V. Selvakumar :The Tamil region in Ancient Indian Ocean Trade
In the early historic Indian Ocean trade, Tamil country played an important role due to its strategic location in the southern tip of India, adjacent to the international maritime corridor. Several ports emerged in the Early Historic period along the coasts of Ancient Tamil country. Some of these ports such as Arikamedu, Algankulam and Korkai have been excavated. Outside, Tamil region, material evidence for the trade comes from Egypt to as far as OcEo in Vietnam. Materials were circulating across the region, and it is well known that pepper produced from the west coast was in great demand in the West and frequent references are found for the Indo-Roman trade in the Tamil as well as Greco Roman Literature. In the early historic period, it appears that earning material wealth was an important concern for a section of the people, as we do often find references to the hero staying away from the heroine in search of wealth, in Tamil literature. Perhaps the trade induced an ideology which forced people to search for wealth even at the cost of separation from their kin. These circuits of communication not only took the goods and peoples, but also ideas and religion. Perhaps the movement of populations to Sri Lanka in the early historic period could be because of its strategic location in the Indian Ocean and the benefits of trade. The enterprise of trade was not really work of the forces of “the core”, but collaboration of local population and their expertise contributed to the easy circulation of goods.
The paper focuses on nature of goods traded, the trade routes, and the precise role of Tamil country in the trade, the dynamics of the trade, and the impact of the trade in the early historic social formations of the Tamil country.
Biographical Statement:
V. Selvakumar is currently Asst. Professor at Department of Epigraphy and Archaeology, Tamil University. He has completed postdoctoral research at Deccan College Pune and has taught at centre for heritage studies, Kerala. His research interest is archaeological theory, archaeology and history of south India and Indian Ocean Trade and heritage Management. He has published several research papers and his book Prehistoric and Early historic cultures of the Upper Gundar basin, South India is forthcoming British Archaeology reports series.
