Paleolithic remains

   The Palaeolithic origin of India was not recognised until relatively recently, possibly because no-one had looked for it. This longest phase in the development of human history began some 600,000 years ago and lasted until about 8,000 BCE. It is characterised by the use of stone tools, from the rudimentary pebbles used for bashing at hard objects to the sophisticated and carefully made flint axes. The use of stone tools seems to have persisted in South India for longer than elsewhere and gave way to the use of iron in about 1400 BCE. Hunter-gatherer communities moved to farming and keeping livestock over a relatively short period.

Stone tools had been found in Tamil Nadu, but megalithic stones and the rock shelters had been ignored by researchers. Robert Foote, of the Geological Survey found stone axes near Madras but no systematic investigation of the ancient past was carried out. (See an article about Robert Foote here. The Hindu 2012)

A gradual appreciation of the ancient history of the area has led to a re-examination of many sites. Rock shelters display sophisticated art, and although tool finds are very rare, they do come to light now and again. The evidence for settlement between these two periods is extensive, dolmens, urn burials and rock art being found in many locations in Pallakkad, in the North of Kerala. The dolmen and megaliths are often badly looked after, but a renewed interest in history, even as far back as this, is making the study of these remains more popular and spreading the word to local populations, who take a pride in their discovered ancestry.

One of the most spectacular places to see the remains of the ancient tribes who lived here is at Edakkal.  A gradual appreciation of the ancient history of the area has led to a re-examination of many sites, Edakkal itself being excavated in 2010, many finds pointing to its occupation seven thousand years ago. The ancient is often wrapped up in the sacred in India, and legend tells that the caves were made when Lava and Kusha, the sons of Sri Rama, their tale told in the Ramayana, fired arrows in a battle, and Lord Rama killed Ravana’s sister Surpnakha in the narrow cleft in the rock to the south of the cave. This   pinpoints Edakkal as an important place in the distant past, one which is not past but contiguous with the present to many Hindus.

As well as the vast array of petroglyphs, there are inscriptions in Brahmi, a very early form of Sanskrit, indicating that Edakkal was used over many centuries.

The geological origins of Kerala

I m not progressing very fast with the book as the huge complexity of early Kerali history has all but defeated me. However, I have managed a few chapters and will put some digests here. A good place tostart seems to be the geology and origin of the continent.

The report on Kerala by the Geological Survey of India in 2005 described the nature of the country in its easiest divisions: the sandy, coastal plain; lumpy midland area, the foothills of the Western Ghats, and the high mountain range which forms the spine of India. Forty-four rivers snake their way across the midlands and the plain, often tearing the existing geography apart as they roar off the mountains carrying up to 900cm of rain water in a single season. Two of these rivers run eastwards, the rest disgorging fertile silt and sand into the Arabian Sea to the west.

The country has attracted the interest of surveyors since the beginning of the nineteenth century, mineral wealth being sought by the colonising countries. There are several commercially useful minerals in Kerala, a sparse amount of gold can be found and a sprinkling of semi-precious stones but the extraction is predominantly of sand, limestone and a little bauxite.

Most of India formed as part of the ancient continent of Pangaea, drifting north, away from Madagascar and what was later to become Africa, settling against the Eurasian plate where it pushed the Himalayas up into the mountain range we have today. In the process the wonderfully named Deccan Traps poured their volcanic magma across a huge swathe of what is now northern India and far into the southern peninsular. The Western Ghats heaved themselves up out of this commotion and layers of sedimentary rocks have accumulated limestone and sandstones in the usual Indian complication.

Looking towards the plains of Tamil Nadu

On the ground it is easy to see the geological divisions. The flat, sandy coastal strip, with its backwaters, coconut palms and paddy fields gives way to lumps, some of which are incongruous and isolated, but which soon begin to rise to the lower hillside slopes. The mountains on the Kerala side grow slowly through their spectacular foothills, but on the Tamil Nadu side there is a very steep and sheer scarp slope, almost a mile-high cliff, cut with waterfalls which pour down in the monsoon season and outcrops of bare granite.

Close to the time when the settlers from the North arrived the Vedic myths were evolving. According to the Vedas, Parusama, an avatar of Vishnu, set about slaughtering the arrogant ruling caste of Kshatrias with his axe. Repenting of this sin, he handed over all the lands he had cleared to the Brahmins and set off to the South. After meditating at Gokarna he finally reached Kanyakumari and threw his axe far to the North where it landed in the sea. It landed in the place now known as Kerala. This myth is ubiquitous and underpins much of what is understood about the geology of the land. An earnest young man in a rock overhang high in the mountains once told me that the fossils which were found in the rocks were proof that Lord Parusama had created the land from under the sea.

   Just nine degrees from the equator at its Indian Ocean tip; Kerala is hot and steamy and has a South-Western monsoon, which comes in May and June with over four metres of rain on the mountains. It is this enormous downpouring of water which has made the other geological divisions so important for agriculture. The silt brought down by the rains provides rich soil for growing three harvests a year of the local rice in the plains. The scouring out of inlets at the mouths of the river has also made sheltered harbours for an important preoccupation of the people of the country, trade.