The truth behind the continent of the “Kumari Kandam”. India is a country of many bizarre and incredible things. From one of the oldest civilizations in the world to the most powerful kingdoms; its history is brimmed with rich culture and scientific inventions which have shaped the world as we know it. However, there are still some mysteries revolving around our country which we are digging for answers for even in modern times. India, as we see it today, was not always like this. A billion years ago, its surface looked quite different, and not just India but the whole world looked different. Most of the countries we know today did not even exist, instead, they were all combined in a landmass called Pangaea. Around 200 million years ago, there was a moment in the tectonic plates that created continental drifts and broke the Pangaea into two new continents, Laurasia and Gondwanaland. This in result let to the formation of mountains, submerged lands, volcano eruption, earthquakes, and tsunamis with this, many life forms and landmasses came into existence and vanished over some time.
Today, we will get some knowledge about one such landmass which lost its presence in the Indian Ocean. In ancient times since Plato gave the theory of the lost city of Atlantis, scholars from different countries started to believe that there are still some undiscovered cities similar to Atlantis. As a result, several theories and discoveries took place to claim the lost cities and nations.
In the 15th century, some Tamil scholars revealed that a whole continent known as “Kumari Kandam” or “Lemuria” was submerged in the Indian Ocean due to the rising sea levels after the last ice age ended. The mythical continent is said to have existed in the South of Modern-Day India and is located below the Indian Ocean. Tamil people consider “Kumari Kandam” as their lost home continent. According to them, the now-drowned “Kumari Kandam” was ruled by Pandiyan Kings for over 10,000 years; making it the oldest civilization on the planet. At that time the land was divided into 49 Nadu or territories: thus are Seven Coconut Territories, Seven Madurai Territories, Seven Old Sandy Territories, Seven New Sandy Territories, Seven Mountains Territories, Seven Eastern Coastal Territories, And Seven Dwarf-Palm Territories; but when the continent started drowning due to rise in sea level the Tamil of this continent migrated to other parts of Africa, India, and Sri Lanka and mixed with other groups, leading to the formation of new races, languages, and civilization. This is how the Tamilians claimed entire humanity is descended from the inhabitants of “Kumari Kandam”.
According to their belief, it is the cradle of civilization, the place where everything started. However, the word “Kumari Kandam” was first mentioned in a 15t-century version of the ‘Skanda Purana’- the largest ‘Mahapurana’ which was written by Kachiappa Sivacharaya. It is described as the kingdom of the earth in the ‘Andakosappadalam’ section of ‘Kanda Puranam’.
In the 19th century European geologist Philip Lutely Sclater came up with a new term for “Kumari Kandam”. He called it “Lemuria” as a way to explain the migration of Madagascar Lemurs to India. In his 'Theory of a Landmass', he said the continent was extended from Africa to Asia agreeing to the Tamil nationalist belief but all these theories and research, do they have any truth in them, or they are just a myth?
According to researchers at India's National Institute Of Oceanography about 14, 500 years ago, the sea level was lower by 100 meters and about 10, 000 years ago it was 60 meters low. This study strongly suggests that there was once a land bridge connecting the island of Sri Lanka to mainland India; one piece of evidence can be found in the contemporary times which support the existence of “Kumari Kandam”, is 1.7 million-year-old artificial Adam's bridge in the Palk Strait, in the Indian Ocean also known as ‘Rama's Bridge’ but this lone evidence is not enough to prove the existence of such a civilization for years, many researchers and geologist have looked for answers and proof behind the lost continent, but apart from its mention in Hindu scriptures, no one could prove anything on a larger scale.
However, in the future, if anything related to this vast civilization is proven, it would mean that the treasure of our knowledge is deeply rooted in the depths of the sea and there is so much we still don't know about our planet. So this was the mysterious tale of the great “Kumari Kandam”.
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