Kumari Kandam -
The sunken land mass from the Indian continent.
Kumari Kandam or Kumarikkaṇṭam is the name of a legendary sunken landmass said to have been located to the south of present-day Kanyakumari District at the southern tip of India in the Indian Ocean. The legend assigns the continent and its final submergence an antiquity ranging in tens of thousands of years.
Ancient texts has made some reference of this said sunken land.
There are scattered references in
Sangam literature, such as Kalittokai 104, to how the sea took the land of the Pandiyan kings, upon which they conquered new lands to replace those they had lost.
There are also references to the rivers Pahruli and Kumari, that are said to have flowed in a now-submerged land. The Silappadhikaram, a 5th century epic, stating that the "cruel sea" took the Pandiyan land that lay between the rivers Pahruli and the many-mountained banks of the Kumari, to replace which the Pandiyan king conquered lands belonging to the Chola and Chera kings (Maturaikkandam, verses 17-22).
Adiyarkkunallar, a 12th century commentator on the epic, explains this reference by saying that there was once a land to the south of the present-day Kanyakumari , which stretched from the Pahruli river in the north to the Kumari river in the south. This land was divided into 49 territories, which he names as 7 coconut territories (elutenga natu), 7 Madurai territories (elumaturai natu), 7 old sandy territories (elumunpalai natu), 7 new sandy territories (elupinpalai natu), 7 mountain territories (elukunra natu), 7 eastern coastal territories (elukunakarai natu) and 7 dwarf-palm territories (elukurumpanai natu). All these lands, he says, together with the many-mountained land that began with KumariKollam, with forests and habitations, were submerged by the sea. Two of these territories were supposedly parts of present-day Kollam and Kanyakumari districts.
BBC reports the following further evidence which suggests volcanic eruptions may have some effect to this said land.
Scientists have discovered the remains of a "lost continent" beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean.
Drilling by the Joides Resolution research vessel, which traverses the seas extracting samples from beneath the sea floor, suggests that the continent, about a third the size of present day Australia, sank from sight only 20 million years ago.
A recovered sample of the 'lost continent'. It lies beneath the southern Indian Ocean. Called the Kerguelen Plateau, it is one of the most remote places on Earth.
The Joides Resolution, the world's largest research vessel, bored a series of holes through the undersea plateau, which is about two kilometres below the ocean surface.
Spores and pollen
It brought to the surface many types of rocks associated with explosive volcanism, as well as sedimentary rocks similar to those found in India and Australia.
Sending the drill bit down to the sea floor. "We found abundant evidence that much of the Kerguelen Plateau formed above sea level," said Dr Mike Coffin of the University of Texas.
"Wood fragments, a seed, spores and pollen recovered in 90 million year-old sediment from the central Kerguelen Plateau indicates that it was above sea level."
Scientists believe that it rose out of the ocean about 110 million years ago, following a series of huge volcanic eruptions.
Small dinosaurs
50 million years ago, it may have been covered in lush ferns, moist with tropical humidity.
The 'core store' on the Joides Resolution Small dinosaurs would have hidden in the undergrowth stalking their prey.
20 million years ago, it started to sink beneath the waves of what is now the Indian Ocean.
Scientists hope that studying the region will help them understand the break-up of Australia, India and Antarctica.
Mystique Earth: Kumari Kandam - The sunken land mass from the Indian continent
