Did Kumari Kandam (குமரிக்கண்டம்) really exist?
Kumari Kandam is the name of an alleged sunken landmass referred to in medieval Tamil literature. It is said to have been located in the Indian Ocean, to the south of present-day Kanyakumari district at the southern tip of India.
There are scattered references about this land mass in ancient Tamil literatures. This is also called as Atlantis of Indian Ocean. Did the land mass really existed or just an myth? Did Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) or Tamilnadu Archaeological department do any initiatives to find this place?
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Update:Looks like most of the answers are from Wikipedia. Thanks anyway!
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Kumari Kandam or Kumarikkaṇṭam is the name of a legendary sunken landmass said to have been located to the south of present-day Kanyakumari District at the southern tip of India in the Indian Ocean. The legend assigns the continent and its final submergence an antiquity ranging in tens of thousands of years.
Compare the photo above with the present map below to see how it is suppose to fit in. Proponents say that the land mass is "Lemuria", a different name for the same continent. The supposed sunken land seems to be covering most part of the Indian Ocean. On the East side of the land lays Sumatera & Malaysia. In 26th December, 2004, in the very same region, the world witnessed a devastating effect of mother nature when Tsunami took place. The tsunami is was the result of the shift in tectonic plate in the sea bed that recorded a tremor as largely as 8.6 in richter scale. Could it be that a Giant Tsunami, multiple times greater than what we witnessed 4 yrs & 1 month before, strucked this part of the continent?
Ancient texts has made some reference of this said sunken land.
There are scattered references in Sangam literature, such as Kalittokai 104, to how the sea took the land of the Pandiyan kings, upon which they conquered new lands to replace those they had lost.
There are also references to the rivers Pahruli and Kumari, that are said to have flowed in a now-submerged land. The Silappadhikaram, a 5th century epic, stating that the "cruel sea" took the Pandiyan land that lay between the rivers Pahruli and the many-mountained banks of the Kumari, to replace which the Pandiyan king conquered lands belonging to the Chola and Chera kings (Maturaikkandam, verses 17-22).
Adiyarkkunallar, a 12th century commentator on the epic, explains this reference by saying that there was once a land to the south of the present-day Kanyakumari , which stretched from the Pahruli river in the north to the Kumari river in the south. This land was divided into 49 territories, which he names as 7 coconut territories (elutenga natu), 7 Madurai territories (elumaturai natu), 7 old sandy territories (elumunpalai natu), 7 new sandy territories (elupinpalai natu), 7 mountain territories (elukunra natu), 7 eastern coastal territories (elukunakarai natu) and 7 dwarf-palm territories (elukurumpanai natu). All these lands, he says, together with the many-mountained land that began with KumariKollam, with forests and habitations, were submerged by the sea. Two of these territories were supposedly parts of present-day Kollam and Kanyakumari districts.
R. Mathivanan, then Chief Editor of the Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project of the Government of Tamilnadu, in 1991 claimed to have deciphered the Indus script as Tamil, following the methodology recommended by his teacher Devaneya Pavanar, presenting the following timeline.
ca. 200,000 to 50,000 BC: evolution of "the Tamilian or Homo Dravida",
ca. 200,000 to 100,000 BC: beginnings of the Tamil language
50,000 BC: Kumari Kandam civilisation
20,000 BC: A lost Tamil culture of the Easter Island which had an advanced civilisation
16,000 BC: Lemuria submerged
6087 BC: Second Tamil Sangam established by a Pandya king
3031 BC: A Chera prince in his wanderings in the Solomon Island saw wild sugarcane and started cultivation in Kumari Kandam.
1780 BC: The Third Tamil Sangam established by a Pandya king
7th century BC: Tolkappiyam (the earliest extant Tamil grammar)
BBC reports the following further evidence which suggests volcanic eruptions may have some effect to this said land.
Scientists have discovered the remains of a "lost continent" beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean.
Kumari Kandam or Kumarikkaṇṭam is the name of a legendary sunken landmass said to have been located to the south of present-day Kanyakumari District at the southern tip of India in the Indian Ocean. The legend assigns the continent and its final submergence an antiquity ranging in tens of thousands of years.
Compare the photo above with the present map below to see how it is suppose to fit in. Proponents say that the land mass is "Lemuria", a different name for the same continent. The supposed sunken land seems to be covering most part of the Indian Ocean. On the East side of the land lays Sumatera & Malaysia. In 26th December, 2004, in the very same region, the world witnessed a devastating effect of mother nature when Tsunami took place. The tsunami is was the result of the shift in tectonic plate in the sea bed that recorded a tremor as largely as 8.6 in richter scale. Could it be that a Giant Tsunami, multiple times greater than what we witnessed 4 yrs & 1 month before, strucked this part of the continent?
Ancient texts has made some reference of this said sunken land.
There are scattered references in Sangam literature, such as Kalittokai 104, to how the sea took the land of the Pandiyan kings, upon which they conquered new lands to replace those they had lost.
There are also references to the rivers Pahruli and Kumari, that are said to have flowed in a now-submerged land. The Silappadhikaram, a 5th century epic, stating that the "cruel sea" took the Pandiyan land that lay between the rivers Pahruli and the many-mountained banks of the Kumari, to replace which the Pandiyan king conquered lands belonging to the Chola and Chera kings (Maturaikkandam, verses 17-22).
Adiyarkkunallar, a 12th century commentator on the epic, explains this reference by saying that there was once a land to the south of the present-day Kanyakumari , which stretched from the Pahruli river in the north to the Kumari river in the south. This land was divided into 49 territories, which he names as 7 coconut territories (elutenga natu), 7 Madurai territories (elumaturai natu), 7 old sandy territories (elumunpalai natu), 7 new sandy territories (elupinpalai natu), 7 mountain territories (elukunra natu), 7 eastern coastal territories (elukunakarai natu) and 7 dwarf-palm territories (elukurumpanai natu). All these lands, he says, together with the many-mountained land that began with KumariKollam, with forests and habitations, were submerged by the sea. Two of these territories were supposedly parts of present-day Kollam and Kanyakumari districts.
R. Mathivanan, then Chief Editor of the Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project of the Government of Tamilnadu, in 1991 claimed to have deciphered the Indus script as Tamil, following the methodology recommended by his teacher Devaneya Pavanar, presenting the following timeline.
ca. 200,000 to 50,000 BC: evolution of "the Tamilian or Homo Dravida",
ca. 200,000 to 100,000 BC: beginnings of the Tamil language
50,000 BC: Kumari Kandam civilisation
20,000 BC: A lost Tamil culture of the Easter Island which had an advanced civilisation
16,000 BC: Lemuria submerged
6087 BC: Second Tamil Sangam established by a Pandya king
3031 BC: A Chera prince in his wanderings in the Solomon Island saw wild sugarcane and started cultivation in Kumari Kandam.
1780 BC: The Third Tamil Sangam established by a Pandya king
7th century BC: Tolkappiyam (the earliest extant Tamil grammar)
BBC reports the following further evidence which suggests volcanic eruptions may have some effect to this said land.
Scientists have discovered the remains of a "lost continent" beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean.
Kumari Kandam or Kumarikkaṇṭam is the name of a legendary sunken landmass said to have been located to the south of present-day Kanyakumari District at the southern tip of India in the Indian Ocean. The legend assigns the continent and its final submergence an antiquity ranging in tens of thousands of years.
Compare the photo above with the present map below to see how it is suppose to fit in. Proponents say that the land mass is "Lemuria", a different name for the same continent. The supposed sunken land seems to be covering most part of the Indian Ocean. On the East side of the land lays Sumatera & Malaysia. In 26th December, 2004, in the very same region, the world witnessed a devastating effect of mother nature when Tsunami took place. The tsunami is was the result of the shift in tectonic plate in the sea bed that recorded a tremor as largely as 8.6 in richter scale. Could it be that a Giant Tsunami, multiple times greater than what we witnessed 4 yrs & 1 month before, strucked this part of the continent?
Ancient texts has made some reference of this said sunken land.
There are scattered references in Sangam literature, such as Kalittokai 104, to how the sea took the land of the Pandiyan kings, upon which they conquered new lands to replace those they had lost.
There are also references to the rivers Pahruli and Kumari, that are said to have flowed in a now-submerged land. The Silappadhikaram, a 5th century epic, stating that the "cruel sea" took the Pandiyan land that lay between the rivers Pahruli and the many-mountained banks of the Kumari, to replace which the Pandiyan king conquered lands belonging to the Chola and Chera kings (Maturaikkandam, verses 17-22).
Adiyarkkunallar, a 12th century commentator on the epic, explains this reference by saying that there was once a land to the south of the present-day Kanyakumari , which stretched from the Pahruli river in the north to the Kumari river in the south. This land was divided into 49 territories, which he names as 7 coconut territories (elutenga natu), 7 Madurai territories (elumaturai natu), 7 old sandy territories (elumunpalai natu), 7 new sandy territories (elupinpalai natu), 7 mountain territories (elukunra natu), 7 eastern coastal territories (elukunakarai natu) and 7 dwarf-palm territories (elukurumpanai natu). All these lands, he says, together with the many-mountained land that began with KumariKollam, with forests and habitations, were submerged by the sea. Two of these territories were supposedly parts of present-day Kollam and Kanyakumari districts.
R. Mathivanan, then Chief Editor of the Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project of the Government of Tamilnadu, in 1991 claimed to have deciphered the Indus script as Tamil, following the methodology recommended by his teacher Devaneya Pavanar, presenting the following timeline.
ca. 200,000 to 50,000 BC: evolution of "the Tamilian or Homo Dravida",
ca. 200,000 to 100,000 BC: beginnings of the Tamil language
50,000 BC: Kumari Kandam civilisation
20,000 BC: A lost Tamil culture of the Easter Island which had an advanced civilisation
16,000 BC: Lemuria submerged
6087 BC: Second Tamil Sangam established by a Pandya king
3031 BC: A Chera prince in his wanderings in the Solomon Island saw wild sugarcane and started cultivation in Kumari Kandam.
1780 BC: The Third Tamil Sangam established by a Pandya king
7th century BC: Tolkappiyam (the earliest extant Tamil grammar)
BBC reports the following further evidence which suggests volcanic eruptions may have some effect to this said land.
Scientists have discovered the remains of a "lost continent" beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean.
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The Western Australian Tribes (Siva Tribes) have similar cultural back ground as India's. Late Jagadguru Sankaracharya of Kanchi Mutt, Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi have written a number of commentaries about them and have concluded that their culturally isolated from India and concluded that this proves that Kumari Kandam had existed. There are other evidence available also.
It appears that some copy cats are on prowl here who have simply copied earlier answers.
It looks it is not a myth. According to the literatures and the scientific research Kumari Kandam was Exists. And during the earth rotations the land mass drifted away.
The Sceince theory says that there was a land connectivity between Madagaskar ,south India and Australia were exists. I read an article in newspapers long ago on ancient humans evolution theory . There is close relationship in DNA between Australians(native) and south Indians(Dravidians)
Have a look on Indian subcontinent oceans closely on google earth or Google maps (satelite). a shallow sea bed can be seen surrounding the Indian sub continent. Which means some year(may be hundreds of years) ago that should have land mass when the Sea level is low.
http://maps.google.co.in/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=ta...
it match the literature reference of Pandyas Madurai (2nd & third Thamizh Sangams) covered by sea.
The river flows in Kanyakumari district known as pazhayaru (old river) refered as Pahruli river.
and look at the area around the Poompuhar there are more deeper than other shores. Gives a opinion that there was a port exist in olden days. And there are reference that Korkai had a port. It Korkai should have little furhter or part of it have submerged.
Poompuhar (kaveripoompatinam ) sank relatively very later.
A research on poompuhar and Korkai sea bed would reveal more information.
unfortunately the Archaeological departments is not done any thing explicit or hiding its findings. They more focused on the Dwaraka than the Poompuhar and Kumari Kandam.
And last but not the least thanks to Mr.Azim , gave a very good reference. much informative.
Though sincerely I have no idea over this mtter, the information Asimboral Saheb provided is useful (atleast) to me. Thanks Kumar to ask such a question and Thanks to Asimboral Saheb for a fantastic information.
Though sincerely I have no idea over this mtter, the information Asimboral Saheb provided is useful (atleast) to me. Thanks Kumar to ask such a question and Thanks to Asimboral Saheb for a fantastic information.
i was about to answer that it did exist, and was sunken by a giant tsunami. then i read asimboral's answer... it's complete and perrrrrfect! wonder where he gets all this knowledge from.