Keeladi is the Key to Indian History | Part 2

Upholding Keeladi is not about rejecting North India; it is not about destroying Vedic tradition; nor is it about creating a new chauvinistic ethnic pride.

Continued: Keeladi is the Key to Indian History

(An article originally published on the Makkal Athikaram portal)

Part 6: Keeladi — Literacy, Labor, and Urban Life

Keeladi should neither be exaggerated nor understated.

Keeladi is not the world’s first city. Nor is it India’s earliest civilization. However, it was no ordinary settlement either.

The Tamizhi (Tamil-Brahmi) script inscriptions found on potsherds are deeply significant. Writing is not merely a tool for literature; it functions to identify goods, record information, and facilitate socio-economic transactions and ownership.

Terracotta artifacts, beads, traces of textile manufacturing, architectural technology, and water management infrastructure demonstrate that the people who lived here did not merely accept nature passively—they actively transformed it to meet their material needs.

Among the artifacts unearthed at Keeladi so far, no massive temple structures or distinct religious institutions have been found. Therefore, we can reasonably conclude that Keeladi was secular in character.

What archaeology does not show must not be claimed; equally, what was not found must not be invented. This is the foundational discipline of scientific history.

The concrete significance of Keeladi lies in:

• Evidence of widespread literacy;

• Evidence of technological advancement;

• Evidence of craft and industrial production;

• Evidence of urban planning;

• Evidence that compels us to re-evaluate the socio-economic history of Sangam-era Tamilakam.

Part 7: Romila Thapar — How to Read History?

It is natural for Romila Thapar’s name to arise in discussions about Keeladi. However, her approach should not be reduced to a political slogan; rather, it must be understood as a vital methodological caution in historiography.

Archaeology provides one set of evidence; literature provides another; linguistics another; and genetics yet another.

Each source has its own inherent limitations. Thapar’s contribution to historical methodology emphasizes that history must be written by synthesizing these diverse sources while carefully accounting for their internal contradictions and gaps.

The principle is straightforward: if a new archaeological discovery challenges an old historical premise, that shift must be embraced. Yet, at the same time, unproven assertions must not be declared as historical truths based solely on preliminary findings.

This must remain our scientific approach toward Keeladi.

Part 8: From Indus Valley to Keeladi — Continuity or Connection?

Scholarly hypotheses suggest that connections may have existed between the Indus Valley Civilization and the ancient cultures of South India. Ongoing research also explores the linguistic relationship between the Dravidian language family and the Indus script.

However, current archaeological evidence is not yet sufficient to conclusively state that "the Indus Valley people migrated directly to settle in Keeladi."

Acknowledging this clearly is not a sign of weakness—it is the very strength of science. Scientific integrity requires keeping an open research question as a question.

Yet, one fundamental truth remains unchanged: the Indus Valley existed. Subsequently, diverse regional urban developments emerged across different parts of the Indian subcontinent. South India witnessed its own distinct urban trajectory. Keeladi stands as paramount evidence of that southern urbanization.

Therefore, Indian civilization cannot be explained through a single Vedic lens.

Part 9: Materialist Perspectives of Tamil and Indian Scholars

The perspectives of pioneering scholars who examined the origins of Indian civilization, cultural evolution, and historical materialism provide the theoretical framework for understanding Keeladi.

A) Materialist Philosophical and Historical Scholars

• D. D. Kosambi: Strengthened the materialist perspective by viewing Indian history not as a mere chronicle of kings and wars, but as a history of transformations in production, technology, land usage, trade, and social relations.

• Irfan Habib: Contributed immensely to materialist historiography by placing production, land systems, technology, labor, and social relations at the center of historical analysis.

• Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya: Investigated the history of Indian materialist thought (Lokayata, Science and Society in Ancient India), demonstrating that ancient Indian society must be understood through labor, production, and economic life rather than purely spiritual frameworks. In this context, Keeladi's terracotta artifacts, industrial traces, pottery production, and water management gain profound significance.

• George Thomson: A Marxist anthropologist (Studies in Ancient Greek Society) who emphasized the intrinsic link between labor, language, and social relations in early human societies. His insight—that humanity transforms itself through labor that transforms nature—helps us understand the artisan community of Keeladi.

B) Tamil Social and Cultural Revisionists

• Mayilai Seeni. Venkatasamy: A pioneer who studied Tamil history and culture using rigorous literary and archaeological evidence. His works (Buddhism and Tamil, Notes on Sangam Tamil History) highlight that ancient Tamil social evolution cannot be comprehended through the Vaidika (Vedic) tradition alone. Keeladi’s evidence confirms pre-Vaidika Tamil literacy, craft production, and urban life.

• Po. Velsamy: A critical scholar (Beyond Falsehood, History and Fiction) who challenged Vaidika myths and historical fabrications in Tamil history. He asserts that history is not built solely by royal achievements, but rests upon the labor of artisans, farmers, potters, and weavers. Personal names inscribed on Keeladi potsherds indicate that literacy was actively used by working people.

C) Modern Archaeological, Genetic, and Historiographical Scholars

• Romila Thapar: Advocates for comparing multiple lines of evidence rather than reducing history to a single continuous tradition, framing it instead as an intersection of diverse societies, regions, economic systems, and cultures.

• Tony Joseph: Integrated genetics, archaeology, and linguistics to trace the formation of the Indian population (Early Indians). His work dismantles the simplistic notion that Indian civilization was created by a single group of people at a single point in time.

Synthesizing the views of these scholars offers a unified lesson: History cannot be written solely from the top down; the labor, production, technology, and social life of working people must be placed at the very core of historical inquiry.

Part 10: Why Keeladi Holds Political Significance Today

When does an archaeological site become political?

It becomes political when it goes beyond discussing the past and begins addressing fundamental questions:

• "Who is an Indian?"

• "What constitutes Indian culture?"

• "Where does Indian history begin?"

As attempts persist to portray India as the ancient homeland of a single religion, language, or ethnicity, Keeladi stands as a vital historical counter-evidence.

However, our defense of Keeladi must remain strictly scientific.

Replacing one falsehood with another is not historical reclamation. Creating a Tamil myth to counter a Vedic myth is not history. Ethnic chauvinism and historical materialism are fundamentally opposed.

Reclaiming history means re-evaluating it based on empirical evidence.

Conclusion

Keeladi is the Key to Indian History!

Let us return to our initial question.

Why is Keeladi the key to Indian History?

Because it gives us more than just the physical ruins of an ancient city—it forces us to question how Indian history ought to be written.

History is not a ledger of kings, a chronicle of battles, or a compilation of myths.

Human history is the record of humanity struggling against nature to shape its existence.

From that labor emerged tools, technology, agriculture, surplus production, division of labor, trade, cities, writing, and evolving social structures. Property rights, classes, and the state emerged at specific historical conjunctures.

This is the foundational lesson historical materialism teaches us.

Who baked the bricks of Keeladi? Who crafted the pottery? Who directed the water flow? Who sowed the seeds? Who wove the textiles? Who shaped the beads? Who carved the script?

It was the working human who built this civilization.

Thus, the true hero of Indian history is not the monarch seated in a palace, but the working person who built the palace, the city, the field, and the workshop.

Here, a clear conclusion can be drawn: Indian civilization cannot be equated solely with Vedic civilization.

While some may view the Vedic tradition as one historical segment of India, Indian history is far broader and richer than that:

• The Indus Valley has its place.

• The ancient societies of South India have their place.

• Keeladi has its place.

• Buddhists and Jains have their place.

• Indigenous tribal communities have their place.

• Farmers, artisans, women, and working people have their place.

That is the true diversity of Indian history.

Upholding Keeladi is not about rejecting North India; it is not about destroying Vedic tradition; nor is it about creating a new chauvinistic ethnic pride. It is about restoring Indian history in all its comprehensive diversity.

History must not be dictated by religion. Politics must not command history. Chauvinism must not distort historical facts. Nor should archaeological evidence be bent to suit any ideology.

History must be written by evidence alone.

In searching for that evidence, a single potsherd, a baked brick, a ring well, or a carved inscription buried beneath the soil can open a brand new door to our past.

And one of the primary keys that opens that door is Keeladi.

Keeladi is the key to Indian History!

— Tamilmani

Bibliography

1. Friedrich Engels — The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

2. George Thomson — Studies in Ancient Greek Society: The Prehistoric Aegean

3. D. D. Kosambi — An Introduction to the Study of Indian History

4. Irfan Habib — People’s History of India (Vol. 1 & 2)

5. Tony Joseph — Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From

6. Romila Thapar — Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 (and related essays on ancient Indian history)

7. D. P. Chattopadhyaya — Lokayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism

8. D. P. Chattopadhyaya — Science and Society in Ancient India

9. Mayilai Seeni. Venkatasamy — Buddhism and Tamil (பௌத்தமும் தமிழும்)

10. Mayilai Seeni. Venkatasamy — Notes on Sangam Tamil History (சங்ககாலத் தமிழக வரலாற்றில் சில செய்திகள்)

11. Po. Velsamy — Beyond Falsehood (பொய்மைக்கு அப்பால்)

12. Po. Velsamy — History and Fiction (வரலாறும் புனைவும்)

13. Kausigan — Great Civilizations of the World (உலக மகா நாகரிகங்கள்)

14. Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu — Keeladi Excavation Reports and Publications