KUMARI, LEMURIA AND THE TAMIL SANGAMS
A few days ago, I wrote about a Fierce Controversy that was raging in the Literary Arena among the Tamils.
It was about whether the Ramayana of Kamban was adulterated with spurious songs sung by other people and interposed within the epic.
There were many other controversies on and off. Some of them interesting.
One interesting controversy is that whether there was anything known as the Lemuria.
Some Tamil scholars beleive that there was a supercontinent called Lemuria which sunk under the sea
in stages.
They beleive that the Tamils came from there. There never was a continent called Lemuria.
Lemuria is the imagination borne out of the minds of persons called Scott Eliot and Madame Blavatsky.
It never existed.
GONDWANALAND or PANGAEA was a super continent which existed 200 million years ago.
India, South America, Africa, and Australia were parts of that mass of land.
A natural phenomenon called Continental Drift took place and the various sections drifted apart and they are still moving.
At that time, mankind did not exist.
What is found in our legends is the story of the Land of Kumari.
Its not even known as Kumari Kandam.
During the earliest times, there was a land mass somewhere in the south or south east. There was a great mountain range called Panmalai. It had several peaks among which the Mount Kumari known as Kumari KOdu was probably the tallest. Legend says that the Panmalai had forty seven peaks.
It also had forty nine countries - actually seven big countries which had within them, seven minor countries each.
There were three major rivers called the Kanni, the Kumari, and the ParhuLi. There was a capital city Then Madurai on the banks of the River ParhuLi.
The first Tamil Snagam was held there. Legendary figures like Thiripuram eriththa Virisadai KadavuL alias IRaiyanaar, KunRam eRindha KumaravEL, Agathiyar presided over the Sangam. The Pandya kings were the patrons of the Sangam.
A deluge took place.
Panmalai adukkam with the Kumari KOdu, ParhuLi River were all sunk.
The Pandyas took their people and established a capital called Kapaatapuram on the banks of River Kumari..This was the city that Sugriva mentions in the Kishkinda Kantam of Valmiki Ramayanam.
The Second Tamil Sangam was held there. Thuvarai KOman was a noteworthy participant.
Kapatapuram was destroyed by ThuvaraiKoman. In due course, it went under the sea..
The Pandya and his people moved deeper into Tamilnadu land and built a capital called ManalUr.
the Tamil Sangam was also moved there.
They then built a new capital and moved into that city. They named it Aalavaay, NaanMaada Kuudal, and Madurai.
The Third Tamil Sangam was held there. Kapilar, ParaNar, etc., presided over it. The Pandyas were as usual the patrons.
Around the year 283 AD, the Sangam disappeared.
After that, VajraBodhi, the Jain Monk presided over a Tamil Sangam from Madurai.
There were other Sangams in certain towns.
PoyyaaMolzi Pulavar formed one Tamil Sangam in Madurai.
There was another in VEmbaththuur.
During the early years of the 20th Century, PandiThurai Thevar of the Sethupathi dynasty of Ramanathapuram established a Sangam in Madurai. This is what is known as the Fourth Tamil Sangam.
Soon another Tamil Sangam was established at Karandhai near Thanjavur by UmaMahEswaran PiLLai. It goes by the name of Karandhai Tamil Sangam.
Have you heard of the Kadaram Tamil Sangam?
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