The Tamil history of Lemuria/ Kumari Kandam

The Tamil history of Lemuria/ Kumari Kandam

      What is Lemuria/kumari kandam? What was its history? And how is it related to Tamil and its people?

    Many archeologists believe that Lemuria was a huge continent that existed during the ice age period and is believed to be the place of origin of humans. The continent itself stretched from south india connecting Madagascar and Australia which also included present day sri lanka; which is now submerged under water.

   That is the western point of view; now lets see what our ancient tamil writings say. There are elaborate mentions of Lemuria also known as kumari kandam or naavalan theevu in ancient tamil literature dating back 4000 years. They elaborate about the landscape and the popular cities and nations the lost continent had. Various highly populated cities like Thenmadurai (translates to south Madurai), kabadapuram and muthoor were present in the continent. These cities were said to have been marvels of their own, the sort the world didn’t see for the millionia to come; And also two huge rivers namely pakruli and kumari. The literatures also speak of two mountain ranges called kumarikkodou and manimalai. It is said to have been the birth place of tamil and the tamil people. It contains 49 nations within it namely seven thinganadu, seven Madurainadu, seven munbalainadu , seven pinbalainadu, seven kundranadu, seven kunakkarainadu, seven kurumpanainadu. The three tamil sangams (a gathering of poets and highly literate people to write and publish varies works of literature), according to Nakkirar in his poem Iraiyanar Agaporul (which dates back to 4000BC) states that these sangams were held continuously one after the other for 9990 years. The first sangam was held in Thenmadurai from 4440BC with 4449 poets along with 39 kings which gave rise to literatures like paripadal, mudunaarai, mudukurukku, kalariyavirai, perathigaram all of which are now lost in time; after Thenmadurai was submerged in water the second sangam was held in Kabadapuram from 3700BC with 3700 poets gave rise to literatures like agathiyam, tholkappiyam, puthapuranam, mapuranam of which only tholkappiyam was not lost; and eventually in time kabadapuram also was submerged in water. The third and final tamil sangam was held in the present day Madurai from 1850BC with 449 poets gave rise to literarues like agananuru, purananuru, naaladiyar, thirukkural etc. It is also said to have been home to powerful animals called Yaali which were used for war by the tamils. These yaali’s are now only found in statues and potraits in temples in tamil nadu and sri lanka.

    So what does all this means? It means that if proven it would mean that the tamil language and its people are the oldest and long lasting civilization in the history of the world. It explains the presence of tamil in india and sri lanka long before recorded history. The time lines in which Lemuria sunk coincides with the end of the ice age when ice caps melted and sea levels increased sinking lower lands like most of Lemuria leaving high lands like srilanka and india, where tamil and its people continued to prosper through out the ages. It’s a confusion whether to feel proud that our people had a continent of their own once or to feel pity that those same people don’t even have a proper person to represent them.

Looking back at our forefathers there is nothing but pity on us now-a-days to be so dependent on other people for our livelihood. Let us not forget our past and try to walk the same path of our ancestors. We, The once mighty people of kumari kandam are now slaves to foreign rulers in our own lands.