Recent underwater exploration off Kaveripoompattinam or Poompuhar, the ancient Chola port at the mouth of the Cauvery, has yielded clues to the Tamil region’s maritime past. The fragment of an amphora believed to have originated in West Asia, recovered alongside glazed ceramics during the third phase of the exploration, points to the port’s overseas trading connections.
Poompuhar’s place in Tamil memory rests on literary accounts. The Sangam work Pattinappalai and the post-Sangam epic Silappadikaram describe its commerce. The later work Manimekalai, another of the five great Tamil epics, recounts the sea engulfing the town. These accounts make archaeological efforts to understand the settlement, its changing shoreline and the circumstances of its submergence compelling. Earlier land excavations, including a structure interpreted as a wharf at Kizharveli near Poompuhar, add to the evidence of the port’s past.
Much remains to be established. Officials said only about a tenth of the underwater exploration at the site had been completed. The current programme began under the previous government in 2025. The incumbent Minister for Tamil Development A Rajmohan launched its third phase this September, even joining divers underwater. The expeditions are expected to resume in January after the northeast monsoon passes.
The government’s increase in the allocation for archaeological surveys, excavations and underwater exploration from ₹7 crore to ₹10 crore is welcome. Rajmohan’s announcement of a three-year field research programme, costing ₹3 crore, to document ancient Tamil maritime trade links and ports is significant. As this newspaper recently reported, a diving exploration at the Pandya port of Korkai further south could follow the submission of the sonar survey report and necessary approvals. That would widen the inquiry into the Tamil region’s maritime history. After all, Roman coins dating from the Republican period before the Common Era, through the reigns of Augustus and Nero, up to the 5th century CE have been found in the state, both in coastal areas and inland, suggesting long and deep trade linkages.
The state’s continued investment in archaeology deserves encouragement, whatever the political impulses behind it. But funding must be sustained, and support scientific dating, conservation and publication alongside fieldwork. Discoveries should not feed political pride or academic archives. They should be made accessible to the public, with clear explanations of what they establish and what remains uncertain.