Ancient river bank civilization – that existed before mankind invented written script, was found near Pudukkottai

Villunny river which is near Keremangalam of Pudukkottai District has hidden treasures of ancient civilization.  There is a vast area called Ambaalathaan Medu in the banks of the river. A press reporter named Bagadsing had found some pottery remains and informed Pudukkottai Archeological Research Foundation. The foundation had a site visit and  discovered key evidences of a river bank civilization which existed even before mankind invented writing script.

The team led by the founder Manganoor Manikandan, and Melappanaiyur Rajendren and they members Kasthuri Rengan, Head master Veera Chandrasekaran, Ilayaraja, Siddha Physician___ surveyed the vast area for evidences.   

Founder Manganur Manikandan expressed that

Ramasamypuram, Mangalanadu- Ambalathidal

The site is spread across 173 acres and located in the banks of Villuni River, in the boundaries of Ramasamypuram and Mangalanadu.  Trees which  belong to desert area are grown here. Asparagus, Vanni Tree, Cactus,  Aloe Vera are  dense in this area.  Dunes which have  Calcium particles can be located here. Some of the Dunes have evidences for buried thazlis.  The land is filled with black and red pottery pieces , along with burnt out metal, mud casting for metal shapes, crystal stones. 

Vilvanni River

This river originates at Maramadakki River, and merges  with Ambuli River, at Ruthrachinthamani. It reaches Bay of Bengal at its 37th km.

The village near the  estuary  is called Villunivayal, the name suggests a clue that in the ancient past the river might have been called as Villuni River.

Tamil Sanga Literature mentions this river as Vilvanni, and we can assume that this name has been eroded into to Villuni. To prove this theory the river bank is dense with Vanni Trees.  Pathittruppathu and Natrinai Clearly states the relationship between Vanni Tree and Thazhi.  These  literature shows that it was common practice to bury thazhis under  the Vanni Tree.

Vanni Tree and matriarchal society

The Vanni tree is mentioned in the Rig Veda, the Ramayana and the Mahabharath.

Even today Vijayadasami Special pooja is conducted to Vanni Tree in Calcutta and in some other parts of North India.

On the same day most of the temples of Tamil Nadu have “Parivettai” fest.

In this fest the priest stand under the Vanni Tree and shoot an arrow from his bow. This practices has ancient roots for it has been mentioned in Sanga Literature. These evidences proves that our ancient Indian societies has   matriarchal roots. 

Origin of Written Script

The Divagara Nigandu states the evolutionary development of written language. It developed in various stages as pictograph, logo graph, syllabary and finaly phonetic.

What do the graffiti at the pottery denote.

Ancient people communicated through graffiti, they used the symbols used at their time. 

These graffiti uniformly denotes a thing, they describe the three worlds, and these worlds merges at a point. This merger symbolizes that their soul travels towards universal power source.  The ladder like marking is wide at the base and grow narrow and merges at the top. This shows that these people believed that their soul travels to higher worlds.

The graffiti found here on pots are of two types, one is phonetic and the other is a pictograph.

The pictograph looks like a upside down trident. The Greek archaeological experts opine that these symbols depicts the burial site of a warrior.

But Indian Archeological experts say that this is a simple mark of pot makers. These kind of marks are found in Sri Lanka, Greece, and other ancient archeological sites of India. In this light the symbols and pictograph must be the universal language of the ancient times.  

These markings are not an expression of pot makers. We need the approach them from the origin of written script and scientific research.  The marks may also depict the five basic elements of life.

Time of the graffiti marks

Undoubtedly these graffiti must be used in those times when markings were only used for communication, i.e., before the times of the written script.

The bones found at the site can be used for dating test., and the foundation is taking proper steps to find the actual time of the civilization.

 (Thermo luminescence dating)

The site is covered with ancient pottery with graffiti marks. These ancient graffiti was initially mentioned by A. Sundara in the year 1881. He stated that these markings may be 3000-4000 years old. He also expressed that these markings might have been developed in to a written script which latter developed as Thamizi.

The archaeological sites of Tamil Nadu, Karur, Uraiyur, Alagankulam, Vallam, Kodumanal, has pots with graffiti markings. The lower pot has Tamizhi Writing and the upper part has Graffiti marking. 

This is also an evidence that these markings are primitive forms of written script.

Similar graffiti is found in Sembian Kandiyur, Tanjore Dt. This clearly shows that  these symbols are not just a mark of a pot maker, but they are actually communication symbol used in the ancient past . 

Other archeological finds at the Ambalath Thidal

The team has found several other archeological artifacts. A calcium and mortar flooring, mud rolls, ruined circular base  for kilns or some other structure are found at the site.