Legend and mystery of Mahabali: My historical musing

 

Onam festival is around the corner. People from Kerala around the globe await the arrival of their mythical king Mahabali, to his erstwhile kingdom of prosperity and equality. Similarly during Diwali times, on the fourth day, in parts of Maharashtra, South Gujarat, and Goa, people celebrate the Bali Padiyami or Bali pradipada meaning the coming of Mahabali. These are the two known festivals celebrating the coming of a lost King. Both these festivals have the common factors of flowering one’s houses, making special foods and dances, signifying welcoming of a guest. On a rational mindset, we can say that the guest here is, the coming of the spring season, the time to sow the seed to bring in wealth and prosperity. However, how do these two festivals echo the same spirit?

The legend of Mahabali which is common in both festivals comes from the same puranic story of The king of the asuras, grandson of King Prahlad, and son of King Virochana, who defeated Lord Indra. This righteous king was pushed to a lower world called pataal none other than Lord Vishnu during his Vamana avata. However, the King was permitted to visit his kingdom once a year marking the start of the above festivities both Bali pradipada and Onam

Setting aside the myth associated with the legend, a rational mind will try to unearth the historical significance of Mahabali which this article strives to do. Any historical deductions have to be based on, archaeological, numismatic, epigraphic, and literary sources and pieces of evidence.  Unfortunately, a major part of our ancient history is shrouded in myth and mystery, and modern historians due to lack of evidence have not unearthed the stories of many such historical characters and not much scholarship has gone into that area. In such a scenario what is only possible is a historical deduction from a set of references.

Looking into the geography of the Mahabali legend, there are few places where names associated with the king are still prevalent. Mahabalipuram in Chennai and Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra are examples signifying at least the commonality of this name. In a book named ‘’Mamalapuram’’, its author S Swaminathan discounts the claim that the city derives the name from Mahabali but from the word Mamallan which means wrestler. It is also to be noted that King Narasimhavarnam-1 who founded Mamalapuram alias Mahabalipuram was a wrestler. On the other hand, Mahabaleshwar is a hill station in Pune, and the name Mahabali, according to locals is the name of Shiva and is the deity of the Mahabaliswar temple there. However, the available records in the local gazetteers do not mention that the name has any historical link with Mahabali the king.

Epigraphically there is mention of ‘Mahavali’and bana kings in a few inscriptions from the Kolar region deciphered by Benjamin Lewis, the British historian in the 19th century. Banas claimed they are descendants of Mahabali and his son Banasura and later banas were vassals of the Chollas and the Pandhyas ruling the present north Karnataka. In the Girnar Jain inscriptions in the Junagadh district of Gujarat, the Chalukyan minister Vastupal is compared to ‘’Bali’’ because of his benevolence in making temples in the region, which means that the legend of a benevolent king called Bali existed in those times.

The only direct mention of Mahabali the king is in the Bhagavat, Vishnu, and Matsya Purana. Ironically in Bhagavatpurana Mahabali ruled near the Narmada River and his son Banasura ruled Shonitpuram which is present Tezpur in Assam while the place associated with Mahabali’s father Prahlad and grandfather Hiranyakashapu is in Prahladpuri near Multan which is in present Pakistan leaving a large geography to trace the lineage of Mahabali.

According to NV Krishnawarrior the Malayalam polyglot in an essay written in 1960 called Kalotsawam compares Onam to an ancient Sumerian New Year festival and the lineage of Hiranyakaspu, Prahlad, and Mahabali to that of Sumerian immigration to Southern India. Assyria was a Sumerian kingdom ruled by the Asurs deviated as asuras in the Purana. In an article published by the Indian archaeologist AM Kurup in 1966 titled Sociology of Onam, he opines that Mahabali may be a pseudonym of an early Chera king who was a Shiavaite and defeated by the immigrating Vaishnavite Brahmins.

Besides these anecdotic references, king Mahabali is shrouded in mystery but few historical deductions can be made

·        Based on the Puranas and legends King Mahabali was the powerful and benevolent ruler of the Dakshina pada the region south of the river Narmada comprising regions of Gujarat, parts of Madhyapradesh, Maharashtra, Konkan region, and habited regions of southern India. His benevolence was so intense that his glory of governance was passed over to generations resulting in folklore and festivals which included Onam and Balipradipada which were intermingled with local agrarian traditions.

·        The myth of his association with the devas and Indra becoming jealous of him and in the ensured war with India where he defeated Indra can be construed as expansionism of Mahabali to regions beyond the Narmada and the resistance from early Janapada rulers of the Indo-Gangetic plains.

·        The myth of the Vamana avatar and the engagement with Mahabali signifies the Vaishnavite religious expansion to the south of Narmada reaching up to Kerala.

·        The territorial expansion of Mahabali was carried forward by his son Banasura, but on his defeat by Krishna ( Yadav King of Dwaraka) the kingdom declined to certain peripheries in southern India and their decedents re-emerged as the Bana kings of Karnataka

How is then the Mahabali in the Onam tradition so intense in Kerala? According to Keralolpathi ( A book written by ancient Kerala brahmins on the origin of Kerala) brahmins and their dependent castes immigrated to present Kerala, under the leadership of sage Parasurama who is said to have carved out a landscape for his tribe settlement. Parasurama is considered a Vishnu avatar and manifested after the Vamana avatar, which is a contradiction but traditional hearsay goes that Onam was started as a festival by Brahmins in the early Christian era upon their settlement glorifying the Brahmanic boy avatar Vamana portraying Vishnu’s dominance over the non brahmanic asura king Mahabali.

Literary reference to Onam is there in Madurai Kanji one of the poems of the Pattupattu a Tamil Sangam era literary source ascribed by historians to the 2nd century AD. The next source is the 3rd Century Malayalam era inscriptions discovered from the Trikkakara temple (9th/10th Century AD) about the details of the festivities called Onam in the chingam month in the temple attended by the local chieftains.

The Malayalam era started in 825 AD which was the period from which the distinctiveness of the Malayalam language and culture started deviating from its parent Tamil culture and language mainly ascribed to Brahmanic sanskritisation. Onam and Mahabali evolved as a significant social festival after this period only but the central question of who Mahabali was still remains in mystery.

In our culture where myth and reality are not distinguishable, beyond the image of a mustached potbellied king there lived a glorious and benevolent king somewhere in peninsular India.

Happy Onam to all my readers:

Book Review: The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas:

It was a  time when I was pondering on to find a book on India-China relationship that I came across ‘’ The Great game in The Buddhist Himalayas” by Phunchok Stobdan, former ambassador and former senior fellow at the Institute of Defense studies and analysis. Ever since the recent Indo-China conflict erupted in Ladakh, finding a reference book from the voluminous literature available on the subject, was a difficult task. All books on the Sino-Indian relationship looks through the point of view of either India or US and through  the prism of Tibet and the Dalai Lama. However what I found unique in this book is that it is dispassionate to any existing form of strategic thinking and develops an Indian strategic response considering the Chinese mind. While I will come across this part in the later sections, let us look at the book in an overall perspective.

The sixteen chapters in the book sails us through the growth of Buddhism in the Himalayan borders of India consisting of practices in Tibet, Nepal, Tawang, Sikkim and Bhutan. Starting from the journey of guru padmasambhava to Tibet in the 8^th century and setting up a cult of ‘’ Nyingmapa’ which later developed into lineages of Kagyu, Galupa and Drukpa under the patronage of the Mongal and Chinese kings and how these lineages further developed and split into multiple practises spread over the Himalayas and beyond are covered in the initial chapters.  Padmasambhava known in Tibet as Rinpoche spread the vajrayana version of the buddhist practices and was later augmented by other Indian gurus like Marpa and Milarepa from the Bengal plains besides others. However quoting from the book ‘’ padmasambhava’s legacy remains the religious foundation of the people of the entire Himalayan range”.

Out of the various sects and practises which evolved from padmasambhava’s teaching,  the Gelugpa school in Tibet was encourage by Gushi Khan the mongol ruler. It is from here the tradition of Dalai Lama as an incarnate developed with political manifestation in the 17^th century starting from the fifth Dalai lama Lobong Gyatso. In Sikkim the local community called lepchas and others adopted Buddhism and by the middle centuries rumyek  and namchi monasteries were set up among others and mostly they followed the Karma Kagyu lineage.  In Bhutan the Drukpa lineage was consolidated by Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in the 16^th century and he is regarded as the founder of Bhutan. In Nepal too nyingmapa monasteries flourished and in Tawang which the Chinese call as South Tibet the Kagyu traditions were in majority. However in Ladakh Buddhism arrived directly from Indo Pak region in the north and had influence from the Tibetan Buddhism but Sikkim politically developed into a major Buddhist kingdom under Gyalpo Singge Namgyal in the late 15^th and early 16^th century with the Drukpa Kagyu tradition:

All these traditions in the Himalayan region developed monasteries with taxing rights and developed their own administrative mechanism with patronage of the respective kings. However most of the lineages and traditions were in mutual conflict with fratricidal wars with boundaries and areas of control being consistently redefined. It is into this stage of geographical flux in the late 19^th century and early 20^th century that British India emerged on one side of the Himalayas.  On the other side the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911 with Mongolia, China and Tibet becoming three centers of powers with the Czars of Russia now exerting influence in the region. In a chapter named ‘’British Game in the Himalayas’’, the author take us through the general British apathy to the Himalayan region. During the time of Lord Curzon, worried about the Tsarist Russians making inroads to Tibet, an expeditionary force was sent to Lhasa under Colonel Francis Younghusband which resulted in bloodshed. Tibetans considered it as British invasion of Tibet and they always looked at the British with disenchantment and for the British, Himalayan region was always a ‘’ worthless peace of territory’’. This was followed by the expedition of the Chinese General Zhao to Tibet to crush the Tibetan rebellion against the Chinese and the escape of the 13^th Dalai Lama into British India. The unrest later created the tripartite discussion between British India, China and Tibet in Shimla in 1906 by which Tibet was considered as the buffer state between India and China and in order to protect British India’s commercial interest in Tibet, a suzerainty status of China over Tibet was accepted.

In Sikkim by the British creating a political agency in Gangtok the Tibetan influence there, was minimised and Sikkim was indirectly under the control of British India. Ladakh was already under British control after a treaty with Tibet in 1842. The Shimla discussion accepted the 800 km line proposed by Henry McMahon , the foreign secretary of British India by which Tawang the part of Tibet  being south of the line came under British control. It is this territory defined by the McMahon line that independent India inherited. However the People Republic of China later claimed that this boundary have  been made under duress with weak Tibetans and made their claim of Tawang , later  paving way for the war with India in 1962. This dispute runs to date and which has resulted in multiple skirmishes the latest being now in the Galwan valley. 

Another significant matter which the author explains in the later chapters are about Pt Nehru’s  thinking on China leading to the ‘Panchsheel’ principle and Nehru strongly advocating that Tibet is indeed a Chinese territory and about his support for permanent membership of Chinese into the UN. The author makes a critical balancing act in analysing the actions of Prime Minister Nehru .This need to be understood on the background  that the popular new generation opinion in India, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party which is in power,  is  that it was Nehru who indeed  goofed up the China issue. However according to the author there were significant benefits in Nehru’s mind especially on trade and religious interest of India in accepting the Chinese position on Tibet. Quoting letters that were exchanged between Nehru and Zhou-Enlai, the author points out that the then Prime Minister was very clear on his stand on the McMahon line and while accepting the Chinese position on Tibet , Nehru allowed Dalai Lama to be given asylum and set up his government in exile in India. He also had to tactfully handle the CIA which orchestrated the Dalai Lama’s exit to India, uphold his position as a leader of the nonaligned movement and at the same time balance himself from  his critics from the opposition and face a rising sense of anti-china nationalism. Quoting from the book, ‘’ Nehru had turned seventy by 1959 and his declining physical and mental health meant people with lesser integrity began to dominate the government”, and thus shifts the point of doubt on the then Prime minister to his officialdom which may not be agreeable to the readers.

It is beginning from chapter 9, the process of deriving the need of a strategic shift in India’s China policy is discussed. According to the author, the institution of Lamaism predominantly represented by the Dalai Lama was started by the Mongols and the Chinese Qing dynasty. Similarly the concept of an incarnation based administrative and spiritual lineage is also part of the Himalayan Buddhist legacy. Hence the Dalai Lama and Tibet falls under the grand Chinese ambit. We have accepted this position and reiterated by successive prime ministerial visits to Beijing. Under such circumstance there is a question on the status of Arunachal Pradesh which China claims as South Tibet and India refutes the claim. India faces this dichotomy and until very recently, the Dalai Lama itself did not accept it as part of India. At the same time we were encouraging the Dalai Lama visit Arunachal Pradesh as a strategic muscle flexing. The author is critical of this view and he believes that the Dalai Lama card in India is not a sustainable card to play with as the Chinese is waiting for his reincarnation to be claimed from China. Hence making Dalai Lama as the centre of our political negotiation and intimidation is not the right strategy as per this book.

Secondly the book points out that the actions of the current government have given an impression of a strategic shift of India towards its Tibet narrative. The Modi government started reaching out to other Buddhist nations in South Asia while  accepting the fact that China is in fact a part of the Asian growth story. According to the author a major shift to the US will create an unbalance in our China-Russia axis. The other Himalayan nations like Bhutan and Sikkim is controlled by sects opposed to the Dalai Lama  Moreover the Central Tibetan administration even though administered from India is virtually funded by the US (Incidentally it was in this month in July that the US senate sanctioned 1 million US dollars on direct funding to CTA) . Hence a unitary Himalayan boundary policy cannot be Dalai Lama centric and brings in the criticism that Government of India is acting without a ‘’ telescopic big picture thinking”. Finally the book gives a call to have a credible institution which will emphasize India’s rich tradition of Buddhism be used as a soft power in the Asian geopolitics  and counter balance the Buddhist narrative being build up by China in its favor.

Well, ambassador Stobdan has done a fantastic work in collating significant references which gives the readers a holistic picture for analysis and will help students of international relations a wider perspective . As stated above the most important aspect of the book is on thinking beyond the Dalai Lama which is a point to be noted by the Indian think tank. On a critical side the book does give an impression that the Chinese have handled the conflict in a better way and Indian strategic responses were not equally worthy. There is no mention of the missing Karmappa who was allegedly taken on custody when he was a child and on the Chinese human right abuses on the Tibetans and how India can create a narrative there. May be giving a view considering the Chinese perspective will help the Indian policy makers. Both ways a good read at a time when both nations are seeing eye balls to eye balls.

Atmonirbhar or Re localisation ?

This article was prompted by the honorable prime ministers letter to its citizens today about our resolve to fight COVID-19 and our determination to be ham khamyab hoga. As a leader his leadership has been a guiding light and his thoughts on self-reliance is most welcome, but as skeptics will always say what is vision of telling being ATMANIRBHAR. A decade later how do the Indian population in particularly the middle classes, poor and migrant laborers see themselves in an ATMANIRBHAR world. This article is hence a skeptical view which will help our policy makers and economist look at Bharat and re define the vision but not repeating the selectively shining INDIA which we have seen till date.

Terry Eagleton is a British academician of repute with a leftist orientation in his economic thinking. His book on '' Why Marx was right" is thought provoking in the context of the current economic turmoil. The neo-liberal principles of de-regulation, free market and capital de-control were the fundamentals of the new economic order being practiced in many nations. This economic order along with the impact of modern information technology created globalization, and was breaking down barriers between geographically dispersed markets. Globalization resulted in internationalization of trade, production, investment and capital movements. The purpose of this article is not to have a discourse on globalization (as I am neither a critic nor a votary of it) but to focus on the Post COVID-19 turbulence that we are experiencing from the world markets and their consequent impact on the Indian economy.


In the twentieth century we saw the great divide between the Socialists who believed that through the dictatorship of the Proletariat, wealth can be redistributed, while the Capitalists believed the same can be achieved through free markets and enterprise. Social and Political developments in the later part of the twentieth century resulted in the triumph of the capitalist leading to the establishment of the so called new economic world order. Markets, production, demand and consumption shifted to Asia resulting in the emergence of India and China as consumption and production centers respectively. By the twenty first century, technology started transforming economic life and ensured free flow of capital across markets breaking geographical time lags. India became the service corridor of the world market especially in the area of IT enabled services and China, a manufacturing backyard and both economies started growing significantly. Buoyant by their huge foreign exchange surpluses, government stimulus and domestic demand, India and China were able to keep up its growth momentum and survive the financial meltdown which had engulfed world economies in 2009.

The conventional economic model of the free capital had its own irrationality was seen during the  Asian Crisis of 1998, the Mexican Pizza crisis called Tequila crisis in 1994 which were all the consequences arising from flight of capital. The recession of 2009 had its origin in the subprime crisis in the US when the capitalist financiers used debts and mortgage tools to invest their capital and failed attempts for refinancing the debts are other examples. In all these cases, the respective governments had to pump in tax payers' money to re-establish the economic order.
You may ask what all of this has to do with India. Though still an import driven economy with a minuscule share in the world mercantile trade, foreign Institutional investors hold above 30 % of our Stock market which resulted in wealth creation for large stock holders albeit at the risk of wealth erosion. The recent COVID related stock tumbling and the short closure of debt schemes by Franklin Templeton are few of the examples that stock related shocks faced by stock investors.

How many of the 125 crore people in this country hold stocks and trade in them and make money? Only a few, and our country's population depends on Jobs and social security. The economic scenario today have already resulted in  flight of capital affecting  the Indian Industries' capability for capital investment and creation of jobs, in addition to the COVID related lockdown woos. Unemployment as per CMIE is above 27 % and there is hundreds of jobs gone daily due to layoffs. We did see this trend last year but COVID -19 has made it more cruelly conspicuous. We also came to know about the role the migrant workers play in our economy, their sheer numbers and their vulnerability to a capitalist oriented Central and State governments  with sheer disregard for their social security. 

In this regard our response of Atmanirbhar scheme should not be a glorious version of the swadeshi scheme propounded by the right wing long time before which does not address the issue of competition, cost effectiveness, technology development and egalitarianism. How the Atmanirbhar scheme will take off is not clear due to a lack of structured road map. This poses many questions.  Is this going to create some form of crony capitalism with few Indian industries benefiting? How is a level playing field made . What will be the enhanced role of MSME/SMEs in this? How far quality, technology and cost, integrated to the business models for us to be globally competitive.    How will a stimulus of 20 Lakh crore provided mainly through the banking system percolate down to demand and when will it happen? How are issues related to states, centre and banking system be regulated and coordinated in ensuring the needy gets the benefits.

The point made here is that the global capitalist order nicely christened as the new world order  has crumbled but in the Post Covid period  in a country like India, the million dollar question is , whether the growth is going to be  egalitarian in nature. To quote Eagleton "It is a crazed notion that a single global system known as the free market can impose itself on the most diverse cultures and economies and cure all their ills". The great economist of the twentieth century John Maynard Keynes in the aftermath of the great depression of the 1930 had also warned that global capitalism can result in a spurt of unemployment, affecting demand in the economic system creating a recessionary trend. We should study these pitfalls and incorporate systems into the atmanirbhar scheme that it does not result in a desi form of capitalism.

The larger objective of this essay is not for a doomsday prediction but to understand India and its need for an egalitarian growth model, and ensure that Atmanirbhar scheme shall ensure equitable participation of all stake holders in the economy. The India's renewed growth story as desired by the honorable prime minister, should not create  disparity and gap between the rich and the poor . The migrant story have taught us a lot of lessons. Globalization made India the 11th largest in terms of number of millionaires.  In contract to this picture, what is the percentage of reduction in poverty in the same period? It is your guess because today we have reached a mind-set that we can't trust the government numbers if at all it is made visible...
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In a paper abstract named  Converging Crises: Reality, Fear and Hope by Prof Susan George of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, the concept of re-localization or de- globalization is discussed where she talks about regulation and re distribution of wealth by a welfare state. The terminology of re localization echoes the Atmanirbhar scheme

Do we need more millionaires at the cost of the starving lot, what is the mechanism which will ensure that the wealth created percolates down? Eventually how do we address the issues of collective and egalitarian growth rather than being proud of our burgeoning millionaires and middle classes? Will we be able to make the MARKET the MAKER of our Destiny or the MASTER of our destiny?


Addressing these issues is more important and being detailed in policy making and implementation is what we require. Hope the vision of the honourable prime minister to the citizens is translated by his mandarins into a time bound actionable document for public review.

Who needs Counseling ?? | Rajesh Menon - Counsellor

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Delhi 2020. BJP and AAP need to answer.

In a list of communal violence that have engulfed India, Delhi 1984, Gujarat 2002 and Delhi 2020 has something in common. Involvement of the local politicians, inability and partisan ship of the police, delayed central involvement leading to judicial intervention into executive space and lackluster response of senior leaders. The underbelly of our democracy have been clearly exposed.  The second significant element is that each such calamity is just a ‘’ political event’’ for politicians for a renewed rhetoric of mudslinging. Who loses ? Our people, their lives and our national pride. On one side we try to showcase a nation of modernity and democracy to a visiting dignitary and on the other side stink emanates from our rotten wraps.

The agitation against the CAA or its pro demonstrations flaring up into a communal cauldron is only symptomatic but what matters is our response system to lawlessness. It is beyond doubt that local politicians are the general culprits in instigating people but what worries is that of their  audacity to get into rampage. This either mean that they don’t fear of their leadership or they have the support of their leadership. Whatever is the diagnostic of the series of events whether it is this community or the other what matters is a nation state’s moral weakness. 

Coming to Delhi 2020 it is amply clear that the CAA divide is religious and it is bound to result in extremism. Why that was not contemplated earlier and in that context is there an intelligence failure. ?  Be it Kapil Misra tweet or Tahir Hussain’s deeds Why was their rhetoric and actions not responded strictly on time? Doesn't  Delhi police  have an effective leadership , necessitating a prime minister to send his National security adviser to take command? While such endless list of questions remains unanswered media across has only taken a stand of politics of partisan ship…

As usual the SIT will probe and we see delayed judicial processes going on while the instigators and tormentors run free as like we saw in 1984 and 2002 only to be arrested late in their life as like sajjan kumar’s arrest.

What is necessary for citizens is now to get the answers but not the buffoonery glee that we see from our politicians who hide behind the ‘’subjudice’’ excuse when confronted with questions.

This is not silly and heads should roll .....

Kemcho Trump. An introspection:

      When the President of the most powerful democracy visits the land of the largest democracy, it is a significant feat due to many factors. Firstly this is the first standalone India visit of a US president while all the other seven presidents visited earlier clubbed their itinerary either as part of a south Asian tour or showed a balancing diplomacy by visiting Pakistan. Secondly unlike the rare visits during the cold war, by President Eisenhower in 1959 and Richard Nixon in 1969 or Jimmy Carter in 1978, Trump’s visit is a sequel to the increased US presidential visits to India since the post-cold war period. Even though Bills Clinton’ visit in 2000 was not much of any diplomatic achievements, the subsequent visits by George Bush, and President Obama demonstrated the strategic shift in Indo-US relations much signified by the Indo US Nuclear deal. The third important factor of significance is that today India and the US stand in partnership of equality, demonstrated by India’s economic growth and burgeoning market demands, counterweight to Chinese influence both in Business and Defence fields in the US eyes and India’s revived diplomatic role in global high table as demonstrated by Prime Minister Modi’s global outreach.

It is also imperative to mention about the softer critical element of this visit. Prime ministers Modi’s outreach to the NRIs and Indian Origin Americans estimated to be around 4 million exemplified by the ‘’Welcome Modi’’ road shows in US culminating in the recent Howdy Modi show has indeed created a ‘’US NRI Vote Bank’’  which President Trump can capitalize for his upcoming re -election. Both the leaders represent a  new globalized world order of renewed nationalistic spirit and majoritarian thought patterns. President Trump’s anti-immigrant measures, strict laws on H1B visas, building walls over Mexico and withdrawal from treaties like Paris agreement, Iran Nuclear deal and North Atlantic treaty , echoes similar to Prime Minister Modi’s measures of Make in India, Trade protectionism, stricter implementation of Foreign Exchange Management act, withdrawal from Regional comprehensive economic partnership and the most recent NRC and CAA initiatives. Needless to say both the leaders enjoy bonding and camaraderie to quote PM Modi ’’ Mai Usshe bahut seekta hu ( Iam learning a lot from him). It is also relevant to mention that Trumps visit to Ahmedabad, which is PM modi’s home turf will help President Trump to woo the influential Gujarati community which is estimated to be around 20 % of the Indo-American citizens .

While there are interest on both sides on the significance of this visit on a geo political angle,  as mentioned earlier this visit is a sequel to the engagement started by President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006. It started with the Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal which was called as 123 Agreement (Section 123 of the United States Atomic Energy Act 1954, establishes an agreement for cooperation as a prerequisite for nuclear deals between the US and any other nation). This was followed by a series of Indo –US military exercise on the background of the South China Sea dominance of China signifying a strategic shift. President Obama came as a Chief Guest for the republic day parades and supported India's aspiration for a permanent membership into the United National Security Council, India’s  temporary exception from importing oil from Iran, and India’s increased sourcing of Energy (LNG and Crude) from US after signing the strategic energy partnership bilateral treaty  are all examples of this bonhomie. It is also expected that the visit of President Trump will result in signing of a major defense deal of procurement of helicopters for the Navy. India’s defense cooperation with US has resulted in in India being elevated to Tier 1 of the strategic Trade authorization licence exception which will help India access advanced US technology.

While the strategic shift has yielded benefits to India, it also need to be evaluated on what should be India’s long term policy of engagement of US looking into India’s long standing stand of neutrality in International affairs. Is it going to be beneficial or not or is the US bonhomie with India based on the principle of opportunism. These are the issues to be looked into in India US relationships post the visit of President Trump.  The critical views held by the US senate on India’s recent actions in Kashmir and on the CAA, the US deal with the Taliban for its withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the  US relationship with Pakistan are all to be waived into our thinking before we finally conclude Kemcho Trump.

Keeladi the Indus valley of the south

In 1939,  K N Dixit who was the director general of the Archaeological survey of India (ASI) professed that, couch shells which were extensively used in the Indus valley was seen in the then Madras presidency and that a thorough investigation in the Tirunelveli district will one day result in the excavation of a contemporary site. Nearly 8 to 9 decades later, his prophesy was vindicated after the path breaking excavations at  keeladi, an urban settlement of the Sangam age

Why this discovery has much significance to the contemporary socio-political events in India? In order to answer this question and there by derive a conclusion that India’s dynamic and composite culture needs an acceptance of its unity in diversity we need to know about the excavations conducted by the Tamilnadu circle of the ASI and other academic institutions from both India and abroad.

In his much acclaimed book ‘’History of South India’ the late Sri KA Nilakanda Shastri writes that ever since the time of British Scholars, India’s cultural milieu was looked upon as a derivative of the cultures that sprang and spread from the Indo-Gangetic plains. Post independent scholars also looked upon the culture of India as a culture derived from the Sanskrit language. Nilkanda Shastri wrote his ‘’History of South India’’ in the middle decades of the 20^th century, when scholarly literature on the annuls of history beyond the vindyachal mountains were minimal. The importance of keeladi excavations attains importance in this context.

Keeladi is a village nearly 13 km from the historic city of Madurai and is over a mound adjoining the Vaigai River. This river is mentioned in the poetic work paripatal, which is part of the eight anthologies (etu tugai), and one among the various literary sources of the Sangam period. Vaigai river originates in the suruli mountains and flows eastwards before joining the bay of Bengal near alangankulam. Showered by the advancing and retreating monsoons the river formed the basis for the development of Madurai City, where products from its fertile plains not only served its own inhabitants but were also exported  to the roman kingdoms through the port of musiris (present day kodungalore in Kerala) 300 km away.

Earlier excavations near Chennai near adirapakkaum village by Robert Bruce Foote has found the remains of a prehistoric site popularly called as the madarasian industry which was more than a million years old and represented the palaeolithic-old stone age which proved that human settlements existed that time  in southern India. This was followed by excavations of microliths in Madurai which indicated that the crude stone tools have got advanced and the region  had a transition to the Mesolithic period. Later excavations at multiple places near Madras and North Arcot  resulted in the discovery of coloured pottery indicating the mature transition of the culture to that of the new stone age or Neolithic. However it was after the adichenallur escavation  an iron age culture was established with black and red pottery dating to 1500 BC. It was from  here the mother goddess akin to the one from mohanjadaro-harapa civilisation was found and preserved today in government museum at Egmore. Chennai. Through these series of excavations spread over a century and along with the literary sources  of the sangam literature clubbed with other epigraphic references  scholars were able to come to a conclusion  that a mature  civilisation existed  in the south, However it was the excavations at Keeladi which has pointed to much more antiquity of the culture and its linkages with the Indus valley culture.

Keeladi excavations proves that there was an advanced agrarian society and they were industrious with bead, pot making and weaving. Discovery of spindle wheels made of stone showed that cloths were woven.  A lot of pottery engraved with names in tamil brahmi script were also discovered showing literary activity.  Beads and stones of agate indicated high level of commercial activity in the region because these stones were used as a barter for trade. The intrinsic brick making and town planning akin to the Indus civilisation were also seen. Besides this sharp iron items for domestic use and for war were seen at the site proving the iron smelting skills of the inhabitants of keeladi.

Much more is yet to be excavated from keeladi and looking into the unavailability of significant remains of human skeletons as like in adichanalur definitive conclusions on racial complexes can’t be made at this juncture. However adichenallur remains showed skulls of sea faring austroloids and mediterarians indicating movement of people into and from the ancient Tamil country.

Irrespective of the incompleteness of the excavations, keeladi has made us understand that the  sangam period started not in the 3^rd century BCE but in the 6^th century BCE. Further today we know that there was a continuity in the urbanization of North West India and southern India. The possibility of a connect with the Indus civilization is also evident from the similarity seen in the keeladi script and the Indus script. Prevalence of certain mercantile materials like agates at keeladi , a stone which are more often seen in the Indus region may be an indicator of trade linkages as well . Additionally there are a lot of parallels in urban planning techniques at keeladi and indus valley. Much research and excavations are further required to conclusively prove these assumptions.

As indicated earlier in this article, when we look into the contemporary socio- political events we can conclude that a simultaneous urbanisation process and contact existed between North western and southern India. The process of sanskritization which started with the spread of Vedic religions, Jainism and Buddhism   further augmented this process. This helps in coming up with a   composite nature of a primordial cultural identity in the Indian subcontinent which today creates the unity in India’s diversity. On the other hand  Tamil nationalists looks upon keeladi as a non sanskritised tamil identity site ( It may be recalled that fearing a renewed tamil nationalist movement  adichanallur excavation reports were not published by the ASI for 15 years and came to the public domain only after the interference of the Madras High court). Leaders from the Dravidian parties have started the keeladi rhetoric as part of their identity politics. Irrespective of these political undertones keeladi is a significant breakthrough of the ASI and as like the adichanallur museum proposed in the current budget a museum for keeladi should also be on the offing to showcase our cultural lineages.