The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has asked its retired archaeologist R Sriraman to file his report on the excavation he oversaw in Keeladi (present day Madurai district) and Kodumanal (present day Erode district) in 2017 even as the report of his predecessor Amarnath Krishna is embroiled in a controversy.
Krishna’s report had led to a political slugfest between the DMK and BJP. Krishna led excavations in Keeladi in the first two phases and was later transferred. After Sriraman took over in 2017, he concluded that there were no significant findings. This led to a political furore in the state and with the intervention of the Madras high court, the site was handed over from the ASI to the Tamil Nadu state department of archaeology which is entering its 11th phase of excavations at Keeladi this year.
A communication between ASI and Sriraman on the report was made on July 8, those in the know of the matter said. “He (Sriraman) retired in 2021 as superintendent archaeologist but couldn’t finish the report earlier. He will complete his report at the earliest so ASI can be done with its reports for the first three years.” Sriraman had overseen excavation in Keeladi for three months and after the site he was posted across other states in India and has now retired in Chennai.
A person close to Sriraman who did not wish to be named said that the controversy doesn’t affect him and he would only be reporting data on what he saw in the context of archaeology. “There will be no interpretation,” the person said. “His report on Kodumanal is close to completion and he will submit that along with the Keeladi report.”
{{/usCountry}}A person close to Sriraman who did not wish to be named said that the controversy doesn’t affect him and he would only be reporting data on what he saw in the context of archaeology. “There will be no interpretation,” the person said. “His report on Kodumanal is close to completion and he will submit that along with the Keeladi report.”
{{/usCountry}}ASI in May asked its officer K Amarnath Ramakrishna to rework his voluminous report of the first two excavations at Keeladi challenging the dating and classification of key discoveries. Ramakrishna refused to and stood by his report, stating that by relying on AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) dating of 23 artefacts, a chronological sequence of Keeladi to be between the 8th century BCE to 3rd century CE has been established.
“This is a blatant attempt of the BJP to suppress Tamil civilisation. They do not want to accept that an older civilisation opposed to what is touted by them exists so they are finding fault with Ramakrishnah’s report and now they have asked for a report by the gentleman who came after him and said that there are no findings,” DMK spokesperson A Saravanan said.
Archaeology minister Thangam Thennarasu did not respond to a request for a comment. In a post on X, Thenarasu said: “The fact that the Union government has sought opinions on the third phase of excavation through a retired officer who has made untrue comments about Keezhadi has exposed the ulterior motives of the Union government. The Union government should change its stance on the Keezhadi issue. Otherwise, the people of Tamil Nadu are waiting to be taught a lesson again through the upcoming assembly elections.”
ASI transferred Krishna on June 17, after MK Stalin on June 13 said that the truth from the findings in Keeladi does not serve the script of the BJP and RSS and so they are dismissing the rigorously proven antiquity of Tamil culture.
On June 11, Union minister of culture and tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat alleged that the DMK government was refusing to cooperate with the central government on Keeladi research and politicising the findings. Following that Union home minister Amit Shah said that the Indian government would be proud of proof of an ancient civilisation anywhere in India but Tamil Nadu must cooperate to prove findings as per international standards.
“What stand does Gajendra Singh have to say on this issue? We can’t take BJP’s ministers statements. And it’s a double speak by Shah,” Saravanan said.
Reacting to the ruling party’s remarks, BJP’s state vice president Narayanan Thirupathy said that the DMK government is being silly in blaming the BJP. “ASI is an established 150-year institution. The DMK has to respect its procedures and not pressurise them. Either they are ignorant about standard protocols or they know and are arrogant and unnecessarily politicising the issue by blaming the BJP,” he said.