THOOTHUKUDI: The ongoing DNA research on the skeletal remains unearthed from Adichanallur, by the Madurai Kamaraj University in association with the world-renowned David Reich Lab, will reveal interesting facts about the ancient Tamil people, said Principal Secretary to Tamil Nadu government Udhayachandran on Friday.
Addressing the gathering at the fourth edition of the Thoothukudi Book Fair, Udhayachandran said, “One has to come down to Thoothukudi to find the rare traits and roots of the Tamil civilisation. It is one of the few ancient cities that is still inhabited and continuing the old trade practices.
The geographical position of Thoothukudi is more significant than any other part of the state as it is a juncture of prehistory, literature, and trade. The first book to be printed outside Europe was a Tamil book in 1554. It was Katrilla, a 38-page booklet containing Tamil on Roman scripts, printed with the help of Portuguese at Lisbon,” the senior bureaucrat said.
“The year 1554 assumes significance in the history of printing, because emperor Akbar was not enthroned then. Shakespeare, Newton, and Galilee were not born, and Christopher Columbus had only discovered America 50 years ago. Only decades after the first book in Tamil was printed, texts began to be printed in Russian, Greek, and Chinese languages,” he added.