Lemuria

Was the Tamil land Kumari Kandam part of 'Lost continent' discovered by Joides Resolution research vessel?

Drilling by the Joides Resolution research vessel, which traverses the seas extracting samples from beneath the sea floor, suggests that the continent, about a third the size of present day Australia, sank from sight only 20 million years ago.

Scientists hope that studying the region will help them understand the break-up of Australia, India and Antarctica.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/natur…

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Kumarikandam (Lemuria) Tamil Myth

Kumari Kandam is a land mass that is supposed to be submerged under the India Ocean, extending from the southern tip of peninsular India, to Madagascar in the west, and Australia in the east. It is sometimes considered as part or all of Lemuria, a hypothetical continent variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. References to Kumari Kandam can be found in the Tamil literature. Inferring from these references suggest that extensive land areas occupied by the Tamils have been lost to the sea due to massive tidal waves or tsunami. Legends say two sangams were established. First two sangams - Muthal sangam, Idai sangam was in kumari kandam and it was devoured by sea only the pandya king escaped and thus we don't have any literature of this period.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

No one will ever know for sure, for this is a perfect example of how myths, legends, and theories are made. It seems to me you have pretty much answered your own question with all the additional information you have given. Speculation as to whether the Joides actually drilled at the site can not be proven one waty or another as 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. If this is the area the vessel drilled and if you believe the legend then your answer would be yes.

Here is a bit more for those that want to read more:

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Tamil nationalists came to identify Kumari Kandam with Lemuria, a hypothetical "lost continent" posited in the 19th century to account for discontinuities in biogeography. In these accounts, Kumari Kandam became the "cradle of civilization", the origin of human languages in general and the Tamil language in particular. These ideas gained notability in Tamil academic literature over the first decades of the 20th century, and were popularized by the Tanittamil Iyakkam, notably by self-taught Dravidologist Devaneya Pavanar, who held that all languages on earth were merely corrupted Tamil dialects.

R. Mathivanan, then Chief Editor of the Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project of the Government of Tamil Nadu, in 1991 claimed to have deciphered the still undeciphered 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 known extant Tamil grammar)

Mathivanan uses "Aryan Invasion" rhetoric to account for the fall of this civilization:

"After imbibing the mania of the Aryan culture of destroying the enemy and their habitats, the Dravidians developed a new avenging and destructive war approach. This induced them to ruin the forts and cities of their own brethren out of enmity".

Mathivanan claims his interpretation of history is validated by the discovery of the "Jaffna seal", a seal bearing a Tamil-Brahmi inscription assigned by its excavators to the 3rd century BC (but claimed by Mathivanan to date to 1600 BC).

Interesting question, Thanks for asking.