Kodumanal in Kongu Region

Kodumanal was a 2,500-year-old industrial estate discovered in Kongu Nadu. KonguNadu is the most industrialised and prosperous region in Tamil Nadu.
Kodumanal is a village located in the Erode district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was once a flourishing ancient trade city known as Kodumanam, as inscribed in Patittrupathu of Sangam Literature.The place is a important Archaeological Site, under the control of State Archaeological Department of Tamil Nadu. It is Located on the northern banks of Noyyal River, a tributary of the Cauvery.
The city played a major role in Indo-Roman trade and relations, as the ancient city is located on the mid-way of a Roman Trade Route, linking Muziris Port i.e. Pattanam on the Malabar Coast with the Kaveripoompattinam (Puhar) Port in the Coromandel Coas.
Kodumanal, celebrated in Tamil Sangam literature (datable from the second century BCE to the second century C.E.), is now one of the most explored sites in India. The Sangam work Pathitruppatthu refers to Kodumanal as Kodumanam in two places. While the poet Kabilar refers to it as “Kodumanam patta… nankalam”, another poet, Arisil Kizhar, celebrates it as “Kodumanam patta vinaimaan arunkalam”, that is, Kodumanam, the place where rare jewels are made. A horizontally excavated site, Kodumanal has yielded the highest number of inscribed potsherds (about 315 potsherds with Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions) and also the largest number of exposed graves for any single archaeological site in India.

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