Lost land of Lemuria

The concept of lost land of Lemuria hither to a talking point of in the west finds a new set of things in the Tamil origin of colonial India in the beginning of the 20th century. This was direct result of a new consciousness of the ethane and linguistic identity emerged in Tamil speaking regions of South India. By the Tamil enthuse Lemuria came to be recast as the birth place of the Tamil civilization. It cam to be identified as Kumari kandam, the ancestral home land of Tamil lost to the ravaging ocean in the distant past, due to what is called as “Kadal Koal” in tamil. In fact, Tamil Nadu Government, during January 1981 at the Fifth Intrnal Conference of Tamil studies held in Madurai screened a documentary named “Kumari Kandam” both in Tamil and English. The documentary was produced with the financial support of the Tamil Nadu Government traced the roots of Tamil, its literature and culture, to the very beginning of time in Lemuria otherwise known as Kumari Kandam in Tamil. In this documentary the Paleo history of the world is anchored around tamil land and language. Thus Sclater’s lost land of Lemuria was re-established in the timeless collective consciousness as a catastrophic loss of prelapasarian tamil past. Even earlier to this in 1879 Geological Survey of India brought out in the manual of GRGl, a discussion on the Mesozoic land bridge between Southern India and Africa. Dr.D.N. Wadia, a famed Professor of Geology, mentioned in 1990 “The evidence from which the above conclusion regarding an Indo-African land connection is drawn, is so weight and so many sided that the differences of opinion that exist among geologist appertain the main conclusion being accepted as one of the settled facts in the geography of this part of the world. [Wadia D.N. 1919, Geology of India for students, London: Macmillan – 1939, Geology of India, 2nd ed. London: Macmillan.

E.M. Forster in his famed novel ” A Passage to India “ (1984) begins his stunning stanza lie “The Ganges, though flowing from the foot of Vishnu through, Siva’s hair, is not an ancient stream. Geology, looking further than religion, knows of a time when neither the river nor the Himalayas that nourished it existed, and an ocean flowed over the holy places of Hindustan. The mountains rose, their debris silted up the ocean , the gods took their seats on them and contrived the river, and the India we call immemorial came into being. But India is really far older than anything in the world”.

[Ref: E.M.Forster’s “A passage to India” 1984, pp 135-136, Harcourt Brace, New York.]

Thus the fabled Kumari Kandam, which was based on Tamil Literary tradition so far can receive immediate credibility through the western studies. The foundation for this claim was laid by Charles D. Maclean Book “The Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency” published in 1835” Mr. Maclean is an Officer of Indian Civil Services. In the ethnology chapter of the Manual Maclean brought the findings of Ernest Haeckel about Lemuria as a primeval home of man. Maclean also draws further conclusion from the German Biologist’s theory of the origin of various traces of mankind on the submerged Lemuria continent and reiterated that it was the primeval home of the ancestors of India and Ceylon. [Ref: Maclean Charles. D. ‘s “The Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency”, Vol.I, Asian Educational Publication (pp-33-43), He suggested that Southern India was once the passage ground by which the ancient progenitors of northern and Mediterranean races proceeded to the parts of the globe which they now inhabit from Lemuria. [Ref: ibid 111].

However, there is a distinct difference in perception of the Lemuria inhabitants on the point of view of Western Scholars and the Tamil enthuse. According to the Western Scholars the primitive inhabitants of Lemuria are barely human and do not represent the trace of civilization. However, the Tamil scholars hold Lemuria or Kumari Kantam as the birth place of Tamil Language and cradle of Tamil Civilisation. The antiquity of Tamil language got a boos with the publication of Canbell’s Book “The competitive grammar of Dravidian Langauge”. J. Nellai swami Pillai wrote in the journal “The Light of Truth” or “Siddantha Deepika” that if you can believe in the tradition of there having been a vast continent south of Cape Comorin, all humanity and civilization flowed east and west and north, then there can be nothing strange in our regarding the Tamilans as the remnants of a pre-diluvian race. Even the existing works in Tamil sepak of three separate floods which completely swamped the extreme southern shores and carried off with them all its literary treasures of ages. (Ref: Nella swami pillai. J.’s “Ancient Tamil Civilisation in the light of truth” or Siddhanta Deepika. No. 5 –pp 109-113].

Nella Swami Pillai gives a cautious conclusion that his theory stands on no serious historical or scientific evidence. The same was enthusiastically taken up fully by a well-known Tamil scholar Marimalai Adigal.

Though the name Lemuria came into the Tamil world only in 1903, it started gaining significance among the tamil populous. Shri V.G.Suryanarayana Sastri started using the name Kumarinadu in his book “Tamilmoliyin varalaru. Thiru T.V.Kalyanasundaram the famous Congress Nationlist, and a noted Tamil scholar wrote emphatically that the Lemuria of “Western Scholars” like Ernst Haeckel and Scott Elliot was none other than the Kumarinadu of Tamil literature” . {Ref: Thiru T.V.Kalyanasundaram’s “Indiyavum viduthalaiyum” Charu Printing Press, Madras –Pp 106.].

The very name Kumari is suggestive of the prestine chastity and ever lasting youth of the tamil land. Later the legends linked the Devi Temple at Kanyakumari to Kumari Kantam or Kumar Nadu. The Kumari Kanta as mentioned in the old tamil classics, has no reference to the Mesozoic continent of the Indian ocean. There is no reference to the old boundaries of Asiatic table lands. The tamil literature speaks of them as the original inhabitants of the great territory opened by two seas on the East and West, by Venkata hills and submerged rivers Pakruli and Kumari on the South. )(Ref: Sesha Iyengar K.G. Chera King of the Sangam Period, 1937-pp 658] Scholars like Somasundara Bharathi and also invented hackers concept of Lemuria being a cradle of mankind mean that the tamil place is the birth of human beings and the tamils were the first humans.

The features of Kumari Kantam were referred by Adiyarku Nallar, the commenter of Silapathikaram. Kumari Kantam was having a breadth of 700 kavatam south of Cape Kumari containing 49 principalities, 2 rivers called Pakurli and Kumari flowed there and it also had a bill called Kumari Koodu. The major cities in Kumari Kantam were Thenmadurai and Kapatipuram. This was also referred to in Tholkappia Orrai of Ilam Pooranar Nachinarkku Iniyan Payrasiriyar.

The Tamil Scholar V.G. Suryanaryana Sastri, Abrham Pandithar, lament about the loss of works such as Mudunarai, Mudukurugu, etc, which had been swalloed by the ocean. These are derived from the fact that several poems in the Sangam anthology of later age refer to oceanic threat and consequent loss of lands and lives.

The Tamil Scholar K.Anna poorni delineates the extent of Kumari Kantan as she concludes as Tamilagham “ Today, the Tamilnadu that we inhabit consists of 12 districts within its limits. A few centuries aga. Ceranatu and a part of the Telugu land were part of Tamilnadu. Some thousands of years ago, the northern limit of Tamilnadu extended to the Vindhya mountain and the southern limit extened 700 Kavatam to the south of Cape Kumari which included regions such as Panainatu, mountains such as Kumarik Kotu and Mani Malia, cities such as Muttur and Kapatapuram and rivers such as Pahruli. All these were seized by the ocean, so say scholar. That today’s Indian Ocean was once upon a time a vast landmass and that that is where the man first appears has been stated by several scholars such as Ernst Haeckel and Scott Elliot in their books History of Creation and Lost Lemuria. The landmass called Lemuria is what Tamilians call Kumarinadu. That which is remaining after this ancient landmass was seized by the ocean is the Tamil Mother land in which we reside today with pride.