Kumari Kandam - Ancient Tamilakam - Part 1

Lost Mysterious Land mass of Ancient Tamils

          Kumari Kandam !!! Prehistoric motherland in the Earth. It is the starting point of everything, Cradle of all civilization, fountain head of Knowledge, Birth place of Tamil (Oldest Language), Land of Lord Shiva. It was also popularly called as 'Sangam Era', where every one in the Greater India / Akhand Bharat (Undivided India) spoke Tamil / Thamizhi. The greater India includes 8 sub continents such as Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and part of China regions. The sub continent India was called as Bharata Khande and from the tip of Kanya kumari there was a huge landmass of ancient nation was called as Kumari Khande / Kandam.

        Theory of Kumari Kandam contains many hidden truths, pieces of stories, many links of Ancient Tamil, Origin of Early Humans, Dawn of Bharat, many misunderstandings and many misconceived perceptions. Westerners are calling this as lost Lemuria land , lost treasure City of Atlantis etc. Let them call in different names and connect with Kumari Kandam, the truth and the richness of this motherland will be unveiled in this post. 

           Let me start from the name, there are many citations for the name Kumari Kandam.

Reference 1 : This land was given to the only daughter of Bharata named 'Kumari', so this was called as Kumari Kandam.

Reference 2: In some other reference, this land was given to Lord Murugan's wife Devasena, daughter of God Indra. Lord Murugan has many different names such as Kumaran, Karthikeyan, Skanda / Kanda, Arumurugan, Shanmuga and many more. So, Kumaran's wife being called as Kumari / Kaumari and so it's called as Kumari kandam. 

Reference 3: There was a much celebrated 'Kumari' river at the south of this land, which makes them to call it as Kumari Nadu. Kandam means sub continent / land mass in Tamil. Not only Kumari river, there is also a big mountain at the south of the land called Kumari Hills. 

What is actually Kumari Kandam ???

          Kumari Kandam was the name of an ancient Landmass / sub continent of Prehistoric Tamil people in Bharat (Greater India). It was the place where Tamil language took birth from Lord Shiva,  where the earliest literary works of Tamil 'Agathiyam' was published. It was the first book in Tamil written by the great Sage Agathiyar (Agastya) during the First Sangam period. This land was most celebrated and flourished in Bharata Varshe, before the beginning of the Vedic Period and even before the period of Ramayana and Mahabharata. 

   The size of the land area of Kumari Kandam was 700 kavattam, approximately seven times of the size of Sri Lanka. That is why it was called as Sub continent of Greater India and has the term 'Khand / Kandam' in it's name.

           Some people say that Kumari Kandam is a myth, some say it is a fairy tale of Tamil Pride, some say that it's the lost Lemuria continent and some people say that Kumari kandam was real and true. When we don't have enough calculated proof / lack of interpretation, it will be called as Myth. All of these will be covered one by one in subsequent parts of Kumari Kandam post. 

Glory of Kumari Kandam

Geologically Kumari Kandam is located at the tip of Kanyakumari adjoining Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It also has the sacred mountain at the center, from which four rivers were originated. River Peru, River Kumari, River Pahruli (Parali) and River Kanni. At the South, there was a mountain called as 'Kumari Malai' (Kumari Hills).

The big sacred mountain at the center of this sub continent was called as 'Peru Malai' (Meaning Big Mountain, which is actually the Sacred Meru Mountain) 

Kumari Kandam crossing the Equator

           Kumari kandam was situated at the end of Tamil Nadu, with Indian ocean at the South, Bay of Bengal at the East and Arabian sea at the West. It was the place where life in the Earth has started. It was prospered with Wealth, rich in Gems, Agriculture, Artistic buildings, Magnificent temples, Skilled Poets, Enlightened Sages, many industrial places for Pottery, Weapon making, Jewelry of Gold and silver, Educated civilians, Highly Noble Kings, Strong Army of Soldiers, fame, Skilled in building boats to travel across various countries, Given first writing scripts to the World, a Divine Land of Lord Shiva, the place where the Marthanda black stone fell on the Earth. 

Tamil People closely followed roots of ancient nature worship, they worshiped Lord Shiva as supreme god and there was no caste system in this ancient Tamil land. 

          This huge sub continent was flourished during the era of early Pandyas. They were the earliest explorers of Bharata, Earliest Kingdom in the world and there were 72 kings of Pandya empire who has ruled the ancient Tamilakam (including Kumari Kandam) from 30,000 BCE to 16,000 BCE. 

        Sangam Period has started at Kumari Kandam, also known as ancient Tamilakam, covering current Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Sangam meaning Assembly of Tamil scholars and poets , it was also called as ' Tamil Kootam' which was firstly held at 'Then Madurai'. 'Then Madurai' was a first capital and port city of early Pandyas, this city was lost during massive and consecutive Tsunamis. When half of the Kumari kandam was lost, Pandyas changed the capital to 'Kavadapuram', where they held their Second Tamil Sangam, this city was also submerged under the ocean. Then, they have moved towards north and changed the capital city to 'Vada Madurai', that is the current 'Madurai' city in Tamil Nadu, where the Third Sangam was held. So, in total there were 3 Sangams held at three different places due to the catastrophe caused by mother Nature.

According to the ancient Skandapurana (Kanda Puranam), which mentions about Kumari kandam that

• "Kumari Kandam covers about 700 Kavatam (unknown measurement) from Pahruli river in the North to the Kumari River in the South.".
• "It is one of the nine regions of Bharata and the only region which was not inhabited by barbarians.

"Pahruli river was excavated to irrigate the mountain valley by the Pandya Kind 'Nediyon'. "

Third Sangam literary work 'Purananooru' talks about the Sunken land Kumari Kandam and the River Pahruli. Pandyas had love towards Tamil and they contributed to the language by creating Sangams. In Sangams, Tamil language faced many improvisation, created many poems, books, grammars etc. These sangams were held during ancient Pandya period. 

First Sangam / Mudhar Sangam was held at ThenMadurai (South Madurai) during 16,000 BCE, which lasted for 4400 years with 549 members and 4449 poets, where the first literary work by Sage Agathiyar called as 'Agathiyam' has been approved by all the poets, king and Lord Shiva. But, due to massive catastrophe caused by the nature, some cities were sunken under the Indian Ocean and half of the this sub continent were lost and also the first book 'Agathiyam' didn't survive. So, Sage Agastya asked his student Tolkappiyar to write a Tamil grammar book.

Second Sangam / Idai Sangam held at at Kapadapuram (Kavadapuram) during 11,000 BCE, with 59 members and 3500 poets, which lasted for 3700 years. It was the place where, Tolkappiyam was published, by the author Tolkappiyar. He was the disciple of Maharishi Agathiyar. 

Third Sangam held at Vada Madurai (Present Madurai city in Tamil Nadu) during 5000 BCE. Madurai is also called as 'Koodal Nagaram', meaning meeting city, with 49 members, many Kings of Tamilakam and 449 poets. This sangam lasted for 1800 years.

            It was mentioned in many ancient literatures and epics that Pahruli River was at the north of Kumari Kandam. Pahruli term was faced some transformations, as it traveled through many periods. Some researchers says that Pahruli means Pala Thuli river meaning many drops, one more term as Parali aaru as Pazhaya aaru. These are wrong, a river can not be named as many drops. 

      The famous Pahruli river has multiple meanings, the reason behind behind explaining the meaning of this river will be understood in the second part of this post. 

Meaning 1: 'parai oli aaru'. 'Parai' meaning drums, an instrument which was used in ancient times to make an announcement at the center of the city among large number of people, the sound of parai will be huge, 'Parai' defines the fierce of the river. 'oli' meaning sound. Together it was termed as 'Paraioli' aka Paruli aru / Pahruli river. 

Meaning 2: 'Pan aruliya', 'Pan' meaning note of a classical music, 'aruliya' - given with blessings, the place where the classical music was born. Panaruli aaru was then termed as parali, then pahruli. 

Meaning 3: 'Par aruliya aaru',  'Par' means Earth, 'aruliya' means Given with blessings, the river given by mother Earth with her blessings for all the living beings.

Today, there is small river flowing in Kanyakumari district called Parali aaru, which is originated from Mahendragiri Hills.  This is the same river mentioned in the so called myth of Kumari Kandam. 

Parali / Pahruli River

     Tamizhians in Kumari Kandam were Rich in Language, Dance, Music, Arts, Skilled in Pottery, Building Ships, Trading of Food, Gems, Stone and Gold, Silk Clothing, Flourished Agriculture with food grains, Fountainhead of knowledge and science, much Cultured, Civilized, well planned cities and exquisite architecture !!


The life of the ancient Tamils was generally divided into two namely, Aham and Puram. Aham dealt with inside / inner feelings, love-life and Puram means profession and worldly life, charity and doings of royalty with reference to the interests and problems of society. The ancient Tamils knew the meteorological science. They keenly observed climatic changes and divided a year of twelve months into six seasons of each having two months on the basis of climatic change. The transition of Sun was calculated and when the Sun transits to Aries (Mesha Rasi - first Zodiac sign), it was celebrated as Tamil New Year, which is the 1st date of Chithirai Tamil month (April 14th).

Agathiyam, Aindiram and Tolkapiyam  were the oldest literature of Tamil, which were written prior to Rig Veda and composed in 12,000 BCE. Agathiyam, the oldest literature was written by Sage Agastya, also called as 'Agathiyar' in Tamil. He was considered as most Knowledged and Powerful sage, there was an ancient mountain in Western ghats which was named after him and a temple was dedicated to Sage Agathiyar at this mountain, in Tamil Nadu.
            In Vedic texts, it is mentioned that he is one of the Sapta Rishis (Seven Rishis). In Tamil, he is the founder of Siddha, the first Siddhar in Shaivism, he is the first one to create Tamil Grammar. His name was also mentioned in Ramayana and Mahabharata.

      Maharishi Agastya is also the founder of Silambam (powerful martial arts) and Varmam (Ancient Science of healing,  healing using varmam points, this science can also be used to attack a person). 

Maharishi Agathiyar (Agastya)

The reference about kumari kandam are only found in Sangam literature and only people in those period has witnessed it. Though, people say that there are no scientific proof for this period, there are many under water discoveries by NIO archeaological team (National Institute of Ocaeanology), which shows the images of underwater ancient city ruins of Kumari Kandam.

         More details about KK (Kumari Kandam), it's myth stories and truths will be discussed parallelly with respect to Earth's Geography, Literature, Cities of KK, Mountains, Rivers, Yuga cycle, Notable Kings and occasions, Puranas and historic symbols. 

By Geography,

Myth Story 1:    Many researchers and scholars says that Kumari Kandam is a huge land mass connecting Madagascar, South India and Australia. (Like represented in the picture below)

          No ! Kumari Kandam was not connected to Madagascar and Australia. It was connected only to to South India, to be precise, it was a part of Greater India as a single piece of land. 

Truth:  Short history rewind over here. About 100 million years ago, Eastern part of Gondwana, a super continent comprising Madagascar, Australia, India and Antartica started to break up due to the flood basalt of Karoo and Ferrar Large Igneous provinces. Madagascar got separated from Gondwana and joined Indo - Australian Plate.  Indo- Australian plate has started moving towards North - West direction from Australia and Antartica. Then first ocean floor was formed between India and Antartica (Picture below). 

While migrating towards north, Madagascar and Mascarene plateau stretching from Seychelles to Reunion broke off from India, due to the Eruption of Reunion Volcanic hotspot which occurred 65 million years ago. India - Madagascar- Seychelles separation coincides with the Deccan Traps of India. Huge eruption of Reunion Volcanic hot spot has laid down the Deccan Traps in India, it created a vast basalt lava bed and opened a rift which separated Seychelles and Madagascar from India. The basalt deposit on Seychelles are from Deccan traps eruption. 

  Then then Indian tectonic plate started moving towards North East direction, crossed Equator and joined with Eurasia plate. Even today, Indian plate is moving in north east direction with the speed of 1.4 inches per year, Eurasian plate is also moving towards north east (0.79 inches per year), relatively slower than the Indian plate. So in future, this may cause Eurasian plate to deform and Indian plate to compress at the rate of 0.6 inches per year. 

         About 3 million years ago, Indian plate and Australian plate got separated by Capricorn Plate and now it diffuse it's boundaries. 

      Coming back to this post, these continental drift of the Earth are disproving the myth that Kumari kandam was connected to Madagascar and Australia. Also, life in Earth began only few million years before, so human civilization before Gondwana break up is impossible. Hence, Kumari Kandam can't be adjoining Madagascar to the West and Australia to the east. 

 Kumari Kandam was the place where the first literature and languages were born, about a million years ago. A million years ago ??? Yes, humans were evolved about 3 million years ago and there were many human remains found in Asia which dated back to 1.5 million years ago. Ancient early Tamil language was spoken by the humans in all over the world. Many countries, their cities and nature names reflects its tamil meaning. 
       Early Pandyas who ruled Kumari Kandam can be dated back to the beginning of Satya Yuga. Satya Yuga ???

-- More Details and truths about KK in Part 2

- Aarthi Thiyagarajan

Poompuhar - The lost city of Ancient Treasure

Poompuhar - The lost city of Ancient Treasure

     Poompuhar, also called as 'Kaveripoompattinam' is an ancient historic town in Nagapattinam district. It was one of the most important, busiest and richest International port of Sangam era in Ancient India, during the reign of early Cholas. Initially it was called as 'Puhar' , meaning 'Estuary' in Tamil, the place where the river Cauvery enters into Bay of Bengal, but due to its magnificent beauty it was named as 'Poompuhar' . It served as Political, Commercial and cultural activities center of Ancient Tamils. This celebrated coastline town was a capital city of Early chola rulers such as Sembiya, Muchkunda, Manuneethi Cholan and Karikala Cholan. ( The Grand Anicut / Kallanai was built by the King Karikala Cholan about 2000 years ago, which is still in use. To know more details about Kallanai, Reach to - https://divinediyaas.blogspot.com/2019/10/grand-anicut-kallanai-oldest-barrage-in.html )

        This Flourishing Rich port city of early Chola Kingdom is located at the mouth of Cauvery, but this treasure city was washed away by Tsunami and recurring erosions in 300 BCE. The sea swallowed the entire beauty, wealth and buildings of the original city, at present only small village is remaining. 

Poompuhar

      What was so special about this city ? One of the Five epics of Tamil literature, Silapathikaram says that Lord Indra ordered Vishwakarma (Divine Architect of Gods), to build this city for the King Muchkunda Chola, as a matter of gratitude, as the King stood with Indra and helped him to win the battles against demons / Asuras.  In Poompuhar, the ships were screeched with wealth of seven continents, even Devas come and worship in the powerful Shiva temples and the nights were so bright that even a small grain of rice dropped in the beach will be clearly visible to the naked eye. This city was full of treasure from all the countries, filled with traders and merchants of Gold, Silk, Pearls, Pepper, Grains, Sandal wood, Diamonds etc, it was a major trading and finance center of India.  Also, this was the first and only kingdom in Ancient India with Naval fleet. Early Cholas built strong navy to fight over seas during War, conquered several countries and expanded their kingdom. 

          
         The Sangam Tamil literatures  Silapathikaram, Pattinappalai, Manimekalai and Agananuru describes Poompuhar as Capital port city of Cholas. This glorious city was constructed in well planned manner, was rich in cultural diversities, served as international trade center with huge and tall beautiful mansions, warehouses near the shore with high platforms. The detailed layout of this eminent city, its fertility, prosperity, perennial flow of Cauvery, harbor, custom house, life style of people and their occupations were mentioned in the Fifth chapter of Silapathikaram. 

         This historic place was classified into two broad division, Maruvurpakam which is near the sea shore and Pattinappakam to its west. These two divisions were separated by stretch of wide beautiful garden, where daily market (Angadi in Tamil) was held under the shades of the trees, the day market was known as 'Nalangadi' and the night market was known as 'Allangadi'.

        Maruvurpakam was near the beach with several terraced mansions, granaries and warehouses, where the working class, Greek (Yavana) merchants and other merchants from foreign countries lived in the outskirts of Maruvurpakam and carried their business. It was also inhabited by fisher folks.  According to the author of Silapathikaram, Poompuhar was a Maha nagara, a great city with busy port where horses were brought by the ships, gold from northern mountains, gemstones and pearls from southern seas and wheat from Gangetic region. 

           The streets of Maruvurpakam were occupied by the Yavana sailors, silk traders, oversea traders, weavers, grain merchants, jewelers, gem traders, potters and diamond makers . 

          The streets next to Yavanas were occupied by Weavers who work on Silk, fur and cotton clothing. The art of stitching fabrics of Silk, Cotton and wool were known to them and there are about 32 different types of clothing mentioned in Silapathikaram. Mountain of silks, loads of gemstones, Gold, Corals, Sandalwood, pure pearls, Eagle wood, perfumes and separate loads of Grains, pulses were exhibited in the market. There were various small merchants who sells betel leaves, Oil, flour and women selling sweet flour cakes. Adjacent to this street, there were Gold smiths, Copper Smiths, Bronze smiths who melt metals and make ornaments out of it. Variety of jewels were mentioned in the literature, such as beads, Chains, anklets, Bangles, Rings, necklaces, Arm band etc.  Next street was occupied by skilled tailors who stitch  rich clothes and make covers made out of leather and there are many other streets where musicians, workers, Carpenters who make different Utensils, furniture, Ships, Toys , Weapons, Tools and Chariots from wood were also engaged in there. Even today, this city is famous for its different types of Handicrafts and Arts. 

It is stated that even in the night, the market will look bright with many lights, shiny gold, pearls and diamonds. This place was home for most powerful and popular trading community, Chettiars of Vashiyas. Through this port, many traders of Chettiar community traveled and expanded their business widely in Malaysia, Singapore, Sri lanka, China, Indonesia and many foreign countries. 

         Presence of Many foreign traders near the sea shore (Maruvurpakam) entitled Chola custom officials to affix Custom seal (Tiger Seal) on the imported goods. The custom officials did not allow to remove the imported goods from the shipyard until the customs duty was paid. 

    These square copper coins which has Tiger symbol on one side and Elephant symbol on the other side was now unearthed by the archaeologists in Puhar.

         Pattinappakam - Here, the palace of King was located. King's street (Raja Veedhi) is the main highway. The leading merchants, Pious Brahmins, Nobles, Rice merchants , Farmers, Astrologers and Ayurvedic physicians stayed in different streets of Pattinappakam. People who make pearl jewelries, bangles and rings lived in the streets parallel to the western side of the palace. Dancers were also stayed in various streets near to the Palace. 

Cooks, Musicians and army people stayed in the streets next to them, followed by the streets for servants of Royal household and residence of those who train horses and elephants in different quarters. Last, there were lot of open space to train Horses and Elephants for military purpose, Early Cholas were well know for their huge Elephant Army, Kings take elephant ride in the street to visit people, riding in elephant is considered as most prestigious, powerful and honorable act. There were also a shipyard and warehouse in pattinappakam. The town has special enclaves for foreign visitors and king's soldiers. 

          Once the legendary port city had trade links to ancient Greece and Rome and far east. Traders came from Rome, Greece and Egypt to deal in silk and pearls. Big ships entered into the port without any hassle and precious goods arrived from other countries were stored in huge warehouse, which was displayed in both Day market and Night market. 
       The Rich merchants of Manigrama, a suburban village of ancient Poompuhar traveled by boats accompanied by 'Sena muka' (soldiers to defend vessels against pirates) to Takua Pa (now in Thailand) to trade in mani, gems. Ship building was one of the major industries in Poompuhar, as it served as capital port, they used large vessels to carry goods for the export. In Tamil, the large vessels are called as 'Marakkalam' 

This puhar port declined with fall of cholas and when Pallavas took charge, they moved their capital port to north side called 'Mamallapuram' / 'Mahabalipuram'. They built a temple for Lord Shiva called Pallavaneswaram in Puhar during their period. This region was again occupied by later Cholas and named it as 'Kaveripattinam' (Kaveri poogum pattinam, meaning Town where River Kaveri reaching the Sea) , but the city was affected by constant climatic changes and erosion near the coastline. So, Nagapattinam which is 50 kms away from Puhar emerged as important port and trading center for later Cholas.

           But after many Sangam era references to this city, there was no such references of Puhar in Tamil for many centuries. Though the city was submerged under the sea, the evidences for existences of this place, Glory of Chera, Chola and Pandyas, Famous tamil epics and literatures, manuscripts (Olai Suvadi) were deliberately destroyed as it was under the invasion of many rulers. 

         At last, this ancient city was washed by powerful sea storm and periodic sediment erosion.  Evidences such as inter dial zone, hydro-graphic charts proves that shoreline recession is at the rate of 1m / year, with this rate as references, the ancient poompuhar must have extended towards sea from the present coastline. Tsunami in Puhar was mentioned in the literature, Manimekalai, which states that town Kaveripoompatinam or Puhar was swallowed up by sea. 

Excavated sites

        The untold stories of ancient Tamilians, historical truth of Sangam Era and this ancient Chola city was vanished away by several major Tsunamis, floods and regular erosions. Now, the remains of the city with structures and clear sculptures was found under the water of Bay of Bengal, rediscovered by marine archaeologist and excavated the off shore sites near to the remains of Puhar city. Excavations are carried out in the remains of small villages near Poompuhar such as Kelaperumpallam, Vanagiri, Pallavaneswaram, Keezhaiyur and Melaperumpallam, where considerable amount of terracotta figures were found. 

             Many tamil texts were found from the site, also there are Tamil - Brahmi inscriptions which dates back to 3rd century BCE. Though it was traced to third century BCE, Poompuhar was much older than that, because this port was used by Early Cholas who ruled in the period of 600 BCE, during the reign of Manu neethi Cholan and his predecessor Muchkunda Cholan. It was told that Manu neethi cholan ruled during 2nd BCE, it is Wrong ! His period was even before that, with reference to the order of the Kings and their artifacts. The credibility of ancient Tamils are consistently suppressed with fake dates and camouflaged with hoax stories about religion and language. (These hoax stories will be unmasked in the Kumari Kandam Post).

    Coming back to Poompuhar, Archaeology department revealed the existence of brick figures, several relics of three ring well, remains of buildings, beautiful temples, precious stones, beads, copper coins and pots were unearthed during the excavation. The brick structure and buildings proves that it was well planned city with sophisticated facilities. Lots of beads, semi precious stones were pulled out from the site such as Stone beads, shell beads and bangles made out of conch shells. 

During excavation, temples for Lord Shiva, idols of Indra, Ganesha and Chathuka bootham, the last deities were also found. 

Metal Anklet

Pottery Samples

Under Water Archaeology

         In 1981, a team of Tamil Nadu Archaeology department and National Institute of Oceanography (Goa) conducted under water excavation survey at Tranquebar (Tarangambadi)  which is 5 Km south of Poompuhar, to locate the shipwreck. About 3.5 kms from shore, a shipwreck has been identified at the depth of 19 meters, which was made of wood.

      The remains of Wharf which was out made of burned bricks was also rediscovered and proves that this ancient port city is under the water now. The other burned brick wharfs were also found which dated back to 3rd century BCE.  The wharf has a brick structure with drain for the flow of water and a platform supported by wooden posts for handling cargo. They have also discovered a semi circular brick structure, probably a reservoir during the excavation. 

      

        The under water excavation led to the discovery of stone structure of ancient ports and temples which were buried about 30 feet in the sea. Ancient pottery dating back to 4th century BCE and roman coins have been discovered by off shore marine archaeologist near the east of this town.

    The submerged remnants of this flourished city was revealed by NIO, they identified ancient wells, copper coins, statues and sculptures of Gods .

      

     In 1993, it was examined again by NIO diver archaeologists and reported that U shaped structure lies at the depth of 23 meter. The historical significance of this discovery is that, it is much older structure compared to any other discovered earlier, it is also 6000 years older than first monumental architecture of Egypt and ancient Sumerian.  It is believed that it might be submerged about 11,000 years ago. 

     This brings up the spark of doubt about submerged Kumari Kandam, which is a huge land mass connecting the southern tip of Tamil nadu!!! The Ancient Great Tamil kingdom once existed in this area called 'Kumari Kandam' which coincides with this date !!! This discovery proves that Kumari Kandam was once existed and Poompuhar was also part of it about 11,000 years ago, the sunken Treasure of Ancient Tamil civilization.

                                      --- Coming Soon to Kumari Kandam Post

- Aarthi Thiyagarajan