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Kumari Kandam (Tamil:குமரிக்கண்டம், Kumarikkaṇṭam) is the name of a supposed sunken landmass referred to
in medieval Tamil literature. It is said to have been located in the Indian Ocean, to the south of present-day
Kanyakumari district at the southern tip of India.
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This land was divided into 49 nadu, or territories, which he names as seven coconut territories (elutenga natu), seven
Madurai territories (elumaturai natu), seven old sandy territories (elumunpalai natu), seven new sandy territories
(elupinpalai natu), seven mountain territories (elukunra natu), seven eastern coastal territories (elukunakarai natu) and
seven 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.[2] Two of these Nadus or
territories were supposedly parts of present-day Kollam and Kanyakumari districts.
None of these texts name the land "Kumari Kandam" or "Kumarinadu", as is common today. The only similar pre-
modern reference is to a "Kumari Kandam" (written குமரிகண்டம், rather than குமரிக்கண்டம் as the land is
called in modern Tamil), which is named in the medieval Tamil text "Kantapuranam" either as being one of the nine
continents,[4] or one of the nine divisions of India and the only region not to be inhabited by barbarians.[5] 19th and 20th
Tamil revivalist movements, however, came to apply the name to the territories described in Adiyarkkunallar's
commentary to the Silappadhikaram.[6] They also associated this territory with the references in the Tamil Sangams, and
said that the fabled cities of southern Madurai and Kapatapuram where the first two Sangams were said to be held were
located on Kumari Kandam.
R. Mathivanan, then Chief Editor of the Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project of the Government of Tamil Nadu, in
1991 claimed to have deciphered the still undeciphered Indus script as Tamil, following the methodology recommended
by his teacher Devaneya Pavanar, presenting the following timeline (cited after Mahadevan 2002):
Mathivanan uses "Aryan Invasion" rhetoric to account for the fall of this civilization:
"After imbibing the mania of the Aryan culture of destroying the enemy and their habitats, the Dravidians
developed a new avenging and destructive war approach. This induced them to ruin the forts and cities of their
own brethren out of enmity".
Mathivanan claims his interpretation of history is validated by the discovery of the "Jaffna seal", a seal bearing a Tamil-
Brahmi inscription assigned by its excavators to the 3rd century BC (but claimed by Mathivanan to date to 1600 BC).
Mathivanan's theories are not considered mainstream by the contemporary university academy internationally.