nadus mentioned by Adiyarkunallar, and appears in the Tamil Nadu government's 1981 documentary. A 1981 map published by N. Mahalingam depicted the lost land as "Submerged Tamil Nadu" in 30,000 BCE. A 1991 map, created by R. Mathivanan, showed a land bridge connecting Indian peninsula to Antarctica. A few Tamil writers also depicted Gondwanaland as Kumari Kandam. Criticism of the concept Kumari Kandam is a mythical continent, and therefore, the attempts to mix this myth with Tamil history have attracted criticism since the late 19th century. One of the earliest criticisms came from M Seshagiri Sastri (1897), who described the claims of ante-diluvial sangams as "a mere fiction originated by the prolific imagination of Tamil poets." CH Monahan wrote a scathing review of Suryanarayana Sastri's Tamilmoliyin Varalaru (1903), shortly after its publication, accusing the author of "abandoning scientific research for mythology". K. N. Sivaraja Pillai (1932) similarly stressed on the need to closely examine the historical authenticity of Sangam works and their commentaries. In 1956, K. A. Nilakanta Sastri described the Kumari Kandam theory as "all bosh", stating that geological theories about events happening millions of years ago should not be connected to the human history of a few thousand years back. Historian N. Subrahmanian, writing in 1966, described the Lemuria myth as the most characteristic example of "anti-history" in Tamil Nadu. He noted that these myths persisted in the minds of Tamil people despite modern education. According to him, the land lost to sea, as described in the ancient Tamil legends, was a small area comparable to a present-day district, and submerged around 5th or 4th century BCE. The same view is also shared by historian K. K. Pillay. He writes In popular culture Kandam (2016) is a Tamil Canadian/Sri Lankan film directed by Pras Lingam. The film is based on the premise of the existence of the continent of Kumari Kandam and the prevalence of Tamil civilization in antediluvian times. Kumari Kandam appeared in The Secret Saturdays episodes "The King of Kumari Kandam" and "The Atlas Pin". This version is a city on the back of a giant sea serpent with its inhabitants all fish people. Kumari Kandam appeared on Season Two, Episode Three of the History Channel television show Ancient Aliens. Kumari Kandam is one of the possible continent names in the 2016 4X strategy video game, Civilization VI. See also References Further reading Jayakaran, S. C.