ARIKAMEDU- 2000 years old Archaeological site in Pondicherry / Important Historical place in Pondicherry-UT-South India/ Excavation in Pondicherry / Olden days foreign trade city-Pondicherry/Arikamedu-Pondicherry

About Arrikamedu:

Arikamedu is an archeological site near the Pondicherry Union Territory of South India. Arikamedu was a fishing village during the Chola period. Archaeological excavations indicate that trade with Rome took place from here.

- The word ‘Arikamedu’ is believed to be derived from the Tamil word ‘Arrukamedu’ or ‘mound of ruins’ or ‘arukumedu’, meaning ‘mound on a river’. 

It is located on the banks of the Ariyankuppam River, about six kilometers south of Pondicherry.

Ariyankuppam River is a distributary of Sankaraparani River. It the branches off Sankaraparani near Thirukanchi. Due to property development, its origin was cut off. Thengaithittu Langoon is found in this river. Arikamedu is the major tourist spot in the river. Ariyankuppam River drains into Bay of Bengal at Puducherry Fishing Harbour.

Satellite-image-with-the-location-of-Arikamedu.-From-Google-Earth

Location:

Those who wish to travel from Pondicherry should take the Cuddalore Road to Ariyankuppam and from there to the small town of Kakkayanthoppu on the road to Veerampattinam. Arikamedu is located on the right banks of the Ariyankuppam River. At that point, the river bends from west to east, flows north, and then merges with the sea.

Resources of Arikamedu:

Not only is Arikamedu a pretty quiet place but it is also notable for the fact that foreign trade has flourished there. The beautiful house of the clergyman "MGR PIGNAY DE BEHAINE" reveals to us how rich and dense forested this place is. People used to call this house "Adran Samiyar House". The house belonged to the "MISSIONS ETRANGERES" in Pondicherry until the beginning of the 20th century. Schools and rest houses were run there.

                                                                          House of the clergyman- Top view

At present a small part of the fade of this priest's house and the whole of the latter can be seen in ruins. These are found in the middle of a dense mangrove forest. Although the trees are dense, the structure of the garden is well planned and designed.

The Priest's house ruined at Arikamedu- Entrance

Priest's house at Arikamedu- Front view

 Priest's house at Arikamedu- Back side view

Priest's house at Arikamedu.- Side view

The Ariyankuppam River flows 150 meters to the west of this house.

Arriyankuppam river and Mangrove forest at Arikamedu                                           
                                     

Discovery of Arikamedu:

In 1734 the Consul of the Indo-French enclave of Pondicherry sent a note to the French East India Company observing that the villagers of Virampatnam (variously spelled) were taking bricks from an old place near their village, Later in the century Le Gentil, on a trip around the world came to observe astronomical phenomena for the King of France, reported the same thing and said the villagers told him that the large bricks came from what they described as the castle of king Vira-Raguen.

Arrikamedu Travel history:

In 1937, a professor known as "Mr. Zhuo Duipray" worked at the French College, Pondicherry. He is a Frenchman. He once went for a walk in the Arikamedu area scattered small objects, pieces of glass, and some rare stones. A variety of shiny stones also caught his attention.

The boys who were playing there brought these stones to him. Mr. Duipray gave them candy, money or some other gift items. The boys, fascinated by the gifts, became more and more interested in storing and bringing them to him. He wrote a letter to the Governor of French India declaring that here was "a true Roman city."

In the early of 1940’s Under the direction of Pere Faucheux, a local priest with ,scant archaeological training, the Pondicherry Public Works Service dug at the site in the early 1940s. They found glass and stone beads, pottery and other artifacts. Found items were sent to French scholars in Hanoi and to several museums in British India.

In 1944 the famous English archaeologist, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, recognized as Mediterranean a piece of pottery from Arikamedu in the Madras Museum.

Soon thereafter in 1945, the penultimate year of World war II, he mounted excavations in a scientific manner. He was looking for an archaeological site in India that could establish its cultural link, a datum of the Indian antiquities to the Greco-Roman period, and this quest led him to the Arikamedu site. These excavations also involved Indian archaeologists, who were trained on the site.

    Picture-of excavations conducted by-Sir Mortimer Wheeler

The excavations led to antiquities of Roman origin such as beads and gems, amphorae (wine making vats) with remnants of wine, a Roman stamp, big bricks recovered from an old wall, Arretine ware and so forth. From these antiquities Wheeler concluded that the site was related to a period of trading with Rome, and that it was first established by emperor Augustus. He also noted that this Indo-Roman trade lasted for a period of about 200 years, till 200 CE. Wheeler also found the Chinese celadon, identified to belong to the Song-Yuan dynasty, and Chola coins from about the eleventh century, but these were rejected as despoiling items or remnants left by brick-robbers. Items of Chinese, blue-and-white ware were also recovered from the site.

Some of excavated items at Arikamedu on display at Puducherry museum:

                                                                                          Stones of different colours       

             Roman Amphorae        

A statue of a girl with a bird (Terracotta Toy)

  Roman Pottery fragment

                                                                         Decorated Pottery fragment

Conservation:

An international conference that the Government of Pondicherry and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs held in October 2004 decided to investigate the Arikamedu site jointly for conservation, as its ancient commercial link with the Romans has been established. During this conference, the Government of Pondicherry also decided to propose the site for status as a World Heritage Site of UNESCO. The Archaeological Survey of India also proposed the site for UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site status, under the title Silk Road Sites in India.

Conclusion:

Today there is little to show of Arikamed’s old Indo-Roman past but the bits and pieces scattered among local museums piece together as an interesting story of those glorious maritime days.

                            

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