மகாவம்சத்திற்கு முன்The Pre-Mahāvaṃsa Floor
Three verified strata are indexed here: (1) Tamil-Brāhmī graffiti at Anurādhapura, (2) Pomparippu megalithic urn burials, (3) the Vallipuram gold plate. Each is dated by published excavation reports and peer-reviewed papers.
These strata form the load-bearing floor for any UNESCO / ICPRCP / academic-conference filing on Tamil-Śaiva continuity in the northern dry zone. Nilaiththanmai target: an open-access stratigraphy layer visible to any invigilator, mapped to the same GIS.
Stratum 1 · Tamil-Brāhmī at Anurādhapura (c. 500–350 BCE)
The UK–Sri Lanka joint excavations at Anurādhapura Salgaha Watta 2 (ASW2), directed by Robin Coningham (Durham) and Sri Lankan colleagues, recovered inscribed potsherds carrying Tamil-Brāhmī graffiti in secure stratigraphic contexts dated by carbon-14 to before the Aśokan Buddhist mission [01][02]. The corpus was later re-read by Iravatham Mahadevan, who confirmed at least three sherds as bearing Tamil personal names in Tamil-Brāhmī script [03].
Implication: literate Tamil-speaking presence at the future Mahāvaṃsa capital predates the very mission the Mahāvaṃsa credits with founding the Sinhala-Buddhist polity.
Stratum 2 · Pomparippu urn burials (c. 1000–500 BCE)
The Pomparippu megalithic urn-burial site on the north-western coast, excavated by P.E.P. Deraniyagala and later analysed by Bandaranayake, mirrors the South-Indian megalithic-urn tradition documented at Adichanallur and Kodumanal [04][05]. Grave goods and mortuary form align with the Tamil Nadu Iron-Age horizon, not with the north-Indian Painted Grey Ware zone the Mahāvaṃsa's Vijaya narrative implies.
Stratum 3 · Vallipuram gold plate (2nd c. CE)
The Vallipuram gold-plate inscription from the Jaffna peninsula, recovered from a stūpa near an existing Śaiva temple site, records a donation in early-Prakrit script during the reign of Vasabha (c. 65–109 CE) [06][07]. It is the earliest datable epigraphic record of organised Indic religion in northern Sri Lanka — contemporary with the Sangam corpus and predating the Mahāvaṃsa's composition by roughly four centuries.
Why this matters — the stratigraphic argument
The three strata do not argue with the Mahāvaṃsa; they sit under it. Any reading of the chronicle as ethnography rather than ideology has to explain why the ground it stands on is older, literate, Tamil-associated, and networked to the southern peninsula — before the founding events the chronicle narrates.
Site is already inscribed. Any submission on stratigraphic re-reading routes through the State Party (Sri Lanka) and the Advisory Bodies (ICOMOS).
Dossier is indexable to ICPRCP under 'shared heritage · stratigraphy of the deposit' framing.
Antiquity, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Ancient Ceylon, South Asian Studies — where the Coningham / Mahadevan / Ragupathy corpus is already contested and defended.
- [01]Coningham, R.A.E., Allchin, F.R., Batt, C.M. & Lucy, D., 'Passage to India? Anuradhapura and the Early Use of the Brahmi Script', Cambridge Archaeological Journal 6:1 (1996), 73–97.
- [02]Coningham, R.A.E. (ed.), Anuradhapura: The British-Sri Lankan Excavations at Anuradhapura Salgaha Watta 2, Vol. I (BAR International Series 824, 1999) and Vol. II (BAR 1508, 2006), Archaeopress, Oxford.
- [03]Mahadevan, I., 'Ancient Tamil Contacts Abroad — Recent Epigraphic Evidence', Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies (1996) and Early Tamil Epigraphy (Harvard Oriental Series 62, 2003), ch. 5.
- [04]Deraniyagala, S.U., The Prehistory of Sri Lanka: An Ecological Perspective, Department of Archaeological Survey, Colombo, 1992, vol. II ch. 12 (Pomparippu).
- [05]Bandaranayake, S., 'The Peopling of Sri Lanka: The National Question and Some Problems of History and Ethnicity', in Ethnicity and Social Change in Sri Lanka (SSA, Colombo, 1984).
- [06]Paranavitana, S., 'The Vallipuram Gold Plate Inscription of the Reign of Vasabha', Epigraphia Zeylanica IV (1939), 229–237.
- [07]Ragupathy, P., Early Settlements in Jaffna: An Archaeological Survey, Thillimalar Ragupathy, Madras, 1987, ch. 6.
- · Does not claim Tamil-Brāhmī graffiti at Anurādhapura proves an 'ethnic Tamil polity' at that site — it proves literate Tamil-speaking presence.
- · Does not claim Pomparippu is 'Tamil territory' — it claims the mortuary tradition aligns with the southern-peninsula Iron-Age horizon.
- · Does not read the Vallipuram plate as sectarian — it is Buddhist by content, Śaiva by immediate site context; the point is dated organised Indic religious presence, not sectarian priority.
- · Does not deny the Mahāvaṃsa's evidentiary value as a Mahāvihāra document; contests its use as ethnographic ground-truth.
This dossier is being filed with the following institutions via the public outreach organ. Every entry is Tier-A anchored. New sends stay in a 30-day quiet window before status flips.
- AntiquityPeer-reviewed publications