An ancient rice bowl complicates the story of civilisation in India
In Tamil Nadu, archaeology is part of a contest over history and identity
R ARELY CAN a spoonful of rice have caused such a stir. When M.K. Stalin, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, addressed the south Indian state’s legislature on September 9th, he celebrated a musty sample of the country’s humble staple. Carbon dating by an American laboratory, he said, had just proved that the rice, found in a small clay offering bowl—itself tucked inside a burial urn outside the village of Sivakalai, near the southernmost tip of India—was some 3,200 years old. This made it the earliest evidence yet found of civilisation in Tamil Nadu. The top duty of his government, the chief minister triumphantly declared, was to establish that the history of India “begins from the landscape of the Tamils”.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The rice bowl’s tale”
Culture December 4th 2021
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