Let Me Explain: Why Keeladi is shaking up India’s history and politics

In this special episode of Let Me Explain, Pooja Prasanna travels to the Keezhadi excavation site near Madurai – a place that’s rewriting what we thought we knew about the origins of urban life in India. According to archaeologists, with artefacts dating back to the 6th century BCE, Keezhadi offers archaeological backing to the Sangam era, a period celebrated in Tamil literature but long denied material proof.

But the excavation has also been caught in a political storm. Lead archaeologist K Amarnath Ramakrishna has faced multiple transfers, including one just weeks after he refused to revise his report. So what’s at stake here? Why are findings from a 6-metre-deep trench in Tamil Nadu making headlines? 

Let me explain.

Producer: Megha Mukundan

Editor: Nikhil Sekhar ET

Research: Aarav Gupta, Yana Chouksey

Script: Lakshmi Priya, Pooja Prasanna

Camera: Megha Mukundan, Yana Chouksey

GFX: Dharini Prabha