Kantarodai Civilization of Ancient Jaffna 500 BCE – 800 CE

Dr. Siva Thiagarajah’s seminal book, Kantarodai Civilization of Ancient Jaffna 500 BCE – 800 CE: A Study in Archaeology and Other Disciplines, provides a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary analysis of one of Sri Lanka’s most critical proto-historic urban settlements. Published in 2016 by Kumaran Book House, the monograph integrates hard archaeological datasets from major 1970 and 2011 excavations alongside fields like numismatics, genetics, and historical linguistics to reconstruct the evolution of the Jaffna Peninsula. Dr. Thiagarajah systematically maps how a Black and Red Ware megalithic culture initialized regional urbanization by 500 BCE, establishing Kantarodai as the thriving ancient capital of Nāganādu. By detailing 37 layers of continuous cultural deposits spanning over 3,000 years, the book challenges single-narrative histories, presenting the site as a diverse maritime trading hub where early Tamil-Brahmi script, South Indian mercantile networks, and early Mahayana Buddhism dynamically coexisted.