Over the past few decades, early historic urbanism of South Asian cities has been a pivotal area of scholarly interest among archaeological researchers. Archaeologists have explored various functions and forms of urban lifeways in early historic settlements of Indian subcontinent. The transition to urbanism in ancient towns on the Indian subcontinent followed different trajectories, and each settlement is irrefutably unique. Settlements without fortifications or absence of ‘walled settlements’ are often denied or diminished in the urbanisation discourse. In this presentation, we focus on the urbanisation of the Tamilakam region, and consider two questions: ‘Can we really consider sites devoid of walled settlements as urban centres?’ And ‘Can such settlements be considered as an ‘alternative form’ of urbanism?’ To answer these, we employ a functional approach to examining the urban dynamics of the settlement of Pattanam (which was once part of the ancient Tamilakam region), taking into consideration data from surveys and excavations. Data from Pattanam demonstrates that it was a trading hub with both inland and overseas commercial networks.