The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : 2000-year-old site in decay

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

2000-year-old site in decay

K. Manikandan

The dead were buried in huge earthen pots at `mudumakkal thaazhi'

HISTORIC SITE: The remains at the `Mudhumakkal thaazhi' at Guduvanchery, a megalithic site. A portion of a burial pot can be seen. — Photo: A. Muralitharan

TAMBARAM: A historic site in Guduvanchery near Tambaram, dating back to the megalithic period and from where evidences of attempts to make iron from ore have been found, is now in decay.

Just 100 metres off the National Highway 45, on the eastern side of the Grand Southern Trunk Road are remnants of what is called `mudhumakkal thaazhi'. It was where the dead were buried in huge earthen pots.

Even today, the last few remaining pieces of this facet of ancient history can be seen. But most of it has been completely damaged due to ravages of time and more importantly, manmade problems. According to D. Johnson Wesley, who has done his Ph.D. on `Mamallapuram inscriptions,' the site is 2,000 years old.

According to him, the site was named so as old people (mudhumakkal) were buried in earthen pots (thaazhi). Around that time, Tamilians were involved in hunting and fishing and there is clear evidence of attempts to make iron. The dead were interred inside a huge mud pot. Stone ornaments and other implements and artefacts used by them were also put in the pot.

The site is marked by huge stones on three sides. Today, there is just one site where three huge stones are visible. And, a portion of a giant mud pot can be seen beside a water channel draining water from the hills nearby to a lake on the Western side of the GST Road, said Dr. Wesley.

The thickness of the pot is about an inch, and at the mouth, it is almost twice that size. Dr. Wesley, a Tamil teacher at the Corley Higher Secondary School in East Tambaram, said that the site was declared a `protected monument' by the Archaeological Survey of India. But there appears to have been no further attempts to preserve the rare archaeological site.

However, senior officials of the ASI said a similar site about 20 kilometres km away from Guduvanchery was declared as protected, and not the this one which is closer to the GST Road.

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