Archaeologist who discovered Keeladi transferred yet again, third time in 9 months

Chennai: Almost a month after he refused to rework his voluminous report on the excavations he conducted at the Sangam Era site of Keeladi near Madurai, K Amarnath Ramakrishna has been transferred yet again by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Ramakrishna, who was Director, Antiquity and National Mission on Monument and Antiquity (NMMA), New Delhi, has now been transferred to Greater Noida as Director, NMMA, in what is seen as a “punishment posting.”

This is the third time that Ramakrishna, whose name has become synonymous with Keeladi ever since he discovered the site in 2014, has been transferred within the ASI in the last nine months. In September 2024, he was transferred on promotion as Director (Excavation & Exploration), New Delhi from Chennai, where he was Superintending Archaeologist, and was transferred again within three months as Director (Antiquity).

He was transferred to far-away Assam in 2017 after he went public about the findings from Keeladi in 2016, and returned to Chennai only in 2021.

An office order issued by Pravin Kumar Tripathi, Deputy Director (Admin), said H. A. Naik will now be Director (Antiquity) along with Director (Excavation and Exploration). The NMMA in Greater Noida is largely dysfunctional, and that’s why Ramakrishna’s transfer should be viewed as a “punishment,” sources said.

Ramakrishna’s transfer has triggered a political storm, with political parties and activists accusing the Union Government of “punishing” the archaeologist for “speaking the truth” about ancient Tamil civilization. Keeladi has become a political bone of contention between the Union and Tamil Nadu governments – the M K Stalin-led dispensation accuses the Centre of trying to hide the truth about Keeladi, a charge vehemently denied by the ASI and the Union Culture Ministry.

The transfer comes about a month after Ramakrishna stoutly defended his 982-page report, submitted to the ASI on January 30, 2023, stating that the chronological sequence of Keeladi has been clearly explained in the voluminous report. Ramakrishna has stopped short of making it clear that he will not rework the report and informed the ASI that the agency has already accepted the nomenclature of the changes in the period.

The development comes days after Chief Minister M K Stalin tore into the Centre for demanding “more proof” on Keeladi despite being confronted with carbon-dated artefacts and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) reports from international laboratories.

“But on the contrary, despite strong opposition from respected historians and archaeologists, the BJP continues to promote the mythical Saraswati Civilisation. They do so without credible evidence, while dismissing the rigorously proven antiquity of Tamil culture,” he had said.

Ramakrishna had on May 23, 2025, told Hemasagar A. Naik, Director (EE), ASI, who sent him a letter on May 21, 2025, seeking changes as suggested by the experts, that the period of the site was reconstructed as per the stratigraphical sequence, cultural deposits available with material culture, and with AMS dating found during the excavation.

Artefacts unearthed from Keeladi, 12 km southeast of Madurai, have been dated to 585 BCE, pushing the literature-rich Sangam Era back by 300 years from what was earlier thought.

Ramakrishna’s tenure as the officer in charge of Keeladi was mired in controversy after he was abruptly transferred to Assam in 2017, and his successor claimed that there were no “significant findings” in the third phase.

However, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court intervened and asked the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) to take over the excavations, which will enter the 11th phase this June. About 20,000 artefacts have been recovered from Keeladi since 2014.

DH had reported on February 3, 2023, that the voluminous report, which contains detailed photographs and diagrams of the trenches, has 12 chapters that explain the historical background and objective of the excavation, besides delving into the structural remains, pottery, graffiti sherds, and terracotta objects that were found between 2014 and 2016.