Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said that there is now solid evidence to suggest that the inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilisation were of Dravidian origin, adding that the Indus people were the ancestors of the Sangam-era poets. He was speaking on Saturday, April 15 at the launch of Oru Panpattin Payanam: Sindhu Mudhal Vaigai Varai, a book that traces the connections between the Indus Valley civilisation and Dravidian history. The book is the Tamil translation of former IAS officer R Balakrishnan’s book Journey of a Civilisation: From Indus to Vaigai.
“When those in the Dravidian movement spoke about Sangam literature on various stages, they were opposed by some who said that these are only literary works, not history. Today, we have archeological evidence to counter those people,” Stalin said. The event, held at the Chennai Anna Centenary Library, was organised by Roja Muthiah Research Library.
Balakrishnan’s book attempts to trace a history of the Indus Valley civilisation and says that the original inhibitors of the civilisation were Dravidian.
At the event, Stalin also said, ”Often youth from Tamil Nadu who have a pride and interest in Tamil culture and the language keep their interest suppressed after entering the Indian Civil Services (IAS). The reason is they are worried about whether it will cause complications for them or that someone might cause problems for them, so they lock away their Tamil pride in their hearts. But R Balakrishnan is not that sort of person. During the time he was in service, alongside his work he also opened up the portions of history that had been shut away. He used his pen as a key to open up Tamil history.”
Stalin further referred to portions of Balakrishnan’s book in which he says that certain Tamil words continue to live on in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Gujarat, and Maharashtra across where the Indus Valley civilisation was spread. “The Indus Valley civilisation is 5,000 years old. So who were the people who lived there? What language did they speak? Balakrishnan gives the answers to these questions: the language spoken there was Tamil. He proved that the people who lived there were the ancestors of those who wrote the Sangam-era literature.”
Apart from the CM, the event was attended by state minister for Industries, Tamil Official Language, Tamil Culture and Archaeology Thangam Thennarasu, the former editor-in-chief of The Hindu N Ram, anthropologist Baktavatchala Bharathi, founder of Sharma Centre for Heritage Education Shanti Pappu, and Subroto Bagchi, the chairman of the Odisha Skill Development Authority.
Balakrishnan’s book was first published in English in 2019. He had earlier published multiple research papers on the connection between the Indus and Harappan civilisations and Dravidian history during his tenure as an IAS officer in Odisha. Reviewing the book for The Hindu at the time, journalist and author of Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From Tony Joseph had said about Balakrishnan’s book that it, “comes up with a wealth of new insights that are fascinating in themselves, but in addition, also answer a question that has vexed historians for long: what happened to the culture and language of the Indus Valley civilisation after it started disintegrating around 1900 BCE?”