Kumari Kandam
Kumari Kandam | |
---|---|
lost[1] | |
Locations | Indian Ocean |
Kumari Kandam (
In the 19th century, some European and American scholars speculated the existence of a submerged continent called
literature. According to these writers, an ancient Tamil civilisation existed on Lemuria, before it was lost to the sea in a catastrophe.In the 20th century, the Tamil writers started using the name Kumari Kandam to describe this submerged continent. Although the Lemuria theory was later rendered obsolete by the
Etymology and names
When the Tamil writers were introduced to the concept of
The words "Kumari Kandam" first appear in Kanda Puranam, a 15th-century Tamil version of the Skanda Purana, written by Kachiappa Sivacharyara (1350–1420).[3] Although the Tamil revivalists insist that it is a pure Tamil name, it is actually a derivative of the Sanskrit word "Kumārika Khaṇḍa".[4] The Andakosappadalam section of Kanda Puranam describes the following cosmological model of the universe: There are many worlds, each having several continents, which in turn, have several kingdoms. Paratan, the ruler of one such kingdom, had eight sons and one daughter. He further divided his kingdom into nine parts, and the part ruled by his daughter Kumari came to be known as Kumari Kandam after her. Kumari Kandam is described as the kingdom of the Earth. Although the Kumari Kandam theory became popular among anti-Brahmin, anti-Sanskrit Tamil nationalists, the Kanda Puranam actually describes Kumari Kandam as the land where the Brahmins reside, where Shiva is worshipped and where the Vedas are recited. The rest of the kingdoms are described as the territory of the mlecchas.[5]
The 20th-century Tamil writers came up with various theories to explain the etymology of "Kumari Kandam" or "Kumari Nadu". One set of claims was centered on the purported
The Tamil writers also came up with several other names for the lost continent. In 1912, Somasundara Bharati first used the word "Tamilakam" (a name for the
Submerged lands in ancient literature
Multiple ancient and medieval Tamil and Sanskrit works contain legendary accounts of lands in
Nakkeerar's commentary does not mention the size of the territory lost to the sea. The size is first mentioned in a 15th-century commentary on
- Elu teñku natu ("Seven coconut lands")
- Elu Maturai natu ("Seven mango lands")
- Elu munpalai natu ("Seven front sandy lands")
- Elu pinpalai natu ("Seven back sandy lands")
- Elu kunra natu ("Seven hilly lands")
- Elu kunakarai natu ("Seven coastal lands")
- Elu kurumpanai natu ("Seven dwarf-palm lands")
Other medieval writers, such as Ilampuranar and Perasiriyar, also make stray references to the loss of antediluvian lands to the south of Kanyakumari, in their commentaries on ancient texts like .
There are also several other ancient accounts of non-Pandyan land lost to the sea. Many Tamil Hindu shrines have legendary accounts of surviving the floods mentioned in Hindu mythology. These include the prominent temples of Kanyakumari, Kanchipuram, Kumbakonam, Madurai, Sirkazhi and Tiruvottiyur.[13] There are also legends of temples submerged under the sea, such as the Seven Pagodas of Mahabalipuram, the remains of which were discovered after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.[14] The
None of these ancient texts or their medieval commentaries use the name "Kumari Kandam" or "Kumari Nadu" for the land purportedly lost to the sea. They do not state that the land lost by the sea was a whole continent located to the south of Kanyakumari. Nor do they link the loss of this land to the history of Tamil people as a community.[10]
Lemuria hypothesis in India
In 1864, the English zoologist
Most European and American geologists dated Lemuria's disappearance to a period before the emergence of
The native Tamil intellectuals first started discussing the concept of a submerged Tamil homeland in the late 1890s. In 1898, J. Nallasami Pillai published an article in the philosophical-literary journal Siddhanta Deepika (aka The Truth of Light). He wrote about the theory of a lost continent in the Indian Ocean (i.e. Lemuria), mentioning that the Tamil legends speak of floods which destroyed the literary works produced during the ancient sangams. However, he also added that this theory had "no serious historical or scientific footing".[22][23]
Popularization in Tamil Nadu
In the 1920s, the Lemuria concept was popularized by the
In curriculum
The books discussing the Kumari Kandam theory were first included in the college curriculum of the present-day Tamil Nadu in 1908. Suryanarayana Sastri's book was prescribed for use in
After the Dravidian parties came to power in the 1967 Madras State elections, the Kumari Kandam theory was disseminated more widely through school and college textbooks.[28] In 1971, the Government of Tamil Nadu established a formal committee to write the history of Tamilakam (ancient Tamil territory). The state education minister R. Nedunceliyan declared in the Legislative Assembly that by "history", he meant "from the time of Lemuria that was seized by the ocean".[29][30]
In 1971, the Government of Tamil Nadu constituted a committee of historians and litterateurs, headed by M. Varadarajan. One of the objectives of the committee was to highlight "the great antiquity" of the Tamils. A 1975 textbook written by this committee detailed the Kumari Kandam theory, stating that it was supported by "the foremost geologists, ethnologists, and anthropologists".[31] As late as 1981, the Tamil Nadu government's history textbooks mentioned the Kumari Kandam theory.[32]
Characteristics
Tamil writers characterized Kumari Kandam as an ancient, but highly advanced civilization located in an isolated continent in the Indian Ocean. They also described it as the cradle of civilization inhabited solely by the speakers of Tamil language. The following sections describe these characteristics in detail.
Isolated
Kumari Kandam is theorized as an isolated (both temporally and geographically) land mass. Geographically, it was located in the Indian Ocean. Temporally, it was a very ancient civilization. Many Tamil writers do not assign any date to the submergence of Kumari Kandam, resorting to phrases like "once upon a time" or "several thousands of years ago". Those who do, vary greatly, ranging from 30,000 BCE to the 3rd century BCE.[33] Several other writers state that the land was progressively lost to the sea over a period of thousands of years. In 1991, R. Mathivanan, then Chief Editor of the Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project of the Government of Tamil Nadu, claimed that the Kumari Kandam civilization flourished around 50,000 BCE, and the continent submerged around 16,000 BCE. This theory was based on the methodology recommended by his teacher Devaneya Pavanar.
The isolation resulted in the possibility of describing Kumari Kandam as a utopian society insulated from external influences and foreign corruption. Unlike its description in the Kanda Puranam, the Tamil revivalists depicted Kumari Kandam as a place free of the upper-caste Brahmins, who had come to be identified as descendants of Indo-Aryans during the Dravidian movement. The non-utopian practices of the 20th century Tamil Hindu society, such as superstitions and caste-based discrimination, were all described as corruption resulting from Indo-Aryan influence.[3]
A land lost to the ocean also helped the Tamil revivalists provide an explanation for the lack of historically verifiable or scientifically acceptable material evidence about this ancient civilization. The earliest extant Tamil writings, which are attributed to the third Sangam, contain Sanskrit vocabulary, and thus could not have been the creation of a purely Tamil civilization. Connecting the concept of Lemuria to an ancient Tamil civilization allowed the Tamil revivalists to portray a society completely free of Indo-Aryan influence.[3] They could claim that the various signs of the ancient Tamil civilization had been lost in the deep ocean. The later dominance of Sanskrit was offered as another explanation for the deliberate destruction of ancient Tamil works.[34] In the 1950s, R. Nedunceliyan, who later became Tamil Nadu's education minister, published a pamphlet called Marainta Tiravitam ("Lost Dravidian land"). He insisted that the Brahmin historians, being biased towards Sanskrit, had deliberately kept the knowledge of the Tamil's greatness hidden from the public.[35]
Connected with South India
The Kumari Kandam proponents laid great emphasis on stating that the
During British Raj, Kanyakumari was a part of the Travancore state, most of which was merged to the newly-formed Kerala state after the 1956 reorganization. The Tamil politicians made a concerted effort to ensure that Kanyakumari was incorporated into the Tamil-majority Madras State (now Tamil Nadu). Kanyakumari's purported connection with Kumari Kandam was one of the reasons for this effort.[38]
Cradle of civilization
According to the Kumari Kandam proponents, the continent was submerged when the
As early as 1903, Suryanarayana Sastri, in his Tamilmoliyin Varalaru, insisted that all the humans were descendants of the ancient Tamils from Kumari Kandam. Such claims were repeated by several others, including M. S. Purnalingam Pillai and Maraimalai Adigal.[39] In 1917, Abraham Pandithar wrote that Lemuria was the cradle of human race, and Tamil was the first language spoken by the humans. These claims were repeated in the school and college textbooks of Tamil Nadu throughout the 20th century.[37]
Some Tamil writers also claimed that the Indo-Aryans were also descendants of proto-Dravidians of Kumari Kandam. According to this theory, these Indo-Aryans belonged to a branch which migrated to Central Asia and then returned to India. Similar explanations were used to reconcile the popular theory that proto-Dravidians migrated to India from the
Primordial but not primitive
The Tamil revivalists did not consider Kumari Kandam as a primitive society or a rural civilization. Instead, they described it as a utopia which had reached the zenith of human achievement, and where people lived a life devoted to learning, education, travel and commerce. Sumanthi Ramaswamy notes that this "placemaking" of Kumari Kandam was frequently intended as a teaching tool, meant to inspire the modern Tamils to pursue excellence. But this pre-occupation with "civilization" was also a response to the British rulers' projection of the Europeans as more civilized than the Tamils.[37]
Alleged lost works
The Tamil revivalists insisted that the first two
In 1902, Chidambaranar published a book called Cenkonraraiccelavu, claiming that he had 'discovered' the manuscript from "some old cudgan [sic] leaves". The book was presented as a lost-and-found work of the first Sangam at Tenmadurai. The author of the poem was styled as Mutaluli Centan Taniyur ("Chentan who lived in Taniyur before the first deluge"). The work talked about the exploits of an antediluvian Tamil king Sengon, who ruled the now-submerged kingdom of Peruvalanatu, the region between the rivers Kumari and Pahruli. According to Chidambaranar, Sengon was a native of Olinadu, which was located south of the Equator; the king maintained several battleships and conquered lands as far as Tibet. In 1950s, Cenkonraraiccelavu was declared as a forgery by S. Vaiyapuri Pillai. However, this did not stop the Tamil revivalists from invoking the text. The 1981 documentary funded by Government of Tamil Nadu declared it as the "world's first travelogue".[47]
Extent
The medieval commentator Adiyarkunallar stated that the size of the land south of Kanyakumari, lost to the sea was 700 kavatam. The modern equivalent of kavatam is not known.[48] In 1905, Arasan Shanmugham Pillai wrote that this land amounted to thousands of miles.[49] According to Purnalingam Pillai and Suryanarayana Sastri, the number was equivalent to 7000 miles.[50] Others, such as Abraham Pandither, Aiyan Aarithan, Devaneyan and Raghava Aiyangar offered estimates ranging from 1,400 to 3,000 miles.[51] According to U. V. Swaminatha Iyer, only the land amounting in area to only a few villages (equivalent to the Tamil measure of two kurram) was lost. In 1903, Suryanarayana Sastri suggested that Kumari Kandam extended from the present-day Kanyakumari in North to Kerguelen Islands in South, and from Madagascar in the West to Sunda Islands in the East. In 1912, Somasundara Bharati wrote that the continent touched China, Africa, Australia and Kanyakumari on four sides. In 1948, Maraimalai Adigal stated that the continent stretched as far as the South Pole. Somasundara Bharati offered an estimate of 6000–7000 miles.[52]
Maps
The first map to visualize Lemuria as an ancient Tamil territory was published by S. Subramania Sastri in 1916, in the journal Centamil. This map was actually part of an article that criticized the pseudohistorical claims about a lost continent. Sastri insisted that the lost land mentioned in Adiyarkunallar's records was barely equivalent to a
In 1927, Purnalingam Pillai published a map titled "Puranic India before the Deluges", in which he labeled the various places of Kumari Kandam with names drawn from ancient Tamil and Sanskrit literary works. Pulavar Kulanthai, in his 1946 map, was first to depict cities like Tenmaturai and Kapatapuram on the maps of Kumari Kandam. Several maps also depicted the various mountain ranges and rivers of Kumari Kandam. The most elaborate cartographic visualization appeared in a 1977 map by R. Mathivanan. This map showed the 49 nadus mentioned by Adiyarkunallar, and appears in the Tamil Nadu government's 1981 documentary.[54]
A 1981 map published by N. Mahalingam depicted the lost land as "Submerged Tamil Nadu" in 30,000 BCE.
Criticism of the concept
Kumari Kandam is a mythical continent,[1] and therefore, the attempts to mix this myth with Tamil history have attracted criticism since the late 19th century.[56] One of the earliest criticisms came from M Seshagiri Sastri (1897), who described the claims of ante-diluvial sangams as "a mere fiction originated by the prolific imagination of Tamil poets."[57] CH Monahan wrote a scathing review of Suryanarayana Sastri's Tamilmoliyin Varalaru (1903), shortly after its publication, accusing the author of "abandoning scientific research for mythology".[58] K. N. Sivaraja Pillai (1932) similarly stressed on the need to closely examine the historical authenticity of Sangam works and their commentaries.[59]
In 1956,
The same view is also shared by historian K. K. Pillay. He writes
... to accept this is not to accept the view that the entire Lemuria or Gondvana continent existed in the age of the Tamil Sangam, as is sometimes believed. Some of the writers on the Tamil Sangam might have held that the first Tamil Academy flourished in South Madurai which according to them lay to the south of the tip of present South India. This view has been sought to be reinforced by the Lemurian theory. But it is important to observe that the Lemurian continent must have existed, if at all, long long ago. According to geologists, the dismemberment of the Lemurian or Gondvana continent into several units must have taken place towards the close of the Mesozoic era.[62]
See also
- Atlantis
- Doggerland
- Evolution of lemurs, primate from Madagascar
- Lost city
- Legends of Mount Shasta
- Lemuria
- Mauritia
- Mu
- Phantom island
- Ramtha
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4766-1565-3.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 104–108.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-971500-8.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 268.
- Trübner & Co. pp. 98–102.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 105–106.
- ^ a b Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 204–211.
- ISBN 978-81-208-0810-2.
- ^ Shulman 1980, pp. 55–56.
- ^ a b c d Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 143–145.
- ^ Kalittokai 104:1–4
- ^ Purananuru 6:1–2, 17:1, 67:6.
- ^ Shulman 1980, pp. 57–69.
- ^ "Tsunami uncovers ancient sculptures in Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu". Down to Earth. 6 July 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
- ^ Shulman 1980, p. 57.
- ^ Shulman 1980, p. 62.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 99.
- ^ Henry Francis Blanford (1874) [1873]. The Rudiments of Physical Geography. Thacker, Spink. pp. 119–20.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 55.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 101–102.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 266.
- ^ Nallasami Pillai, J. 1898. Ancient Tamil Civilization. The Light of Truth or Siddhanta Deepika 2, no. 5: 109–13.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 103.
- ^ a b S. Christopher Jayakaran (9–22 April 2011). "The Lemuria myth". Frontline. 28 (8).
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 98–100.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 178–179.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 105.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 174.
- ^ a b Ramaswamy 2004, p. 151.
- ^ Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Debates 24 (1972): 76.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 179.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 102.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 148.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 117–118.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 120.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 172.
- ^ a b c d Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 109–113.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 173.
- ^ a b Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 122–126.
- ^ 1945. Namatu Natu [Our nation]. Madras: South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society.
- ^ N. S. Kandiah Pillai, 1957. Varalarruk Kalattirku Murpatta Palantamilar [Prehistoric ancient Tamilians]. 3rd ed. N.p.: Progressive Printers. Page 12.
- ^ Nedunceliyan, R. 1953. Marainta Tiravitam [Lost Dravidian land]. Madras: Manram Patippakam.
- ^ Government of Tamilnadu. 1975. Tamilnattu Varalaru: Tolpalañkalam [History of Tamilnadu: Prehistoric times]. Madras: Tamilnadu Aracu. Page 127.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 124–125.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 98.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 115–117.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 116–117.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 131.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, p. 205.
- ^ Subramania Sastri 1915–16, 420–21; Swaminatha Aiyar 1978, 14.
- ^ Abraham Pandither 1984, 55; Aiyan Aarithan 1904–5, 274; Devaneyan 1940, 50; Raghava Aiyangar 1938, 91.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 130–131.
- ^ Subramania Sastri 1915–16, 466–67.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 212–213.
- ^ Mahalingam 1981b, 136–37.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 151–152.
- ^ M. Seshagiri Sastri (1897). Essay on Tamil Literature. Printed at the S.P.C.K. Press. p. 39.
- ^ Ramaswamy 2004, pp. 223–224.
- ISBN 978-1-4067-5885-6.
- ^ KA Nilakanta Sastri (1956) [1941]. Historical Method in Relation to Problems of South Indian History. University of Madras. p. 87.
- ^ N. Subrahmanian (1996). The Tamils: Their History, Culture, and Civilization. Institute of Asian Studies. p. 25.
- ^ Pillay, K. K. (1963). South India and Ceylon. University of Madras. p. 6.
- Further reading
- Ramaswamy, Sumathi (2004). The Lost Land of Lemuria: Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24032-2.
- Shulman, David Dean (1980). Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-5692-3.
- Jayakaran, S. C. (2004). "Lost Land and the Myth of Kumari Kandam". Indian Folklore Research Journal. 1(4): 94-109.