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The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has asked retired superintending archaeologist P S Sriraman to submit the official excavation report for the third phase of the Keeladi excavations. Sriraman, who led the brief third phase of excavations at Keeladi in 2017 after the sudden transfer of archaeologist K Amarnath Ramakrishna, had reported that no significant findings at that time. The move has now triggered sharp criticism from the academic and archaeological community.
Following Sriraman’s report in 2017, the ASI closed its excavations at the site. The Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) later took over the project through a Madras High Court order and went on to unearth over 13,000 artefacts and obtain radiocarbon dates ranging from 580 BCE to 200 CE.
Now, more than seven years later, ASI has granted permission to Sriraman to draft the official report for the phase he supervised. He has also been asked to submit the excavation report for Kodumanal, another site he oversaw between 2017 and 2018.
The ASI’s decision to call on Sriraman comes after the recent move to question and seek revisions in the 982-page excavation report submitted by Amarnath Ramakrishna, who led the first two phases of Keeladi excavations from 2014 to 2016.
Keeladi, a major archaeological site near Sivaganga district in Tamil Nadu has evidence of a sophisticated urban civilisation dating back to at least the 5th century BCE. The findings include Tamil Brahmi script, terracotta tools, industrial pottery kilns, and artefacts indicating textile production and trade.
In his report, Ramakrishna dated the site’s earliest activity to around 8th century BCE, based on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating and stratigraphic analysis.
But in May 2025, ASI directed Ramakrishna to rework his report, stating that the earliest period he identified lacked "concrete justification" and that the site could be dated to around 300 BCE.
However, Ramakrishna defended his findings, stating they were based on proper archaeological methodology and scientific dating techniques. He refused to alter the findings proposed in his report.
Then, Ramakrishna was transferred from his role in June 2025 as director of antiquity at the National Mission on Monument and Antiquity (NMMA) in New Delhi to director of the NMMA’s Greater Noida office, marking his third transfer in nine months.
In June, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said that Ramakrishna’s Keeladi report was "not technically well supported" and required “further scientific validation”.
This comment led to a public outcry in Tamil Nadu, with multiple historian groups, archaeologists, and political parties staging protests. The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led has questioned why the Union government has not yet published Ramakrishna’s report, which was submitted over two years ago in January 2023.
The Keeladi excavation has long challenged conventional historical narratives, especially the idea that urbanisation began in South India only after Ashoka’s Mauryan intervention.
Ramakrishna and other experts argue that the material culture unearthed at Keeladi bridges the timeline between the Indus Valley Civilisation and early South Indian urbanisation. The 11th phase of excavation at Keeladi is set to begin soon under the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology.