KUMARI KANDAM

 KUMARI KANDAM- THE LOST CONTINENT

The world has seen many establishments and the demise of land and people migrating from one land to other land.

A billion years ago, earth's landform looked different . At first, the lands are combined together which is called Pangaea. Around 200 millions years ago, there was a continental drift in which Pangaea divided into two new continents - Laurasia and Gondwanaland. 

Different landforms of Earth

This continental drift resulted in formation of mountains, and also caused many disasters like volcanic eruptions, tsunami and earthquakes. It also caused many landforms disappear. One such land is Kumari Kandam (Lemuria).

Kumari Kandam is a continent which is said to be located in the present South India and is lost in the Indian Ocean now. It is said to be ruled by Tamil king Pandiyan. It is said that Pandiyan Kings almost ruled Kumari Kandam for 10,000 years before it got submerged underwater. It is said to extended from " present Kanyakumari in North to Kerguelen Islands in South, and Madagascar in West to Sunda Islands in East ", by Suryanarayana Sastri in 1903. In 1912, Somasundara Bharathi wrote that it touched China, Africa, Australia, and Kanyakumari on four sides.

 Tamil People believe that it is the cradle of civilization and also claim it is where the first two Tamil Literacy Academies were held during Pandya period. In a old Tamil poetics 'Iraiyanar Akapporul' which is dated to the later century of 1st Millennium CE mentions that three Tamil Literacies(Sangams) occurred in total by King Pandiyan. According to it, the first sangam prospered for 4,400 years in Thenmadurai in which 549 poets attended including Agastya and presided over by gods like Shiva, Murugan, Kuberan. The second sangam flourished for 3,700 years in Kapatapuram, attended by 59 poets again including Agastya. The poetics states that these two cities are 'seized by ocean'. The third and final sangam was established in North Madurai (current Madurai-City in Tamilnadu, India).

It is also referred in many other Tamil literatures. According to Silappadhikaram, one of the five greatest literature of Tamil, written in 2nd century CE, states " that cruel sea seized the Pandyans land."

Adiyarkkunallur which is a 12th century CE poetics states "there was once a land to south of present Kanyakumari which stretched 700 kavatam from the Pahruli river in the North to the Kumari River in the South."

Kanakkathikaram, a 15th century Tamil Mathematical literacy work which is in form of poems, defines the length of 1 kavatam as 24,000 muzham (33,000 feet). So the equivalent distance of 700 kavatam is 4,375 miles.

Kumari Kandam was divided into 49 territories and are classified into 7 categories. Seven coconut lands(elu tenga nadu), Seven mango lands(elu Maturai nadu), Seven front sandy lands(elu munpalai nadu), Seven back sandy lands(elu pin palai nadu), Seven hilly lands(elu kunra nadu), Seven coastal lands(elu kunakarai nadu), Seven dwarf-palm lands(elu kurumpanai nadu).