MADURAI: Director of National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA) Amarnath Ramakrishnan said that there is a strong link between the Sangam literature and Indus Valley civilisation.
Speaking at a meet on Indus Valley Civilisation organised by TN Progressive Writers and Artists Association here on Saturday, he added that the Indus Valley civilisation is a hardware part (the physical evidence of the details mentioned in Sangam literature are found) and the Sangam literature is a software part (literature talks about the human culture of Tamils) and people part of this civilisation should have spoken a proto-dravidian language.
He further said, “In 2000, we excavated a skull and bones of a woman in Rakhigarhi, a major site in the Indus valley civilization. We can find shells and conches from the Gulf of Mannar, and these shells and conches were mostly worn by women from the Indus Valley cvilisation. A DNA test carried out on the bones found that the civilisation was formed from mixed genes of ancient South India and Iranian farmers. This is not from Steppe RNA1, A2 genes.”
He added, “Reports on Keeladi excavations are yet to be released. In 2025, a group of researchers from Anna University, environmental department, released a research paper based on ‘Manalur Keeladi Mahabharat’. Even before Keeladi reports were released completely, a fictional story was created. There is no relationship between the Mahabharata and Keeladi. As I made several important excavations in Keeladi, I could not find any link between them. How can they link Keeladi when the report itself has not been released?”
He also highlighted, “I welcome criticism, but I cannot accept the researcher who sought to rewrite my report, and he is a person who did not carry out any studies on this subject. How can a person make such a report without even visiting the site? More excavations need to be done.” Former IAS Officer R Balakrishnan, office bearers of the TN Progressive Writers and Artists Association were present.