The lost continent of Kumari Kandam
Kumari Kandam is the name of a hypothetical submerged continent in the Indian Ocean. The reference appears for the first time in the Kanda Puranam, a 15th century version written in Tamil of the Skanda Purana, the largest of the eighteen main Puranas, which contains a series of legends about Shiva and the holy places connected to him. The ancient text mentions some great ocean floods that submerged the lands south of India.
Most people are familiar with the story of Atlantis, the mythical lost continent described by the philosopher Plato.
To this day, opinions are still divided on the real existence of a continent that sank into the ocean waters thousands of years ago, and whether to take Plato's words literally or consider them as an allegorical story.
In the Indian subcontinent a similar tale is present, although much less known than that of Atlantis: the tale of the lost continent of Kumari Kandam, later connected to the theory of Lemuria.
The term Lemuria appears for the first time in the second half of the 19th century, when the English geologist Philip Sclater was puzzled by the presence of lemur fossils in Madagascar and India, but not in Africa and the Middle East.
In an 1864 article entitled 'The Mammals of Madagascar', Sclater proposed that Madagascar and India were once part of a larger continent that later submerged, naming the missing mass 'Lemuria'.
Sclater's theory was accredited by the scientific community of that period as the most plausible explanation of the ancient migration of lemurs from Madagascar to India or vice versa. However, with the emergence of modern continental drift theory, Sclater's proposal of a sunken continent was no longer tenable.
Yet, the proposal of a lost continent is not just the theory for the explanation of a biological phenomenon, but an idea that has been handed down in ancient literature for centuries, so much so that many believe that the continent of Lemuria really existed.
Among these is the group of Tamil nationalists. The term Kumari Kandam appears for the first time in the 15th century in the Kanda Puranam, a 15th century version written in Tamil of the Skanda Purana, the largest of the eighteen main Puranas, which contains a series of legends about Shiva and holy places connected to him.
The text takes up some legends regarding an ancient land south of India submerged by the Indian Ocean. The oldest reference dates back to the 2nd century AD and is contained in the Silappadhikaram, one of the five great epics of Tamil literature. According to the tales, “the cruel sea” took the land ruled by the Pandiyan kings, between the Pahruli and Kumari rivers, waterways that once flowed into the now submerged continent.
When theories about Lemuria reached colonial India, people began to regard the ancient legends as historical fact. As a result, Lemuria quickly became identified with Kumari Kandam, imbuing the legend with nationalist sentiments.
Nationalists argued that the Pandiya kings of Kumari Kandam were the rulers of the entire continent, and that the Tamil civilization was the oldest in the world. When Kumari Kandam was submerged, the people spread across the world, founding civilizations. Hence, the claim that the lost continent was also the cradle of human civilization.
According to Wikipedia, R. Mathivanan, the then editor-in-chief of the 'Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project of the Government of Tamil Nadu', claimed in 1991 to have deciphered the Harappan script, referring to short strings of symbols connected with the Civilization of the Indu's Valley, in use during the Mature Harappan period, 26th to 20th centuries BC.
The results of the translation returned what according to Mathivanan was the ancient chronology that the ancients handed down, referring to the most remote periods of terrestrial civilization:
- from 200,000 to 50,000 BC : evolution of Homo Dravida ;
- 50,000 BC : beginning of the Kumari Kandam civilization;
- 20,000 BC : groups of Tamils colonize Easter Island (Rapa Nui);
- 16,000 BC : sinking of Lemuria (Kumari Kandam).
Putting aside what is tainted by Tamil nationalistic sentiments, how plausible could the story of Kumari Kandam be?
According to researchers at India's National Institute of Oceanography, 14,500 years ago sea level was about 100 meters lower, while 10,000 years ago it was about 60 meters lower. So, it is possible that there once existed a land bridge connecting Sri Lanka with India.
As the rate of global warming increased between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago, it is possible that rising sea levels resulted in periodic flooding. These would have submerged prehistoric settlements found around the low-lying coastal areas of India and Sri Lanka.
Stories of these catastrophic events may have been passed down orally from one generation to the next, eventually becoming the tales that tell the story of Kumari Kandam.
A further piece of evidence used to support the existence of Kumari kandam is the so-called 'Adam's Bridge' (also known as 'Rama's Bridge'), a spit of land made up of sand, silt and gravel that stretches for 18 miles, connecting Sri Lanka to the mainland.
This strip of land has always been considered a natural formation. However, according to some observers, NASA satellite images appear to show a long artificial bridge destroyed beneath the ocean surface.
The existence of a bridge at this location is also supported by another ancient legend. The Ramayana tells the story of Sita, Rama's wife, held captive on the island of Lanka. Rama ordered the construction of a mammoth bridge to transport his army of vanaras (ape men) to the island.
As often happens with most myths, it seems possible that there are historical nuclei underlying the legendary tales. So, there might be some truth in the Tamil traditions about Kumari Kandam too. To what extent, however, is yet to be determined.
