After a quick lunch and rest at the resort, we were on the road again. First stop that afternoon was the Pallavaneswaram dig at Poompuhar, an ASI site, with an in-situ museum.
The museum has a variety of antiquities, from pot shards to Roman coins, to Buddhist relics, with Ashokan Brahmi on them that date to the early Pallava period(pre 5th century CE). Of course, this begs the question, why was there Ashokan Brahmi here in the Chola territory, where they should have been using Vatteluthu, or Southern Brahmi at least? Ashokan Brahmi was used predominantly in North India. This indicates that there was probably a lot of trade between the two, leading to an influx of Buddhists, here especially, between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE. But I would love to hear any alternate theories, or proof to this theory, if it has been debated.
The site just has the brick base of an ancient Buddhist stupa, with a model, in the museum, and on the ground, of how it may have been at one point.
From here we went down to the beach, where we were disgusted by the poor attempts made to call some garish structures 'heritage', and show them to unsuspecting tourists. Poompuhar was the ancient Chola port between the 2nd century BCE/BC and the 2nd century CE/AD, or what was known as the Sangam period. The port is most famous for the beginning of the Tamil Sangam age epic, Silappadigaram, about the power of a single woman, Kannagi, who has a most uncharacteristically benign statue here.
Kannagi and her husband move to the Pandya capital, Madurai, after Kovalan, the husband has an affair, which ruins them,
We then had a brief photoshoot at the mouth of the Kaveri river, close to the beach, which was still as polluted but less crowded. A fisherman was throwing his net in the mouth of the river, trying to catch some varieties of fish that inhabit the mouth of rivers, where sea and fresh water mix, and while we were there, he caught 2 medium sized fish, which he informed us was a week's income. He was a little happy about this, and continued to throw out his net even after we left, and the sun started sinking.
From here, our destination was Tranquebar.
The feet of the Buddha, with Ashokan brahmi on either side
The museum has a variety of antiquities, from pot shards to Roman coins, to Buddhist relics, with Ashokan Brahmi on them that date to the early Pallava period(pre 5th century CE). Of course, this begs the question, why was there Ashokan Brahmi here in the Chola territory, where they should have been using Vatteluthu, or Southern Brahmi at least? Ashokan Brahmi was used predominantly in North India. This indicates that there was probably a lot of trade between the two, leading to an influx of Buddhists, here especially, between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE. But I would love to hear any alternate theories, or proof to this theory, if it has been debated.
The site just has the brick base of an ancient Buddhist stupa, with a model, in the museum, and on the ground, of how it may have been at one point.
From here we went down to the beach, where we were disgusted by the poor attempts made to call some garish structures 'heritage', and show them to unsuspecting tourists. Poompuhar was the ancient Chola port between the 2nd century BCE/BC and the 2nd century CE/AD, or what was known as the Sangam period. The port is most famous for the beginning of the Tamil Sangam age epic, Silappadigaram, about the power of a single woman, Kannagi, who has a most uncharacteristically benign statue here.
Kannagi and her husband move to the Pandya capital, Madurai, after Kovalan, the husband has an affair, which ruins them,
We then had a brief photoshoot at the mouth of the Kaveri river, close to the beach, which was still as polluted but less crowded. A fisherman was throwing his net in the mouth of the river, trying to catch some varieties of fish that inhabit the mouth of rivers, where sea and fresh water mix, and while we were there, he caught 2 medium sized fish, which he informed us was a week's income. He was a little happy about this, and continued to throw out his net even after we left, and the sun started sinking.
From here, our destination was Tranquebar.
Location: Poompuhar
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