof South Asia, it is the Greco-Roman writings that provide the most detailed\nhistorical information about Tamilakam. India is in fact frequently mentioned\nin the Western classical literature (McCrindle 1971: xxi). The protohistoric\nperiod in South India coincides with a phase of South Asian participation in\nthe flourishing maritime networks of the Indian Ocean. The South Asian\nsubcontinent is well known for having had long-standing, varied, and complex\nforms of interaction with the external world, and South India is no exception.\nHistorical and archaeological reconstructions of South India during its Early\nHistoric period have placed a great deal of emphasis on the long-distance\nmaritime trade networks to which South India belonged\u2014particularly its links\nwith the Roman Empire (Begley 1996; Ray 1989, 1994, 1995). The network\nincorporated a number of regions along the Indian Ocean littoral\u2014including the\nRed Sea coast (Saloman 1991; Sidebotham 1986), the Arabian coast (Whitehouse\nand Williamson 1973), East Africa (Munro-Hay 1996), Southeast Asia (Ray 1994;\nSmith 1999), Sri Lanka (Munro-Hay 1996), and China (Ray 1994)\u2014and South India\nacted as a major node in the interregional transmittal of goods during\nHellenistic and Roman times (Charlesworth 1926). Of all the historical sources\navailable for Tamilakam, the Greco-Roman references to South India are\nparticularly useful since they are to a large degree datable and help,\ntherefore, to fix the centuries during which overseas trade flourished. However, most of these texts refer not to \u2018\u2018Tamilakam,\u2019\u2019\nbut to specific trade centers and ports in peninsular India.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the\narchaeology of protohistoric kerala and tamil nadu Although extensive portions\nof Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been explored and a number of sites excavated\n(general overviews of the region\u2019s archaeology can be found in Brubaker 2001;\nGurukkal and Varrier 1999; Gurumurthy 1991; Leshnik asian perspectives . 42(2)\n. 212 fall 2003 1974; Moorti 1994; and Ramachandran 1980), the archaeological record for Tamilakam is far from\nsatisfactory. Relatively few radiocarbon dates are available, and there are,\nunfortunately, no clear sequences or patterns in artifact assemblages that have\npermitted the development of internal relative dating sequences. Documentation\nof sites has been inconsistent at best\u2014most published data on Iron Age burials\ntake the form of brief notices, for example, and when excavations reports are\navailable, they tend to rely on existing ill-defined artifact classification\nschemes. Another issue is the fragmentary nature of archaeological research in\nSouth India. Most synthetic studies are delimited by state, making it di\u2030cult\nto understand ancient regional patterns that crossed modern political\nboundaries. Also, scholars have tended to\ncompartmentalize areas of<\/strong> research,\nfocusing on certain site types, such as Iron Age burials or Early Historic\nsettlements, or on Fig. 3. Polities in early South India (c. 200 b.c.\u2013a.d.\n300). abraham . tamil kingdoms of historic south india 213 specific material\nassemblages, such as cave inscriptions or coins. Although some South Indian\nhistorians have understood the need to treat all these elements as interrelated\nparts of a single past social formation (see, for example, Gurukkal 1995 :\n239\u2013240), it is only recently that archaeologists are coming to the same\nrealization. A general over<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even this cursory overview of the sites and material culture from Kerala\nand Tamil Nadu highlights a key point: despite the common tendency for South\nIndian historians and archaeologists to speak of \u2018\u2018Tamil\u2019\u2019 material culture,\nthe archaeological evidence that sets Tamilakam as a region apart from the rest\nof South India has never been clearly identified<\/strong>. If one evaluates\nTamil cultural identity using Emberling\u2019s guidelines, then the claims of ethnic\ndi\u00a4erence appear to falter, since nearly all the material culture found in\nTamilakam\u2014that is, in Kerala and Tamil Nadu\u2014can be found elsewhere in\npeninsular India. Similarly configured urban centers and habitation sites are\nlocated throughout South India and Sri Lanka. And, although the majority of\nIron Age burials are situated in South India, they are widely distributed\nthroughout the Indian subcontinent, and only one or two types are unique to\nTamilakam. In the same way, the distribution of ceramics, iron, and other\nartifacts are dispersed across the alleged past cultural-ethnic, linguistic,\nand geographic boundaries of South India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018\u2018materializing\u2019\u2019 the tamil identity Given the nature and distribution\nof sites and artifacts across the Tamil landscape, it has been difficult to\ndiscern a pattern of style or symbol or process that stands out, making\nsimplistic normative notions of a Tamil identity appear misplaced.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full\nArticle <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/46734907_Chera_Chola_Pandya_Using_Archaeological_Evidence_to_Identify_the_Tamil_Kingdoms_of_Early_Historic_South_India<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emperor\nAsoka\u2019s pillars <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.ancient.eu\/Edicts_of_Ashoka\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceylon by Sir James Emerson Tennent. 1st<\/sup> edition 1859<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Article) Published by University of Hawai’i Press DOI: 1 Chera, Chola, Pandya: Using Archaeological Evidence to Identify the Tamil Kingdoms of Early Historic South India Abraham, Shinu Anna. Asian Perspectives, Volume 42, Number 2, Fall 2003, pp. 207-223 (Article) Published by University of Hawai’i Press DOI: 1 Quote important in the identification of Tamilakam is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}