To be read along with Mu to Lemuria & Kumari-Kandam to Sumeria. (Part-1)
Part -2
The idea of Lemuria.
The idea of Lemuria was invented due to the influence of the then prevailing mood in the scientific community. Philip Sclator, who discovered Lemuria, was doing research on animals and their habitat. Greatly influenced by Darwin's Theory of Evolution, he was engaged in research in Madagascar Islands in the African shores of the Indian Ocean. While doing so, he discovered the similarities of the living beings there with those in India. His research was in fossils of animals in Madagascar. He found them not to have any relationship with those in nearby Africa; but related to those found in distant India. Therefore he concluded that including Madagascar, there should have been one large landscape of the Indian peninsula. On that basis he proposed the continent of Lemuria.
His theory was that the animals which lived in the same landscape got separated, during the Continental drift.
Such a separation affecting India could not have taken place in the recent thousands of years, but should have occurred Millions of years back, according to science. But seeing that old Tamil literature indicated the submerged lands of Kumari and Kollam of Thennan's (ancient Pandyan) country, the Tamilians started clinging to the Lemuria theory and are still holding on to it. Multi discipline scientific researches, however, indicate that such a large landscape could not have got submerged. If one land mass submerges, another will raise elsewhere. Examining the contours of Indian Ocean it is inferred that it would take hundreds of thousands of years for such a large landmass to get submerged.
Today Science has already discarded Lemuria theory as an improbable one. But Tamilians are still holding on to that theory. Perhaps, if they try to understand how Madagascar and India were connected, there could be a change of heart.
This place is called Mascarene Plateau and can be seen very near the submerged ridge running from Indian Ocean to Arabian Sea. In Indian texts it is called as Malaiya ridge. It continues as Western Ghats in South India. The ridge under water is also known as the Kumari ridge according to Tamil text Silappadhikaram. This text says that Kollam and Kumari peaks were submerged under the ocean. There is a place by name Kollam in Kerala close to the Western Ghats. So it is surmised that the extension of the Western Ghats into the Indian Ocean was called as Kumari range by ancient Tamils.
About six Thousand years ago the Pandyan king encountered the Second Cataclysm. People who escaped that upheaval reached Kumari Mountains or Malaiya ridge and had come upto present South India's south west shores. They set up their capital at a place called Kavaatam which is shown within the yellow circle in the above picture.
This city of Kavaatam was in existence during Ramayana period. We find a reference to it in the description of Shugreeva of the places in the south. (1) It was submerged during the 3rd Cataclysm about 3500 years BP.
However the memory of Kavaatam was carried by the survivors. Kavaataam was also referred to as Alavai (mouth of a serpent) in Tamil texts .Even today we have places with the same names close to that region. The survivors had re-established Alavai which became Alwaye (in Kerala, India) in due course. In recent years it further mutated to Aluva.
Even present Kollam has been named after the earlier Kollam that was submerged. During the 2nd Cataclysm, using Kumari Mountains as base, people had spread out upto Rajasthan via Western Ghats. In the picture below, Kumari mountain range starting from Macarene plateau and continuing as Western Ghats, is shown.
The prominent evidence connecting Madagascar and India is the Zebu type cattle. These are found only in India. It is now known by DNA research that these types of cattle were also in Madagascar. But these had not arrived in India from Madagascar. Even in the nearby Africa, these species are not to be found. But DNA research has established that 5000 years back these cattle have migrated from India to Madagascar. (2)
We have to bear in mind that unlike at present, 5000 years ago Madagascar and India were linked by the now- submerged ridge. Only during the last Cataclysm about 3500 years ago, the entire Kumari mountain range was submerged leaving parts of Maldives above the water. The name Maldives also sounds like Malaai – the Malaai range that was the original name of the Western Ghats which extended into the sea upto Madagascar. So it could have been Malaai theevu or Malaai Dweepa (island of the Malaai) which later became Maala -theevu . Even the name Malagasay, for the people of Madagascar resembles the Tamil word 'malai' (hill) and Sanskrit word 'Malaya' (which also means hills or mountains) and the Prakruth expression for "of the mountains" (malaigal + sa = malagasa) - thereby showing that Malagasay means people of the hills or mountains. It must be reminded here that Ramayana mentions the Western Ghats as Malaya mountains.
Before the deluge, the Kumari mountain range had provided connection to nearby islands. It is possible for the shepherds to have moved throughout this range from Madagascar to the Indian main lands on the Western Ghats. The cattle have been moved between these regions. But this movement was totally disrupted when the 3rd Cataclysm took place 3500 years ago. So what is seen now was surmised by Philip Sclater (proponent of Lemuria theory) as a 'continental drift' between India and Madagascar. Only a careful study of Tamil literature shows that a linking mountain chain went in to the Indian Ocean from the Arabian Sea. This facilitated the movement of people between these two regions in the not- so- long ago past. This link is further established by the genetic study of cattle that showed movement from India to Madagascar.
Though Kumari mountain range had disappeared under the ocean, groups of people migrated via Western Ghats long before. Their life was centered on cattle only.
The evidence for this is found in Vettuva vari in Silappadhikaram (Tamil text of 2nd century AD). (3) This text speaks about the hunters- cattle herders living in South India near Madurai. These people worshiped the female god Mahishasuramardhini who killed the demon Mahishasura.They had sacrificed cattle and worshiped that god.
Like them, people of Mahar and Mang, in the northern parts of Western Ghats, have also followed identical lives. The place took the name after Mahar and became Maharashtra. They also, like the hunters in Vettuvavari (in Silappadhikaram), sacrificed cattle and worshiped the female goddess. Wherever any cattle died, only these people removed the carcasses. Their profession, like the hunters of Vettuvavari, was stealing cattle.
In ancient Tamil lands, there was a tradition of cattle stealing which was done on 2 occasions, one while starting a war and another done by the hunter – herders living in the fringe edges of the kingdom, to supply the cattle needs of the people and to protect them as well. The latter kind of people is described in the above mentioned Silappadhikaram. The act of stealing was not considered as an offence but as an accepted practice for the people living in regions with no access to food and protection by the king. We find this trend from south to North of the Western Ghats upto Maharashtra. In course of time, they lost their relevance as protectors. During the British period, they were treated with contempt as the thief – caste and classified as low castes.
The point that is made out from this is that various people of various regions in the submerged lands of Tamils were connected with the rest of India.There was no continent of Lemuria in the Indian Ocean. On one section of the Indian Ocean, the submerged Kumari or Malaya mountain enabled people to move from Madagascar to Western ghat to and fro.
The regions scattered on the Indian Ocean were not called as Kumari- kandam in any ancient Tamil text. There is reference only to the Kumari mountain range. There was a Kumari river in the ancient land of Pandyans. There is repeated reference to Pandyans as Southerners (Thennan or Thennavan) making us think that they lived in the region south of the Equator. There is a connection between Kumari and Southern hemisphere. In Sanskrit language, Southern region and South Pole were called as Kumeru while North and North Pole were called as Sumeru. Kumari is perhaps a transformation of Kumeru which indicated south.
By this name it is deduced that Kumari extended to Deep South where we can locate the South Madurai that existed before the 1st Great Floods that occurred at the end of Ice Age. That period calculated on the basis of number of years for all the 3 Sangam Assemblages (Tamil literary assemblages) as told by the 10th century Nakkeeranaar in his commentary to Irayanar kalaviyal, puts the beginning of Sangam age at 12000 years before present. That was the time Tamil was refined with grammar.
In the above picture, the olden and the first Madurai where the first assemblage of Tamil Sangam was established is shown at the lower part of the 90 degree ridge. (Derived from various accounts in Tamil texts such as Thiruvilayadal Puranam and the distance of 700 Kaavatham that was sub merged in the 2nd Flood.) The visible regions of this ridge as of today are the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
South Madurai was the first land of the Southerner Pandyans. This was above the sea level at that time as the sea level was nearly 120 meters below as compared to now. Note the location is close to Sundaland. In future articles, we will see how the Tamil influence can be seen in Polynesia which could have become possible with the location of ancient capital of Tamils in the above shown region.
The Tamil culture was more or less established 12,000 years ago at Kumeru with the establishment of the 1st Sangam. This name also shows the co-existence of Tamil and Sanskrit even at that time. The first wave of migration had taken place from this region when the first floods occurred in the Indian Ocean around this time. Thiruvilayadal Puranam speaks of this first flood from which people of South- Madurai were however protected by an act of Lord Shiva. There is a possibility that others who lived in the scattered islands in the Indian Ocean had advanced northward towards Arabian sea.
People who migrated from Kumeru had reached the Northern regions. Upon reaching the north of the equator, they had aptly called the region as Sumeru. Sumeria is one such place occupied by a group of migrating people.
In this picture we can see probability of migrating people or those who were pushed by sudden flash floods from the Indian Ocean entering into 2 regions. One was the mouth of river Saraswathy which was in existence before 10,000 years BP. The Persian Gulf which was dry at the time of Ice age was inundated when the sea level rose in a flash flood.
Note the light blue region in the Persian Gulf showing that it is not deep.
There is a possibility of one group entering North India through Saraswati river and another group entering to Mesopotamia through Persian sea. That region is called Sumeria. It is no surprise to find Tamil origin names in Sumeria if they had drifted or migrated from Kumeru where Tamil was an established language even as early as 12,000 years ago. Tamil sources say that it was a Vedic culture with Shiva as the presiding deity.
Interestingly enough, the findings in Gobekli Tepe and Nevali Cori located on the Euphrates in Southern Turkey show temples and figures carved in stone established at a time between 10th and 8th Millennium BC.
The model of a human figure found here showed a tuft on the head of a person.
This is a typical tuft that a Vedic person used to sport on his head with its end coiled into a knot. Similar style can be noticed in this figure.
http://www.haaram.com/CompleteArticle.aspx?aid=449618&ln=
This fits with our contention that an already evolved people of the South called Kumeru had gone to the North and established Sumeru and continued their Vedic practices.
The excavated region has the features resembling temples. The interesting feature of the temples is that they are oval or circular shaped.
http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/turkeygobekli.htm
Around the same time, similar feature was made in the south eastern coast of India in a place called Pumpuhar. From Graham Hancock's analysis we come to know of the shape of that structure which now lies under water. Hancock's sketch of that structure is given below.
According to him, this structure was formed 11,500 years before present.
Similarity between this and the Nevali Cori structure in Sumeria smacks of a common origin for the idea and architecture for the kind of worship that was done there.
Our surprises don't end here. Further north if we move, we find the Arkaim structure too showing a similar design.
http://www.spaceoflovemagazine.com/article_arkaim.htm
Chronologically Arkaim comes later – say, around 4000 years ago only. But further North this concept had travelled and entered the North American continent through Bering Strait.
That entry must have taken place 10,000 years ago when Bering Strait acted as a land bridge.
The Pueblo Kiva also has the circular shape.
http://course1.winona.edu/tgrier/TGPhotoGallery.htm
They call it Kee-vuh (that is how Kiva is pronounced) in their language. They say it means below or under. That is exactly the meaning and word in Tamil also. In Tamil 'Keezhe' (with the characteristic zha sound of Tamil) means below or under.
All these structures have a common idea of positioning the structure below the surface. That is what Nagas were used to! (Any one who prefers live under the ground like a serpent is a Naga.) The scattered lands on the top of the two ridges in the Indian Ocean must have had caves – natural or artificially made for the purpose of safe dwelling. That had continued when they migrated to Sumeru.
Adding strength to this notion, the carvings of the Gobekli Tepe show some connection to an ancient culture of South Madurai of the Indian Ocean. A figure resembling a lizard is found carved on a pillar.
http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/turkeygobekli.htm
Interestingly, lizards are found carved in Varadaraja temple in Kanchipuram too.
http://indiatemple.blogspot.in/2007/01/call-to-lizard.html
The lizard- carvings are found on the ceiling of the main sanctum. There is a story woven around these lizards, but looking at the lizard carving in Gobekli Tepe, it makes us wonder whether there was an ancient practice of carving lizards in temples.
Lizards are a common feature in day today life of the Tamils and all Indian people. It is an important tool of omen in knowing the future. There is a branch of knowledge that deals with the omens connected with the sound that lizards make and the results that can be expected if a lizard happens to fall on a person. A Tamil Sangam poem tells about such an omen (4). By all this it is surmised that presence of lizards in a temple was considered as a necessary one, because the sounds that lizards make or omens they show by falling on a person could have been welcomed as a means of knowing whether the prayer that a worshiper is making in the temple will be fulfilled or not.
The importance for lizard had not only travelled from Vedic society to Sumeria, it had also travelled to the Incas in the Andes. The Chullpas, the funeral towers of the Aymara of Incas contain the engravings of lizard on them (5 )
http://www.bylandwaterandair.com/zz_peru04/peruphoto/04040501.php
Perhaps the same belief of the temples of Kanchipuram and Gobekli Tepe are repeated here. Instead of Gods, the ancestors were thought to have conveyed their answers to the prayers of the off springs through the omen of lizard.
What is of importance to us is that the lizard culture was a Tamil and Vedic culture. If only it had developed in the Indian ocean dwellings before 10,000 years BP, it is possible for it to have travelled to Sumeria on one side of the ocean and to the Incas on the other side of the ocean (around 3500 years ago – that was when the last Flood was experienced by the ancient Tamils in the Indian Ocean. The remaining population in the Indian Ocean had migrated to the east – to the Polynesian islands in the Pacific and from there to the Incas)
The travel of a single culture from Indian Ocean to the Northern part of the globe can also be seen in the similarity of the grinding stones used by Tamils and others of India and the far away Native Americans.
The following picture shows the traditional grinding stone, called as Ammi in Tamil which is still in use in many houses in Tamil nadu.
This figure below is from Maharashtra
http://moreindia.in/onthego/traditional-indian-grinding-stone/
Like this there are grinding stones for making sandal paste which were in regular use for common man in olden days but are used in temples only these days. The following is one such stone found in the temple of Arakandanallur in Tamilnadu.
The next ones are from the Native Americans.
Found in Illinois:-
http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/grindingstoneaxepage1.htm
From Native Americans:-
http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-907
This one from Native Americans is more close to Indian household variety.
http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/exhibitions/ncc/gallery_1_4_1_11.html
While we are able to spot many similar looking grinding stones in Native American Indians, further corroboration comes from the Indian Ocean region close to ancient Tamil settlements in Kumeru. The following one resembling the Indian variety was unearthed in New South Wales.
http://australianmuseum.net.au/Indigenous-grinding-stone-from-New-South-Wales
While on the topic of similarities, the Gobekli Tepe has another significant carving which is described as follows:
"Elsewhere on the site, on the northern slope of the hill, there is a rectangular complex named "the lion column building". Its four pillars have depictions of leonine creatures, which could also be tigers or leopards. One pillar has a 30-cm-high graffito of a squatting woman who appears to be giving birth". (http://www.philipcoppens.com/gobekli.html)
I could not locate the figure in the articles. But going by its description, it is obvious that the figure was that of Lajja Gauri – a form of Aditi, the Vedic deity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajja_Gauri
A similar depiction is found in the Incas as Pachamama.
This depiction of Pachamama is allegorical of Mother earth and how she gives birth (fertility) to produces that enrich mankind.
A similar depiction is found in the Indus seals also and had made its presence in far away Norway and in Greek society. (Will be described later in another article). This concept itself is separate and needs to be written as a separate article. In the present context this is written to show that the discovery of this figure in 9th millennium BC in Turkey does not mean that the concept of this figure originated there. It was essentially a Vedic concept – a concept of Aditi who gave birth to Vamana, an avatar of Vishnu, who pushed down Bali under the ground – once again n allegorical story of a natural event of land going under water. The location was Bali of Indonesia – the former Sunda land which was the centre of stories of Narasimha avarata and Varaha avatara also.
The discovery of many Lion and boar carvings in Gobekli Tepe make me connect this past memory of the people who settled down in Sumeria. (Lion for Narasimha avatara and Boar for Varaha avatara).
On Kemeru people migrating to the North, we have few more things to know. Earlier we wrote about the probability of one section of people entering North India via Saraswathy. It was Vaivasvatha Manu who entered North India, with his people and sages who were already well versed in Vedic practices (6) . Upon reaching Saraswathy, the Rig Vedas were given over a period of time. (Actually a Vedic scholar would not accept the chronological dating of Vedas done by foreign researchers. The arrangement of the 4 Vedas was done 5000 years ago by Ved Vyas. )
Here we have to clear a doubt that may arise. Is it possible that since Manu came from Kumeru, could he be the Pandyan king? This question is raised because Manu is also referred to as Dravideswara. Some section of Tamil people raises this question.
The Answer is, he was not the Pandya king. Because, (a) when Manu entered the Saraswati river 12000 years ago, Pandya king was busy in refining Tamil grammar, and creating the 1st Sangam in South Madurai. (b) From Manu, Ikshvaku was born and Ikshvaku dynasty started in North India. There is no relationship between Ikshvaku dynasty and Pandyas. (c)Pandya originated from Moon dynasty (Chandra vamsam)– DNA of mother side, while Manu came from Sun dynasty (Soorya vamsam) -DNA of father side. Though they belonged to the same region of the Indian Ocean in the south, their maternal lineages have been different and they got separated 12,000 years back.
From Kumeru, people had also migrated via Bay of Bengal to Dacca (Bangladesh) and to West Bengal in India. There are tribes called as Tiyars, Teers, Theevars (islanders) and so on. From the Sanskrit word Dweepa, meaning island, there are many tribes in Maharashtra and West Bengal, with names derived from dweepa, according to the Census of 1881 by British India.(7 ) It is recorded that these people, if and when encountered with any hardship or faced difficulties due to hurricane, etc., during fishing or harvesting, would pray to a goddess called Kala-Kumari. (8). This shows the connection between these people and the olden Pandyan country, Kumari mountains, Kumari river and goddess Kumari.
The name Theevar indicate that those people had migrated from islands and associated lands. The name sounds Tamil. Worshiping Kumari indicates their relationship with Kumari in the ancient Thennan Pandyan country. Though Pandyas lived in South Madurai, all the people of the 49 countries scattered in that large landscape (as told in olden Tamil texts), followed the same traditions of the Thennan –Pandyan country. From Polynesian islands to the Ninety degree ridge to the Malaiya mountain, the Kumeru was a land of scattered islands where a similar culture was followed. With change of tides of Ocean and tides of Time , they were scattered over to India, Sumeria, and the pacific regions. In this back drop, the idea of Lemuria or a 'vast' Kumari – kandam is not realistic.
- Valmiki Ramayana – 4-41- 19 http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga41/kishkindha_41_frame.htm
- "Recent studies in Indian Archeo- Linguistics and Archeo-Genetics having bearing on Indian Prehistory" by Dr. P.Priyadarshi
- Silappadhikaram – Chapter 12.
- Kali-th-thogai –verse 11(Tamil Sangam text) ("palliyum paangu oththu isaiththana")
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chullpa
- http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.in/2012/02/who-is-dravida-mr-karunanidhi.html
- http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/dcd/page.php?title=&record=4464
- http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/dcd/page.php?title=&record=4466
