Tamil

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Half of the land mass Kumari Kandam, which was south of India, sank in a great flood, destroying the first Tamil Sangam (literary academy). The people moved to the other half and established the second Tamil Sangam there, but the rest of Kumari too sank beneath the sea. The lone survivor was a Tamil prince named Thirumaaran, who managed to rescue some Tamil literary classics and swim with them to present-day Tamil Nadu.

Sundar Narayan, personal communication, citing Appadurai; David Shulman, "The Tamil Flood Myths and the Cankam Legend," in Dundes, 1988, 294-295.

King Killi of Puhâr, walking in his private garden, met a woman of incomparable beauty. He immediately fell in love with her and, without learning more about her, lived with her for a month. She then disappeared without a trace.

The King searched for her unavailingly, but some time later, a Charana, a wandering Jain monk, came to him and told him that the woman was Pilivalaï, daughter of the Naga king Valaivanam. An astrologer had foretold that she would bear a son by the king of the dynasty of the sun, and though he would never see the woman again, her son would return to him. The monk further said, "Long ago, the goddess Manimekhalâ predicted that Puhâr would be swallowed by the ocean if the festival of Indra is neglected for a single year. Waste no time in regrets, therefore, but hasten to prepare the festival."

When Pilivalaï had given birth, she went to the isle of Manipallavam to venerate a pedestal sacred to Buddha. There she met Kambala, a merchant in woolen rugs, who had come for the same purpose. Learning that he was headed for Puhâr, she sent her son with him to his father. But the ship foundered near the coast, and the survivors reported to the king that the baby was lost. In his grief, King Killi forgot to observe Indra's festival. The goddess Manimekhalâ allowed the curse to be effected, and the ocean swelled up over the city. The king and several other escaped.

Merchant-Prince Shattan, Manimekhalaï, trans. Alain Daniélou (New York: New Directions, 1989), 107-109, 119-120, cantos 24, 25.