Take off with Natarajan

Source::::Madras Miscellany…THE HINDU….BY.SHRI.Muthiah ….

Natarajan

Did Kumarikantam (in the Tamil), also known as Lemuria (in English), really exist? I was provoked into thinking about it again, on recently reading a lecture that Dr. S. Gopalakrishnan had delivered at a Tamil Nadu History Congress.

I’ve always thought this lost continent existed, stretching from Australia to Madagascar, and that it fragmented, much of it lost to the sea, due to at least one huge tsunami (there are those who believe there were three). My belief is based on what I see as linkages between the Aborigines of Australia, the tribals of Papua-New Guinea and parts of Indonesia, the Veddahs of Sri Lanka, some of the tribals of South India, and the people of Madagascar. But I’m no social scientist, anthropologist, linguist or geologist, so my theory is just an article of faith. Dr. Gopalakrishnan’s paper however cites several scientists who hold passionate views on the subject.

A British view expressed by a Philip Sclater in the 19th Century felt the lost continent stretched from India to Madagascar where are found the largest number of species of lemurs, an animal that, it is claimed, lent its name to Lemuria. The Tamil Dravidianists latched on to this theory in 1903 and hold that Lemuria was Kumarikantam, the ancient home of the Tamil people. Kumarikantam, as some of these theorists see it, was shaped like an India turned on its head, with both peninsular portions merging. The southern land stretched nearly 2,800 km further south from today’s Kanniyakumari, some claim.

These theorists, led by Dr. E. Mathivannan, date Kumarikantam to 50,000 years ago and hold that Lemuria was submerged 16,000 years ago. In what became the ‘new’ South India, the Second Tamil Sangam flourished 6000 years ago and the Third about 3,800 years ago, established by a Pandya king. Maraimalai Adigal was one of the first Tamil scholars to proclaim the existence of Kumarikantam and was supported by others like Thiru V. Kalyanasundram, but those like J. Nallaswami Pillai had their reservations. Ancient Sangam poetry, however, refers to threats by the ocean and consequent loss of land and lives.

Several ocean studies in more recent times have shown that beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean there exist ridges and valleys, high mountain peaks and low hills, a landscape very like a land formation. Is this subterranean geography evidence of Lemuria that is claimed by many as Kumarikantam? Prof. Gopalakrishnan refuses to take sides, but concludes, “Nothing should be rejected out of hand just because concrete evidence is not available. Traditions are not meaningless. They are part of civilisation’s institutional memory. They should be given due attention and weightage. The efforts to validate the data on lost civilisations need a multidisciplinary approach…”