ARIKAMEDU CIVILIZATION

  INDIAN EXPRESS Week End: Pondicherry : 4 th Article t by N. Nandhivarman 16.08.2004

THE CRADLE OF CRAFTS AND ITS EXPORTS N.Nandhivarman

The international attention may have dawned upon Arikamedu after its archaeological excavations. The trade between Arikamedu and Red Sea Ports is an established fact. . But scholars of the Euro-centric view who hold any significant innovation to have a European or at least Mediterranean origin nowadays find their fantasies shattered. The role of South India in world commerce is now slowly but grudgingly being acknowledged. “Arikamedu was occupied far longer than had been thought and must be considered a South Indian city rather than principally Roman. The lowest levels we could reach go back to the Second century B.C, long before the Romans came. My historical investigations indicate that Arikamedu was occupied down to the seventeenth century, and a date nearly as recent is confirmed archaeologically, at least tentatively.” says Peter Francis Junior who passed away in December 2001.

The French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil on the basis of some visible evidences recorded the importance of Arikamedu in his travelogue written in French titled as:“Voyage dans les mers de l’Inde”(Paris1779-81).

G.Jouveau Dubreuil described Arikamedu as a Port city called Puduke. L.Faucheux and R.Sarleau published the findings of their excavations in “Les Recherches Archeologiques” in 1942. Apart from these initial studies the first by scientific methods of excavation in 1945 by Mortimer Wheeler is widely known. The book Rome Beyond the Imperial Frontiers (1954) by Wheeler left an impression that “ a sleepy fishing village suddenly awakened by enterprising Romans who built stone buildings and a port, then fell back to sleep when the Romans left” feels Francis Peter Junior. From the arretine pottery, table wares used by Romans found there h Wheeler came to the conclusion that Roman trade flourished between 14 to 25 B.C. Jean Mari Casal conducted his excavations between 1947 and 1950 and opined much before Romans advent, Arikamedu was a prosperous port dating back to 250 B.C. People of that place were civilized even during Iron Age claims J.M.Casal who found gold jewels in burial sites of Suthukeny and was stunned by the prosperity of the people. Vimala Begley in a collaborative project of University of Pennsylvania Museum and University of Madras excavated the site between 1989 and 1992. The first volume of her monumental work The Ancient Port of Arikamedu: New Excavations and Researches Volume I, a publication by L’Ecole Francaise D’Extreme-Orient in 1996 threw more light, and though she passed away on 21 st March 2000, lovers of archaeology are eagerly awaiting the release of her second volume. Also there is a demand to bring out books in Tamil on these researches. These subsequent researches have found that the glory of the site is due to local initiative.

“The place was important and the bead making industries well established before the Romans came. The Romans went there precisely because it was an important port. After whatever constituted the Roman "emporium" was gone, Arikamedu was still very much in touch with the West, sending its gems that direction and receiving wine and other amphorae-packed Mediterranean products for centuries.” Says Francis Peter Junior. “ Arikamedu traders imported copper, gold, silver, olive oil and wine from west and spices from East. In return their small scale industries were engaged in manufacturing shell bangles, stone bead making by polishing and cutting of semi precious stones like banded agate, cornelian, onyx, jasper, crystalline beryl, aquamarine quartz, amethyst etc, and terracotta for export purposes. Large scale industries were engaged in textiles, dyeing, glass bead making and metal works “ says P.Ravichandiran, Lecturer in History at Ayvvaiyar College for Women at Karaikal, who assisted Vimala Begley in the excavations and a scholar with number of research papers to his credit.

 

Francis Peter Junior states, “The chief product of Arikamedu must have been beads. It is the first place known to have made small, drawn (cut from a tube) glass beads, the types found almost universally for two millennia. Its stone bead industry was also impressive, and its lapidaries made several important innovations in the field. Workers in the glass bead (Indo-Pacific bead) industry migrated to other places: Mantai, Sri Lanka; Khlong Thom, Thailand; Oc-eo, Vietnam; Srivijaya/Palembang, Sumatra; Sungai Mas, Malaysia; Kuala Selinsing, Malaysia; and Takua Pa, Thailand have now been identified as housing such work. This constituted the largest and longest-lived glass bead industry ever. Stone bead making survived down through the end of the last century, but no trace is now left.” Arikamedu much before the word outsourcing was coined imported raw materials and used its craftsmen to finish products for export purposes. This historical fact about the Pondicherry must be borne in mind to set up 100% Export oriented industries and a Special Economic Zone for that purposes to commemorate the memory and legacy of Arikamedu. The revival of Pondicherry Port to once again attract world’s attention is to regain the heritage that is lost in the onslaughts of time.

 

Arikamedu’s impact on world trade was impressive. Arikamedu products like glass beads, stone beads, ceramics were in Indonesia by the first century B.C. “The West demanded the garnets, prase, citrine and other stone beads and agate cameo blanks produced in Arikamedu between 1st Century and 1200 A.D. Indo-Pacific beads, though not all of which were made at Arikamedu proper, account for 62.2% of all beads of all materials excavated at all archaeological sites as far away as the Philippines. The Arabs took Indo-Pacific beads to East Africa and across North Africa, through the Sahara to the Forest Zone of West Africa. The Portuguese procured from Arikamedu because they were in demand in Mozambique.”

 

There are striking parallels between Indo-Pacific bead making and later techniques and technologies in Europe and America. The Indian prototypes are a millennium or more older. The Archeological Survey of India had declared the site as a protected monument and plans are afoot for setting up a site museum. It will also be appropriate to create a Center for Gemology and a Crafts village to settle artisans for reviving these industries that brought Pondicherry into world map by its exports, much before any foreigner set his foot to rule here

N; B; Photographs of Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Gabriel Jouveau Dubreuil (1885-1945), The Book: The Ancient Port of Arikamedu by Vimala Begley 

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