With the script of the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) remaining a thriller even after a 100 years after its discovery, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Sunday introduced a prize of $1 million to those that decipher the traditional script.
“Now we have not been capable of clearly perceive the writing system of the as soon as flourishing Indus Valley,” Stalin stated whereas inaugurating a three-day convention in Chennai to mark the Centenary 12 months of the IVC.
English archaeologist Sir John Marshall introduced the invention of IVC on September 20, 1924. “The riddle hasn’t been answered for the previous 100 years regardless of a number of efforts by archaeologists and consultants. I announce a money prize of $1 million to people or organisations that decipher the script to the satisfaction of archaeological consultants,” Stalin stated.
The chief minister reiterated that the historical past of the Indian subcontinent can’t be written with out Tamil Nadu or Tamil language — a press release that he made when the DMK shaped the federal government again in 2021 whereas build up the archaeological expedition of the state. “The efforts of the state authorities is to make sure the proper place for Tamil Nadu within the nation’s historical past,” Stalin stated.
“There have been bulls within the Indus Valley. Bulls are Dravidian symbols. Bulls are unfold from Indus Valley to Alanganallur (a village close to Madurai well-known for Jallikattu). Historic Tamil literature has wealthy references to bull-taming sport and one of many IVC seals have impressions of a person making an attempt to tame a bull,” he added.
Marshall’s discovery was a turning level in India’s archaeological historical past that modified folks’s understanding of the previous as he had linked the language spoken by the inhabitants of IVC could possibly be Dravidian, Stalin stated. Marshall was the director common of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1928 throughout which Harappa and Mohenjodaro, the 2 most important cities that comprise the IVC have been found. Final 12 months in September, Stalin introduced that Marshal’s life-size statue will probably be put in in Tamil Nadu.
Since forming the federal government in 2021, Stalin has stated that the DMK authorities’s mission was to show scientifically that the Indian subcontinent’s historical past ought to be written ranging from the Tamil panorama. That 12 months, the CM introduced within the meeting that there’s conclusive proof of a civilisation current in Tamil Nadu round 3,200 years in the past, citing scientific proof — a discovering which means a thriving city-based river valley civilisation existed within the state, coinciding with the latter half of the Indus Valley civilisation.
Stalin on Sunday additionally launched a ebook by the Tamil Nadu State Division of Archaeology (TNSDA), which discovered 60% of the indicators and 90% of the graffiti marks unearthed from excavation websites throughout Tamil Nadu have parallels with these discovered within the IVC.
The state additionally allotted ₹2 crore to determine a analysis chair within the identify of Iravatham Mahadevan, an epigraphist and civil servant, and to current an annual award to 2 students to encourage analysis in archaeology.
Final June, the state launched its bold archaeological excavations in 4 current websites, together with Keeladi, the Sangam Period website 12 km southeast of present-day Madurai district, dated to be not less than 2,600 years outdated with a thriving industrialised settlement on the banks of Vaigai river. Recent digging was launched at 4 new websites.
In August, throughout the ongoing tenth part of archaeological excavation in Keeladi, a terracotta pipeline was present in additional indication of an historical water administration follow, adopted by those that inhabited the settlement not less than 2,600 years in the past. Beforehand, archaeologists have discovered an open drain, a closed channel and small tanks right here.
One of many important findings final 12 months was the invention of two,030 graffiti marks, together with 4 with Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, from Thulukkarpatti in Tirunelveli district. Scientific dates obtained by way of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) courting of samples collected from archaeological websites excavated by the TNSDA have pushed the origin of Tamili (Tamil-Brahmi) script by hundred years to seventh century BCE. The state authorities is embarking on a comparative examine of the graffiti marks, potsherds, with these from the IVC.
Artefacts unearthed in Keeladi pushed the Sangam period to 600 BCE from 300 BCE, rice husks present in a burial urn in Sivakalai was discovered to be 3,200 years outdated, and that Tamils have been conscious of iron expertise in 2172 BCE, 4,200 years in the past. The carbon courting pushed the Sangam period by 300 years that it was considered. Keeladi was first found in 2014 by Amarnath Ramakrishna of the Archaeological Survey of India.
