11000 YEARS AGO CHOZHA PORT POOMPUHAR SUBMERGED IN SEAS

N.Nandhivarman

 Tamilnadu Government had initiated the process of beautification of Poompuhar, the Port town of Chozha Empire. The need to promote cultural tourism is welcome but beautification of existing Poompuhar will not shed light on hidden history of Poompuhar. And we indulge in self boasting about our past without show casing our past with archeological and other evidences acceptable to historians. We have literary evidences and even to parade before the scholarly world we are not having enough translations of all our literature.

 In such a situation let me draw your attention to the archeological find beneath the seas off shore of Poompuhar. National Institute of Oceanography on March 23 of 1991 found the remains of a fort wall in the shape of horse shoe. It was more or less in the shape of letter U. Its length was 85 meters and height was approximately 2 meters. The distance between one edge and other edge in the opening area was 13 meters. Wall was covered by dust settled there over centuries. Though in 1993 this U shaped remnant of a Fort was found offshore of Poompuhar for want of funds no further research or quest was carried out in that zone. The dating of that structure using carbon dating method was said to be of 3rd century B.C. Graham Hancock read from London about this discovery and dating. Any structure close to shore within 2 meters depth could belong to 3rd century B.C, but this structure was below 23 meters, and for this depth sea level must have risen by inundation or sea level rise. Within 3 centuries up to 23 meters sea level could not have risen as found in oceanographic studies.

With doubts lingering in his mind, Graham Hancock flew from London to Bangalore to meet S.R.Rao, who was instrumental is establishing the National Institute of Oceanography as well as the deep sea probe offshore of Poompuhar. The meeting took place in 2001 and the 70 year old S.R.Rao told Graham Hancock. “We are sure that it is a structure built in land and submerged into seas, and we using carbon 14 dating method arrived at that date, but after you pose questions it strikes to me it must be long before 3rd century B.C” But he agreed that oceanographic study to determine the rise of sea level will answer the puzzle over the dating of the submerged U shaped structure. But S.R.Rao admitted that oceanographic study was undertaken in Gulf of Kutch belonging to Gujarat state of India. In 10,000 B.C. the sea level there was 60 meter below current sea level. There has been no such oceanographic study in South India.

 Anyhow the findings of Gulf of Kutch could be more or less applied for Poompuhar in Tamilnadu, The dialogue between Graham Hancock and S.R.Rao is not taken out of context from a fiction but from Graham Hancock’s Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization published by Penguin in 7 th February 2002. Close on the heels of publication of this book the Channel 4 Television of UK which won Tamils gratitude for exposing Tamil Genocide recently, telecasted on 11, 18 and 25th February 2002 a programme titled Flooded Kingdoms of Ice Age. By this time the Dwaraka found in Gulf of Kutch based on oceanographic study was proclaimed to belong to 7500 B.C and leading journals of India carried cover page stories over that discovery. But the same team that discovered Dwaraka discovered Poompuhar but date was confined to 3rd century B.C.

 The megaphone warriors of Tamilnadu kept silent in their street corner meetings since they don’t know the subject, nor the chosen representatives of people sitting in Parliament raised their voice because they know they are puppets and puppeteers have not given instructions to open their mouth in the Parliament.

 Graham Hancock took up the issue of dating the Poompuhar structure with Glenn Milne of Durham University who prepares inundation maps of the world. The date for a structure to go down in sea or sea level to rise 23 meters was 9500 B.C. Hence 11,000 years ago the Fort beneath Poompuhar Sea must have submerged. The Last Ice Age global warming and sea submergence of lands occurred before 12000 years ago and the submergence of Poompuhar tallied with that world known fact. But no media of Tamilnadu had brought this to light because those who propounded the theory of 3rd century B.C did not share his views. He went to Bangalore to report about Poompuhar, exhibited there and met the press to break the story from there. Such scene is prevalent in Tamilnadu. Scholars may agree or disagree but for a scholar to express his discovery there should be no media black out… Just before the Classical Tamil Conference I wrote in Suryakathir on the Historical Treasures beneath our Seas, and also wrote to then Chief Minister Kalaignar M.Karunanithi whom I personally know urging him to invite Graham Hancock but in vain.

Now that Tamilnadu Government plans to promote historical and cultural tourism, whatever has been found must be placed in a museum and Graham Hancock must be invited to further probe off shore of Poompuhar to unearth sorry to un-sea our past archeological grandeur.