
<H3> Poompuhar Exploration</H3>

<P> On the east coast, south of Madras, Poompuhar is believed to be a flourishing
port in the beginning of the Christian etc. The Manimekhalai, a well known
Tamil epic, mentions that the Chola King had lost his son and in his great
grief he forgot to celebrate the annual Indra festival. This enraged the
goddess Manimekhalai who caused the city to be swallowed by the sea. Though
the reference is only to a supernatural incident, it may be taken as an
echo of some actual furry of high tidal waves that lashed upon the city
and passed down the generation by way of folklore.</P>

<P> Marine archaeological explorations are being carried out since 1991
in Poompuhar waters in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology,
Government of Tamil Nadu in pursuit of the truth, an evidence that can
throw some light to confirm the legend.</P>

<P> The main objective of this survey is to delineate the submerged extension
of the ancient town of Kaveripoompattinam, north of the present river Kaveri
and to explore the deep water. Extensive diving and airlifting operations
were undertaken north of the river Kaveri at a water depth of 5-7 m.</P>

<P> Offshore exploration was carried out in shallow waters, north of river
Kaveri and south of the present Poompuhar village. A few dressed stone
blocks were found in various water depths. One of them was semicircular
with an L-shaped cut. Airlift operations yielded building blocks of stone
and a number of potsherds of the early historical period (300 B.C. to 300
A.D.). Geophysical explorations carried out with the sub-bottom profiler
revealed a submerged palaeochannel of the river Kaveri in the north of
Poompuhar. The width of the channel varies from 300 m to 500 m and it is
buried 20 m below the sea bottom.</P>

<P> Explorations carried out in deeper waters (23 m depth) revealed presence
of an<IMG SRC="a14.gif" HEIGHT=205 WIDTH=308 ALIGN=LEFT><IMG SRC="a15.gif" HEIGHT=205 WIDTH=308 ALIGN=RIGHT>
U-shaped stone structure which was located about 5 km seaward of Kadaikaddu.
The structure lies in north-south direction. Maximum height of structure
on the outer side is about 3 m, while on the inner side it is less than
1 m and maximum length of which is 40 m and its width is 20 m.</P>

