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According to many of the ancient extant Tamil literature and some of the Sanskrit literature, Kumari Kandam is the legendary sunken continent, which was ruled by Pandiyan Kings for thousands of years, before getting submerged in the Indian Ocean.

Atlantis, Lemuria, and other lost civilizations are the reason why a lot of people are interested in history. Ever since Atlantis was mentioned by ancient Greek philosopher Plato, people around the world are convinced that somewhere out there is a lost city/continent that was once inhabited by an extremely advanced ancient civilization: the Atlanteans.

However, Atlantis isn’t the only continents said to have existed on Earth. If we travel towards India, we will find there is a lesser known story of a massive continent that was swallowed by the ocean.

The ancient continent of Kumari Kandam is said to have existed south of modern-day India, now below the Indian Ocean. Its people the Tamil are said to have spread across the world creating other civilizations after Kumari Kandam disappeared.

In this article we take a look at the story behind the fascinating continents said to have existed in the distant past.

01. Just like Atlantis, the story behind Lemuria and Kumari Kandam is a fascinating one. Kumari Kandam is a lost continent home o the Ancient Tamil people.

02. The mythical continent is said to have existed south of modern-day India and is located not below the Indian Ocean.

03. Just as with Atlantis, the continent of Kumari Kandam was lost to the sea, and few of its survivors escaped the cataclysmic events and spread across the planet.

04. There are several names by which the continents goes depending on spelling it can vary from Kumari Kandam, Kumarikkantam, and Kumari Nadu.

05. The word ‘Kumari Kandam’ was first mentioned in a 15th-century version of the Skanda Purana –the largest Mahāpurāṇa, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts— and was written by Kachiappa Sivacharyara (1350-1420).

06. Contrary to popular belief, the word “Kumari Kandam” derives from the ancient Sanskrit words “Kumarika Khanda.”

07. Kumari Kandam is described as the kingdom of the Earth in the Andakosappadalam section of Kanda Puranam.

08. Kumari Kandam is considered the cradle of civilization, the place where everything started.

09. Many authors indicate that the people of Tamil belong to the oldest civilization on the surface of the planet and when the continent of Kumari Kandam was lost to the sea, its people migrated to other parts of the planet founding different civilizations.

10. The continent was mentioned for the first time during the 19th century when scholars proposed the existence of a lost continent called Lemuria, in order to explain strange geological, and biological similarities between India, Africa and the Island of Madagascar.

11. After scholars had mentioned the possibility that there is a lost continent hiding beneath the Indian ocean; people rushed to connect it to ancient legends of lost civilizations mentioned in ancient Tamil and Sanskrit texts.

12. However, modern-day scholars argue such a continent could not have existed, and the theory is rendered obsolete after the continental drift theory.

13. Interestingly, there are numerous ancient Tamil and Sanskrit writings that speak of legendary lost lands in South India that have been devoured by the ocean.

14. Some authors argue that one of the best pieces of evidence supporting the existence of the lost continent of Kumari Kandam is a thousands-year-old artificial bridge, located in the Palk Strait, in the Indian Ocean called Rama’s Bridge.

15. In 2006, the National Institute of Ocean Technology conducted some underwater surveys that revealed the submerged remains of the ancient port city in Indian ocean in south India.

Reference:

Encyclopedia of Imaginary and Mythical Places Paperback – March 4, 2014 by Theresa Bane

The Lemuria myth by S. Cristopher Jayakaran