trichy bharathidasan university has received a funding of rs 85 crore from the department of science and technology dst to trace the life history of the ancient port city of poompuhar the universitys department of remote sensing will be the lead agency to carry out the interdisciplinary research established by the chola dynasty at the mouth of river cauvery during the tamil sangam period bc 300 ad 300 kaveripoompattinam or poompuhar port city as it was known had trade links with asian arabian and mediterranean countries though it was nurtured by several dynasties poompuhar became suddenly defunct during ad 1100 the elaborate narrations made in sangam and postsangam literature like cilappathigaram and manimegalai have been attracting scientists from different fields to take up studies on the port these literatures have the mention of poompuhar which got submerged due to kadalkol devouring of the land by sea but there is a beeline of enigmas not only behind its origin but also spatial and time series evolution period and reasons for its sudden disappearance from the maritime history of the world said s m ramasamy professor of eminence department of remote sensing bdu the projects national coordinatorthe study will be an interinstitutional research project with amet university national institute of ocean technology chennai gandhigram rural university dindigul and various other universities collaborating with bdu it will involve the surveying of the submerged poompuhar using unmanned vehicles multibeam side looking scanner underwater photography computerbased assemblage of fragmented and buried structures and objects said prof ramasamy vicechancellor manisankar said it is yet another giant leap by the university and it would bring out the sociocultural evolution of the ancient tamils in this country in addition to the life history of poompouhar