Lemuria (continent)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFor other uses, seeLemuria (disambiguation).It has been suggested thatLemuria in popular culturebemergedinto this article. (Discuss)Proposed since July 2014.

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Lemuria

TypeHypotheticallost continent

Notable charactersLemurians

Lemuria/lmjri/[1]is the name of a hypothetical "lost land" variously located in theIndianandPacificOceans. The concept's 19th-century origins lie in attempts to account for discontinuities inbiogeography; however, the concept of Lemuria has been rendered obsolete by modern theories ofplate tectonics. Although sunken continents do exist likeZealandiain the Pacific as well asMauritia[2]and theKerguelen Plateauin the Indian Ocean there is no known geological formation under the Indian or Pacific Oceans that corresponds to the hypothetical Lemuria.[3]Though Lemuria is no longer considered a valid scientific hypothesis, it has been adopted by writers involved in theoccult, as well as someTamilwriters ofIndia. Accounts of Lemuria differ, but all share a common belief that acontinentexisted in ancient times and sank beneath the ocean as a result of a geological, oftencataclysmic, change, such aspole shift.Contents[hide] 1Scientific origins 1.1Superseded 2Blavatsky, Elliot, and Bramwell 3Lemuria and Mount Shasta 4Kumari Kandam and Lemuria 5In popular culture 6See also 7References 8Further reading 9External linksScientific origins[edit]In 1864 thezoologistand biogeographerPhilip Sclaterwrote an article on "The Mammals of Madagascar" inThe Quarterly Journal of Science. Using a classification he referred to aslemursbut which included related primate groups,[4]and puzzled by the presence of theirfossilsin bothMadagascarandIndiabut not inAfricaor theMiddle East, Sclater proposed that Madagascar and India had once been part of a larger continent. He wrote:The anomalies of the Mammal fauna of Madagascar can best be explained by supposing that ... a large continent occupied parts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans ... that this continent was broken up into islands, of which some have become amalgamated with ... Africa, some ... with what is now Asia; and that in Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands we have existing relics of this great continent, for which ... I should propose the name Lemuria![4]Sclater'stheorywas hardly unusual for his time: "land bridges", real and imagined, fascinated several of Sclater's contemporaries.tienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, also looking at the relationship between animals in India and Madagascar, had suggested a southern continent about two decades before Sclater, but did not give it a name.[5]The acceptance ofDarwinismled scientists to seek to trace the diffusion of species from their points ofevolutionaryorigin. Prior to the acceptance ofcontinental drift,biologistsfrequently postulated submerged land masses in order to account for populations of land-based species now separated by barriers of water. Similarly,geologiststried to account for striking resemblances of rock formations on different continents. The first systematic attempt was made byMelchior Neumayrin his bookErdgeschichtein 1887. Manyhypotheticalsubmergedland bridgesandcontinentswere proposed during the 19th century, in order to account for the present distribution ofspecies.After gaining some acceptance within the scientific community, the concept of Lemuria began to appear in the works of other scholars.Ernst Haeckel, a German Darwiniantaxonomist, proposed Lemuria as an explanation for the absence of "missing link" fossil records. According to another source, Haeckel put forward thisthesisprior to Sclater (but without using the name "Lemuria").[6]Locating the origins of the human species on this lost continent, he claimed the fossil record could not be found because it sunk beneath the sea.Other scientists hypothesized that Lemuria had extended across parts of the Pacific oceans, seeking to explain the distribution of various species acrossAsiaand theAmericas.Superseded[edit]The Lemuria theory disappeared completely from conventional scientific consideration after the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift were accepted by the larger scientific community. According to the theory of plate tectonics (the current accepted paradigm in geology), Madagascar and India were indeed once part of the same landmass (thus accounting for geological resemblances), but plate movement caused India to break away millions of years ago, and move to its present location. The original landmass, the supercontinentGondwanabroke apart it did not sink beneath sea level.In 1999, drilling by theJOIDES Resolutionresearch vessel in the Indian Ocean discovered evidence[7]that a large island, theKerguelen Plateau, was submerged about 20 million years ago by rising sea levels. Samples showedpollenand fragments of wood in a 90-million-year-oldsediment. Although this discovery might encourage scholars to expect similarities indinosaurfossil evidence, and may contribute to understanding the breakup of the Indian andAustralianland masses, it does not support the concept of Lemuria as a land bridge formammals.In 2013, the study of grains of sand from the beaches ofMauritiusled to the conclusion that a similar landmass would have existed between 2,000 and 85 million years ago.[2]Blavatsky, Elliot, and Bramwell[edit]

Map of Lemuria superimposed over the modern continents from Scott-Elliott'sThe Story of Atlantis and Lost Lemuria."Lemuria" entered the lexicon of the occult through the works ofHelena Blavatsky, who claimed that theMahatmashad shown her an ancient, pre-AtlanteanBook of Dzyan. Lemuria is mentioned in one of the 1882Mahatma LetterstoA. P. Sinnett.[8]According toL. Sprague de Camp, Blavatsky's concept of Lemuria was influenced by other contemporaneous writers on the theme of lost continents, notablyIgnatius L. Donnelly, AmericancultleaderThomas Lake Harrisand the French writerLouis Jacolliot.[9]Within Blavatsky's complex cosmology, which includes seven "Root Races", the "Third Root Race" occupied Lemuria. She describes them as about 7 feet (2.1m) tall, sexuallyhermaphroditic, egg-laying, mentally undeveloped and spiritually more pure than the following "Root Races". Before the coming of the Lemurians, the second "Root Race" is said to have dwelled inHyperborea. After the subsequent creation of mammals, Mme Blavatsky revealed to her readers, some Lemurians turned tobestiality. The gods, aghast at the behavior of these "mindless" men, sank Lemuria into the ocean and created a "Fourth Root Race" endowed with intellect onAtlantis.[citation needed]The later theosophical authorWilliam Scott-Elliotgave one of the most elaborate accounts of lost continents. The English theosophist received his knowledge fromCharles Webster Leadbeater, who communicated with the Theosophical Masters by "astral clairvoyance".[10]In 1896 he publishedThe Story of Atlantis, followed in 1904 byThe Lost Lemuria, in which he included a map of the continent of Lemuria as stretching from the east coast of Africa across the Indian and the Pacific Oceans.[11]James Bramwell portrayed Lemuria in his book,Lost Atlantis, as "a continent that occupied a large part of what is now the South Pacific Ocean".[12]He described the people of Lemuria in detail and characterised them as one of the "root-races of humanity". According to Bramwell, Lemurians are the ancestors of the Atlanteans, who survived the period "of the general racial decadence which affected the Lemurians in the last stages of their evolution". From "a select division of" the Atlanteans after their promotion to decadence Bramwell claims theAryanrace arose. "Lemurians, Atlanteans, and Aryans are root-races of humanity", according to Bramwell.[13]Lemuria and Mount Shasta[edit]In 1894, Frederick Spencer Oliver publishedA Dweller on Two Planets, which claimed that survivors from a sunken continent called Lemuria were living in or onMount Shastain northernCalifornia. Oliver claimed the Lemurians lived in a complex of tunnels beneath the mountain and occasionally were seen walking the surface dressed in white robes.In 1931Harvey Spencer Lewisusing the pseudonym Wisar Spenle Cerve[14]wrote a book (published by theRosicrucians) about the hidden Lemurians of Mount Shasta that a bibliography on Mount Shasta described as "responsible for the legend's widespread popularity."[15]This belief has since been repeated byGuy Warren Ballard, followers of theAscended Mastersand theGreat White Brotherhood, andBridge to Freedom,The Summit Lighthouse,Church Universal and Triumphant, andKryon.[citation needed]Kumari Kandam and Lemuria[edit]

"Lemuria" in Tamil nationalist mysticist literature, connectingMadagascar,South Indiaand Australia (covering most of the Indian Ocean).Some Tamil writers such asDevaneya Pavanarhave tried to associate Lemuria withKumari Kandam, a legendary sunken landmass mentioned in the Tamil literature, claiming that it was thecradle of civilization.