Poompuhar is an ancient port city in Tamil Nadu, India. Its very old name in Tamil Poetic works and other literature are Puhar , Kaveripoompatinam etc. It is located in the mouth of river Kaveri in Southern Tamil Nadu. It was once a flourishing ancient Port city in the Early Chola Kingdom around 500AD.
The city was constructed in a well planned manner. The city had two distinct districts one near the sea and the other one to the west. The district near the sea was inhabited by the fisher folk, foreign traders,overseas travellers, and merchants. weavers, silk merchents vendors,potters and jewellers stayed there.
The shipyard and ware house was there.And is named as Maruvurpakkam, to its west is Pattinapakkam. Kings and nobles, rich merchants, farmers, astrologers, dancers and army were stayed there.
In Silapathikaram one of the most famous five epics in Tamil Literature Poompuhar was extolled and heralded in detail. Other Tamil literature’s like Manimekalai and Temple Inscriptions speaks loudly the fame of Puhar. Purananooru a very old poetic work also describe the city and the life of the Puhar people.
Big ships entered the port without any hassles and the precious goods arrived from other countries spread over the sea shore and the goods were stored in the huge warehouses and displayed in both day and night market for sale. Many very huge and high beautiful mansions are near the sea shore with high platform.
The Scientists believes that the ancient city was destroyed by Tsunami in 416 Ad possibly caused by Krakatoa event.
In 2006 National Institute of Ocean Technology conducted some surveys and showed the remains of the ancient port city well inside the sea two kilometers away. The record of Tamilians international trade and architectural marvelous sinks silently into the deep,
A discovery made by a team of marine archaeologists from India’s National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in March 1991 has begun to bring about a sea-change. Working the off-shore of Tarangambadi-Poompuhar coast in Tamilnadu near Nagapattinam, a research vessel equipped with side-scan sonar, identified a man-made object and described it as “ a horse shoe shaped structure”.
In 1993, it was examined again and NIO’s diver archaeologists reported that the U-shaped structure lies at a depth of 23 metres and about 5 kms offshore.
The significance of that discovery is that it is a much older structure to any discovered earlier. Subsequent explorations carried out by Graham Hancock and his team, who working in association with Dr Glen Milne, a specialist in glacio-isotacy and glaciation induced sea-level change, were able to show that areas at 23 metres depth would have submerged about 11,000 years before the present time or 9,000 BC.
The historical significance of that fact is that it makes the U-shaped structure 6,000 years older than the first monumental architecture of Egypt or of ancient Sumer or Mesopotamia (in present day Iraq) dated around 3,000 BC and traditionally regarded as the oldest civilisations of antiquity.
Is it a coincidence that there are ancient Tamil flood myths that speak of a great kingdom that once existed in this area called Kumari Kandam that was swallowed up by the sea? Amazingly the myths put a date of 11,600 years ago on these events — the same timeframe given by Plato for the end of Atlantis in another ocean
Special Thanks to: Graham Hancock
Underworld: Expedition to Poompuhar - Remains of Kumari Kandam - Graham Hancock
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