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The Lost Land of Lemuria: Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories
During the nineteenth century, Lemuria was imagined as a land that once bridged India and Africa but disappeared into the ocean millennia ago, much like Atlantis. A sustained meditation on a lost place from a lost time, this elegantly written book is the first to explore Lemuria’s incarnations across cultures, from Victorian-era science to Euro-American occultism to colonial and postcolonial India. The Lost Land of Lemuria widens into a provocative exploration of the poetics and politics of loss to consider how this sentiment manifests itself in a fascination with vanished homelands, hidden civilizations, and forgotten peoples. More than a consideration of nostalgia, it shows how ideas once entertained but later discarded in the metropole can travel to the periphery―and can be appropriated by those seeking to construct a meaningful world within the disenchantment of modernity. Sumathi Ramaswamy ultimately reveals how loss itself has become a condition of modernity, compelling us to rethink the politics of imagination and creativity in our day.
334 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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September 28, 2014
[from FATE magazine August 2006]
Lemuria is second only to Atlantis in the lore of lost continents. While it is common knowledge that the first documented appearance of the Atlantis legend was in the work of Plato, the origins of Lemuria remain obscure. The Lost Land of Lemuria by Sumathi Ramaswamy, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, is the first scholarly text to review the varied conceptions of this vanished world across various cultures and disciplines.
The Plato of Lemuria was an English zoologist named Philip Lutley Sclater, who was the first to use the word in a geographical sense in an article published in a scientific journal in 1864. Before the acceptance of plate tectonic theory, the concept of vanished landforms was frequently invoked to explain the distribution of flora and fauna across what were presently impassable oceans. In his essay on “The Mammals of Madagascar,” Sclater proposed the former existence of a “great continent” across the Southern Hemisphere, connecting South America, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent, the existence of which would account for the distribution of lemurs and related primates; hence the name “Lemuria.”
Sclater’s lost continent was adopted shortly thereafter by German biologist Ernst Haeckel, who upgraded Lemuria’s status to that of “the probable cradle of the human race”in an 1870 book on evolution. Haeckel’s text was accompanied by a detailed chart showing the diffusion of the different branches of humanity from their place of origin in the Indian Ocean.
Lemuria as the cradle of humanity was reinterpreted by the great occultist H. P. Blavatsky, who first mentioned the lost land in 1877’s Isis Unveiled. Blavatsky presented a much more detailed account of Lemuria’s place in humanity’s spiritual evolution in The Secret Doctrine (1888), a profoundly influential work of occult thought. Blavatsky’s Lemurians (the “Third Root-Race” of humanity) were “towering giants of godly strength and beauty” who learned the arts of civilization from divine extraterrestrials. She predicted Lemuria’s reemergence, along with Atlantis, in a future age of enlightenment. Blavatsky’s ideas were later developed by such followers as W. Scott-Elliot, Alice Bailey, and Rudolf Steiner.
H. Spencer Lewis, founder of the California-based Ancient and Mystical Order of the Rosae Crucis (AMORC), presented his own version of the legend in Lemuria: The Lost Continent of the Pacific, published in 1931 under the penname Wishar S. Cervé. Expanding on Blavatsky’s relocation of Lemuria to the Pacific, this work emphasized the vanished land’s connection with America’s West Coast, particularly California’s mystical Mount Shasta.
Later New Age groups and writers developed the concept of Lemuria as the home of lost spiritual wisdom, and of its inhabitants as guides available to help lead humanity to a utopian state of harmony between matter and spirit.
Almost completely unknown to Western readers is the role played by Lemuria in the political life of modern India. The concept of a lost continent in the Indian Ocean has been embraced enthusiastically by Tamil nationalists in southern India, who promote a version of the Lemuria story to protest their cultural domination by northern Indians. In this context, the lost continent has been featured in textbooks and even in a government-produced documentary film.
The details of Lemuria’s role in Indian cultural politics may be too arcane for the general reader. (This topic dominates the latter half of the book.) Overall, however, The Lost Land of Lemuria is a well-researched and thoughtful work on a fascinating topic.
Lemuria is second only to Atlantis in the lore of lost continents. While it is common knowledge that the first documented appearance of the Atlantis legend was in the work of Plato, the origins of Lemuria remain obscure. The Lost Land of Lemuria by Sumathi Ramaswamy, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, is the first scholarly text to review the varied conceptions of this vanished world across various cultures and disciplines.
The Plato of Lemuria was an English zoologist named Philip Lutley Sclater, who was the first to use the word in a geographical sense in an article published in a scientific journal in 1864. Before the acceptance of plate tectonic theory, the concept of vanished landforms was frequently invoked to explain the distribution of flora and fauna across what were presently impassable oceans. In his essay on “The Mammals of Madagascar,” Sclater proposed the former existence of a “great continent” across the Southern Hemisphere, connecting South America, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent, the existence of which would account for the distribution of lemurs and related primates; hence the name “Lemuria.”
Sclater’s lost continent was adopted shortly thereafter by German biologist Ernst Haeckel, who upgraded Lemuria’s status to that of “the probable cradle of the human race”in an 1870 book on evolution. Haeckel’s text was accompanied by a detailed chart showing the diffusion of the different branches of humanity from their place of origin in the Indian Ocean.
Lemuria as the cradle of humanity was reinterpreted by the great occultist H. P. Blavatsky, who first mentioned the lost land in 1877’s Isis Unveiled. Blavatsky presented a much more detailed account of Lemuria’s place in humanity’s spiritual evolution in The Secret Doctrine (1888), a profoundly influential work of occult thought. Blavatsky’s Lemurians (the “Third Root-Race” of humanity) were “towering giants of godly strength and beauty” who learned the arts of civilization from divine extraterrestrials. She predicted Lemuria’s reemergence, along with Atlantis, in a future age of enlightenment. Blavatsky’s ideas were later developed by such followers as W. Scott-Elliot, Alice Bailey, and Rudolf Steiner.
H. Spencer Lewis, founder of the California-based Ancient and Mystical Order of the Rosae Crucis (AMORC), presented his own version of the legend in Lemuria: The Lost Continent of the Pacific, published in 1931 under the penname Wishar S. Cervé. Expanding on Blavatsky’s relocation of Lemuria to the Pacific, this work emphasized the vanished land’s connection with America’s West Coast, particularly California’s mystical Mount Shasta.
Later New Age groups and writers developed the concept of Lemuria as the home of lost spiritual wisdom, and of its inhabitants as guides available to help lead humanity to a utopian state of harmony between matter and spirit.
Almost completely unknown to Western readers is the role played by Lemuria in the political life of modern India. The concept of a lost continent in the Indian Ocean has been embraced enthusiastically by Tamil nationalists in southern India, who promote a version of the Lemuria story to protest their cultural domination by northern Indians. In this context, the lost continent has been featured in textbooks and even in a government-produced documentary film.
The details of Lemuria’s role in Indian cultural politics may be too arcane for the general reader. (This topic dominates the latter half of the book.) Overall, however, The Lost Land of Lemuria is a well-researched and thoughtful work on a fascinating topic.
January 5, 2013
In the brilliant short story "Egnaro" by M. John Harrison, one of the characters says, "Everyone loves a mysterious country."
_The Lost Land of Lemuria: Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories_ is an academic book. It does not so much advocate, or reject, the idea of a lost land called Lemuria. The book, rather, is a sociological and historical study of Lemuria in the imagination.
There are three strains of imagining about Lemuria: one, scientific; second, occult; and a third strain among Tamil writers.
In the 19th Century, some scientists postulated the existence of Lemuria as a way of resolving problems in natural history. The zoologist Philip Sclater was puzzled why there were many more types of lemurs in Madagascar than in India and Africa. In a paper published in 1864, he proposed that there was a land bridge between the two continents, which he dubbed "Lemuria."
In 1879, one of the greatest biologists, Ernest Haeckel, said that the lost Lemuria land bridge was the probable cradle of the human race. The idea of a Lemurian land bridge was pretty much rejected in scientific circles by 1939, when a expedition crossed the ocean in the area and, based on echo-soundings, found no evidence of a supposed Lemuria.
A second strain of imagining about Lemuria is in the occult. This persists to this day. One might find stuff about Lemuria in New Age, occult, and Fortean books. Perhaps the most famous occult account of Lemuria was in Helen Blavatsky's _Isis Unveiled_, and was a major tenet in her Theosophy movement. However, she imagined lost Lemuria as a large continent in the Pacific. Accounts of Lemuria by occultists are at great variance with scientific views of natural history.
The third strain of imagining about Lemuria is among Tamil writers. Tamil tradition has the idea of a submerged homeland called Kumarinatu - which extended some 7,000 miles (11,250km) southwards from India and Sri Lanka.
Tamil intellectuals took up the idea of Lemuria as the lost homeland of the proto-Dravidians. The idea that Tamil ancestors migrated northwards, from a land that sank beneath the waves, was taught in Tamil schools until 1981.
The interesting thesis of this book is that belief in Lemuria is a reaction to modernity. The scientific investigation of the natural world has, for some, a dis-enchanting effect. She proposes that preoccupation with such loss "manifests itself in the fascination with vanished homelands, hidden civilizations and forgotten peoples."
_The Lost Land of Lemuria: Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories_ is an academic book. It does not so much advocate, or reject, the idea of a lost land called Lemuria. The book, rather, is a sociological and historical study of Lemuria in the imagination.
There are three strains of imagining about Lemuria: one, scientific; second, occult; and a third strain among Tamil writers.
In the 19th Century, some scientists postulated the existence of Lemuria as a way of resolving problems in natural history. The zoologist Philip Sclater was puzzled why there were many more types of lemurs in Madagascar than in India and Africa. In a paper published in 1864, he proposed that there was a land bridge between the two continents, which he dubbed "Lemuria."
In 1879, one of the greatest biologists, Ernest Haeckel, said that the lost Lemuria land bridge was the probable cradle of the human race. The idea of a Lemurian land bridge was pretty much rejected in scientific circles by 1939, when a expedition crossed the ocean in the area and, based on echo-soundings, found no evidence of a supposed Lemuria.
A second strain of imagining about Lemuria is in the occult. This persists to this day. One might find stuff about Lemuria in New Age, occult, and Fortean books. Perhaps the most famous occult account of Lemuria was in Helen Blavatsky's _Isis Unveiled_, and was a major tenet in her Theosophy movement. However, she imagined lost Lemuria as a large continent in the Pacific. Accounts of Lemuria by occultists are at great variance with scientific views of natural history.
The third strain of imagining about Lemuria is among Tamil writers. Tamil tradition has the idea of a submerged homeland called Kumarinatu - which extended some 7,000 miles (11,250km) southwards from India and Sri Lanka.
Tamil intellectuals took up the idea of Lemuria as the lost homeland of the proto-Dravidians. The idea that Tamil ancestors migrated northwards, from a land that sank beneath the waves, was taught in Tamil schools until 1981.
The interesting thesis of this book is that belief in Lemuria is a reaction to modernity. The scientific investigation of the natural world has, for some, a dis-enchanting effect. She proposes that preoccupation with such loss "manifests itself in the fascination with vanished homelands, hidden civilizations and forgotten peoples."
July 1, 2022
A slightly unreadable and too academic book about the fictional land of Lemuria, but I found the topic fascinating. I think the author could have written the book in a more concise and argumentative manner, rather than use words like “antediluvian” or “prelapsarian” throughout the 7 chapters, but I appreciate that it’s more of an academic research.
Lemuria, like Atlantis, was fashioned as a lost city; a perfect civilisation which was sunk to the oceans; even though the existence of both have not been proved, they captured the imagination of occultists. The term Lemuria came from a scientist in the 19th century who, having observed similar flora and fauna between Madagascar and India, hypothesised there was a land bridge that joined both countries before the tectonic plates shifted.
Afterwards, we see how hypothesis becomes reality for people, and how people imagine Lemuria according to their own aims and beliefs. For a white woman in America, Lemuria is fetishised as the exotic East, and conveniently, the Lemurians headed westwards and settled in California, establishing her as one of the "chosen ones". We see how the otherisation is also a racial project, where she uses it to establish the white race at the top of the totem pole, compared to “less developed” ancient races. For the Tamils in India, who saw Lemuria as their homeland, they used it as a myth of their glorious past, and a way to make sense of their deprioritisation in the colonial project of India.
This book shows that science is not perfect, or we only know what the technologies and tools allow us to know in our current epoch. It also shows us that science can be distorted based on people’s intentions on making meanings, appropriating scientific methods of cartography wherever appropriate.
Overall, this book had good ideas, but the writing can be improved.
[edit] Wrote this while drunk after midnight [/edit]
Lemuria, like Atlantis, was fashioned as a lost city; a perfect civilisation which was sunk to the oceans; even though the existence of both have not been proved, they captured the imagination of occultists. The term Lemuria came from a scientist in the 19th century who, having observed similar flora and fauna between Madagascar and India, hypothesised there was a land bridge that joined both countries before the tectonic plates shifted.
Afterwards, we see how hypothesis becomes reality for people, and how people imagine Lemuria according to their own aims and beliefs. For a white woman in America, Lemuria is fetishised as the exotic East, and conveniently, the Lemurians headed westwards and settled in California, establishing her as one of the "chosen ones". We see how the otherisation is also a racial project, where she uses it to establish the white race at the top of the totem pole, compared to “less developed” ancient races. For the Tamils in India, who saw Lemuria as their homeland, they used it as a myth of their glorious past, and a way to make sense of their deprioritisation in the colonial project of India.
This book shows that science is not perfect, or we only know what the technologies and tools allow us to know in our current epoch. It also shows us that science can be distorted based on people’s intentions on making meanings, appropriating scientific methods of cartography wherever appropriate.
Overall, this book had good ideas, but the writing can be improved.
[edit] Wrote this while drunk after midnight [/edit]
September 19, 2023
Ramaswamy uses the literature of three disparate groups of believers or inventors of Lemuria (paleo geographers, occultists and Tamil nationals) to prove her point that Lemuria never existed. There is an extensive bibliography at the end of the book, but nowhere does the author give any validity to what is written on the lost continent and instead promotes why people made it all up.
The academic tone of The Lost Land of Lemuria makes it tedious to get through. The author will pause to give dictionary definitions of words to make her point, or use quotes from other scholars to explain phrases. I thought this book would be a modern, cohesive treatment on a subject that first appeared in the 1800's, but it was not. Instead there is the oppressive weight of empirical science and academia that permeates the work.
The academic tone of The Lost Land of Lemuria makes it tedious to get through. The author will pause to give dictionary definitions of words to make her point, or use quotes from other scholars to explain phrases. I thought this book would be a modern, cohesive treatment on a subject that first appeared in the 1800's, but it was not. Instead there is the oppressive weight of empirical science and academia that permeates the work.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews