It is also clear that, due to their immense difficulty, Plato’s texts are sorely in need of a proper exegesis by a team of polymath experts, who are open-minded enough to accept the reality of the esoteric teachings he disclosed perhaps for the only time ever. Unfortunately, a proper exegesis of Plato’s text has never been competently done before. But we firmly believe that even the average readers will be able to follow our own exegesis briefly given here (and done in more detail in other locations), if they only try hard enough.
The readers who find this type of issue intolerably tedious are advised to simply skip it for good or for the time being, returning to them later, when the opportunity arises. These readers should go directly to the geographical results summarized in Table III.1 and the others that follow it. Or they may read these linguistic passages perfunctorily, returning to them later when they feel like it. As long as they accept our conclusions, they will not miss much.
Antilia – whose name nowadays survives in the Antilles, so misnamed by Christopher Columbus himself – was the main of the legendary “Atlantic Islands” of the ancient traditions. The name of Antilia is allegedly a Latinized version of the original Portuguese or Catalan word anti-ilha, where anti means “placed opposite” and ilha means “island”. But this name is really derived from ancient Hindu sources, perhaps via Greek and Latin ones just mentioned.
No matter what, Antilia means something like “counter-island” or “antipodal island” in any of these three languages. Antilia was in every sense the same as the legendary Taprobane and Septe Cidades. This the ancient mariners equated with the Isles of the Blest, allegedly discovered by St. Brendan in the early Middle Ages. These islands – often of continental extent and hence true continents in the modern sense of the word – the ancients placed in the farthest west, that is, in the coterminous boundary of the ocean with the farthest east.
And this is truly the other side of the world, the “opposite hemisphere”, the Far East. Antilia in fact corresponds to Antichthon, the “counter-earth” or “antipodal earth” of the most ancient Greco-Roman traditions. Therefore, the names of Antichthon and Antilia mean precisely the same as “antipodal”, that is, “feet opposed” (Drav. atti-illa or anti-illa = “antipodal peninsula”)
The Portuguese were among the first modern nations to systematically explore the Atlantic Ocean in search of the fabulous “Atlantic Islands”. Actually, it was the Portuguese explorations which originated the Age of Navigation, when everybody started rushing to discover and appropriate the fabled “Atlantic Islands”.
It is for this reason that most islands in the Atlantic Ocean bear Portuguese names: Antilha; Man Satanaxio (Satanazes); Açores; Madeira; Saya; Ymana; Ferro; etc.. On this issue study the interesting pages here and here by an erudite Portuguese-American researcher. The Portuguese were also the first to discover the maritime way to the East Indies, with Vasco da Gama and other such noted naval explorers. ↑135
On the subject of Taprobane’s connection with Antilia and Antichthon, cf. Ovid, Pont. 1:5:80; Pliny, Hist. Nat. 6:81-92; Solinus, Collect. 53:1-23; etc.. Pliny and Solinus specifically identify Taprobane with Antichthon, the now sunken continent of Pomponius Mela which we just commented. Cf. also this interesting article here. More references are further given in the Bibliography section of the present book, in the section on Atlantis. ↑136
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10 The sangams (or, better spelled, samghams) are the Dravidian literary academies of poets and mythographers, and their foundations and dissolutions are dictated by major earth cataclysms. We note that the date of the foundation of the first sangam of the present era was 9,600 BC. And this date is precisely the one given by Plato for the demise of Atlantis. Moreover, this date also exactly coincides with the catastrophic end of the Pleistocene, proving that Plato really knew what he was talking about. ↑137
Dravidian traditions (Tamil) also affirm the existence of a sangam in a date prior to the one of the Universal Flood. This sangam was called Mahendramalai Tamil Sangam, a name which probably relates with the one of Mt. Atlas itself. Mahendramalai is Sanskrit and means “Great Indra Mountain”, Indra being an alias of Hercules and /or Atlas, the heroes and first kings of Atlantis. We note that the Dravidian word for the Flood is “Piralayam” translated as “Great Deluge” in the site just linked.
This word corresponds to the Sanskrit Pralaya, meaning “Universal Dissolution”, the opposite of Kalpa (“Creation”). These names refer to the periodic destruction and reconstruction of the world according to the geological or climatological eras, which the Hindus associate with the yugas. According to experts, the Dravidian word piralayam derives from pir-al-ayam, meaning “the fiery dissolution of the ancestral world”. This quaint etymology is not ours, but is due to a Dravidian guru well versed in such things.
The Dravidian radix pir- also means “flood”, just as ala- also means “sea”. Dravidian tongues being polysemic, several other alternative etymons are also possible. But the one just given conveys the main gist of the etymology, far more detailed than the Sanskrit one, obviously derived from it. The Sanskrit word is conventionally derived from pra- (“fore”) and laya (“dissolution”). But this etymology is apparently contrived.
In Dravida, ayam means “father, forefather, god, saint, brahman, pitri”. So, what was in question here was a destruction by fire and water originating in the sea and destroying the ancestral world of the gods or pitris, our former ancestors. In other words, the catastrophic action of the fiery Vadavamukha – whose secret identity with the Krakatoa volcano we have discovered – is very visible in the above etymology.
As is clear, the previous world was destroyed by fire, rather than by water. Even more exactly, what we really had was a Conflagration followed by the Flood, in perfect accordance with the Puranic Doctrines on this phenomenon. In geological terms, what we really had was a supervolcanism – perhaps of global consequences – which triggered the end of the Ice Age, provoking the Universal Flood.
Some misguided Hindus tend to place their sunken continent of Kumari Kandam in the island of Sri Lanka, the one beyond the extreme south of India. But this is a widespread mistake resulting from a phony identity merely intended to deceive the profanes and the more gullible worshippers. The sacred traditions in fact identify Kumari Kandam with Taprobane, which is truly Sumatra, rather than Sri Lanka itself.
Other Hindu traditions place this site to the southeast of Tamil Nadu, the southeast region of India. Strictly speaking, Sri Lanka lies in that direction. But there are no considerable land extensions there, sunken or not. Hardly would Sri Lanka be described as lying to the southeast of India, rather than to the south of it, as can be seen on a map of the region. ↑138
Moreover, the Dravidas are known not to have come from Sri Lanka, which is actually inhabited by the Sinhalese, who are themselves of Aryan extraction. But even these are non-native invaders who conquered the land which originally belonged to the Vedda natives of Sri Lanka. The idea of “southeast” apparently points to the location of true Lanka, in Indonesia. As can be seen in a map of the region, this is where Indonesia is located in respect to India: the Southeast.
The Dravidas – or was it really the Aryans? – only came into Sri Lanka rather late, in historical times, apparently sent there as Buddhist missionaries by King Asoka in the third century BC. The two nationalities dispute the land even today, and it is possible that the recent tendency to identify Sri Lanka with Kumari
Kandam is really an attempt to justify the Tamil claim to the region. ↑139
Perhaps the Sri Lankan Tamils reason that it is better a small bird in hand than a bigger one in the bush. But we take no part in the sore dispute which seems to be a further facet of the enduring strife between Dravidas and Aryans, which has lasted since the times of Atlantis. No matter what, the earliest name of the island of Sri Lanka, Para-Samudra closely suggests its identity with Sumatra. This Sanskrit name means “beyond the ocean”, and later dege
nerated into the Palaisimundus of Greco-Roman sources.
But it could never apply to Sri Lanka itself, which is visibly not “beyond the ocean” for one starting from India, to which it is actually attached across Palk Strait. Actually, most experts hold that the name of Sumatra derives from Samudra, meaning “oceanic”. Besides, the connection with “gold” also refers to Indonesia, formerly so-called, and not to Sri Lanka, which never produced a single ounce of the precious yellow metal.
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11 David Keys, Catastrophe: A Quest for the Origins of the Modern World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1999, pg. 253. The Indonesian chronicle, Pustaka Raja Purwa (or “Book of Ancient Kings”) is in fact little known in the Occident. It is however quite familiar to Indonesians in general. And its name is Sanskrit, a fact attesting its Hindu origin.
The word purwa is derived from the Skt. parva and refers to the Mahabharata main sections (parvan = “knot, division”). But this word implies the idea of “change”, such as the phases of the moon or, more exactly, the era changes (yugas), which are dictated by major cataclysms such as the Flood and major wars like the Mahabharata War and the Ramayana War.
This word has also to do with the Wayang Purwa Theater. The Wayang is a theater where the shadows (wayang) of the puppets play the personages of the Ramayana, reenacting the events which led to the War of the Ramayana and the destruction of the place and the world by the Flood. Hence, a more adequate translation of the book’s name would be “book of the kings who ruled at the time of the cataclysmic era changes” (i. e., the Flood). ↑140
This interpretation of the word purwa is attested in the site linked here, which affirms: “Wayang purwa makes use of the purwa repertoire: the oldest stories about cosmic events and divine will are represented; the course of events is seen as being predestined, part of a cosmic law [dharma].” And it adds: “The Javanese word purwa means “beginning” or “first” and derives, probably, from the Sanskrit parwan, a word used to denote the chapters of the Mahabharata.” ↑141
In reality, the etymology of this word is very complex, as is so often the case with sacred etymologies in both Sanskrit and Dravida. Ultimately, the Sanskrit word parvan (or pūrva) derives from the Dravida parpa. And this Dravidian word in turn designates a separation or “bamboo knot”, either of eras or of things such as Sunda Strait and the royal dynasties. Said otherwise, the word parvan (or purwa) really refers to the eras of mankind, of which the Atlantean era was the last one before the one in which we currently live.
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12 The Internet is a mine of information on the subject of Pole Shift. Even Dr. Flavio Barbiero’s attempt to save Pole Shift by positing large extra-terrestrial impacts does not seem at all viable, as per the criticism by Dr. C. Leroy Ellenberger and Dr. Paul Heinrich. Cf. the Internet articles here and here and here and here and here. Even if a major impact were able to cause Pole Shift – and I believe they indeed are, if large enough – the real cause of the disaster would be the impactor, not the resulting Pole Shift, which is just one of its secondary consequences. ↑142
Moreover, its effects at such a recent date as 11,600 BP would be clearly discernible in the geological record (dust layer, impact crater, etc.). No such evidence is at all available. So, it seems safe to discard this cause for good. The other alternative – the one of Charles Hapgood that Pole Shift may result from an imbalance in the ice caps – is scientifically preposterous, and is not even worth considering. Most of its former proponents have now recanted from this position, as it is scientifically untenable.
We take advantage of this endnote to clarify the differences between Magnetic Pole Shift; Terrestrial Pole Shift; and Celestial Pole Shift. According to modern views, earth’s magnetic field is engendered by the relative motion between earth’s mantle and crust and the outer portions of the nucleus in relation to its inner portions. The nucleus is molten, and hence highly mobile in relation to the rest. Since it is metallic and hence electrically conductive, this relative motion between different portions of the nucleus generates electric currents which cause it to act as a dynamo, engendering a magnetic field which manifests itself as the one of the earth.
The Terrestrial Pole is earth’s axis of rotation in relation to itself. This is fixed in relation to the earth’s crust, and hence unchanging. Pole Shift of the type preconized by Hapgood, Hancock and White would consist of the abrupt motion of earth’s crust in relation to the mantle. Since the two are solid and solidly anchored to each other, this motion is essentially impossible, except as the very slow result of creep.
A third type of pole is the Celestial Pole. We could say that this pole is the projection of Terrestrial Pole on the Celestial Sphere, which happens over the Pole Star. As the result of the Precession of the Equinoxes, the Celestial Pole changes over time, completing a whole cycle in 25,920 years. Since the inclination of the earth is fully 23.5o, this motion is quite considerable. This motion was first directly measured by Hipparchos, according to the modern versions of history.
Far more likely, these celestial motions were measured a lot earlier in time, perhaps by the Atlanteans themselves. We show in other works that accurate computational devices such as the Great Pyramid of Egypt are in reality highly advanced astronomical computers originally devised in order to measure the Precession of the Equinoxes by means of a very clever artifice which puts to shame the techniques currently used by modern astronomers.
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13 The word Gades or Gadeiros apparently translates the name of Govinda, one of the names of Krishna or Vishnu, as “the good shepherd” or “the cowherd” of Hindu traditions. In the Rig Veda, this name also applies to Indra and to Agni (Shiva in his fiery aspect, as Kala or the Vadavamukha). This Sanskrit etymology is complex, and cannot be fully expounded here. It relates to Gomeda-dvipa, “the Island of the Fat Cattle”, one of the Hindu names of Atlantis. The name of Govinda is said by Monier to derive from gopêndra (“cow-lord”), which is also the real meaning of the name of Gadeiros or Eumelos.
And this is also equivalent to Skt. Pashupati (“Lord of Cattle”), one of the many titles of Shiva. This function of Shiva dates from the Indus Valley Civilization itself. The name of Govinda is further related to the Sanskrit gopa or gopala (“cowherd”) and to Gautama (or Gotama), a name of Buddha meaning “desirous of cattle”. Krishna (Govinda) is the twin brother of Balarama, much as Hercules (Gadeiros) is the twin of Atlas. One twin is said to be black, the other one white, both in India and in Greece. The idea concerns the two races, the Aryans being whites, and the Dravidas red or dark. ↑143
The myth of the twins who dispute the “cattle” dates from the Rig Veda. In this hymnary this myth is told as the disputes of Indra and Vritra for the possession of the “cattle”, a word which really means “people” or “armies”, as we just said. One example is Rig Veda 10:108:3, where Indra is invited by the Panis to be “the herdsman of their cattle”. As Marcel Bréal and other experts have recognized, this hymn was actually the (Vedic) source of the myth of Hercules and Geryon, which it closely parallels in many details.
Geryon is the alias and counterpart of Atlas as the elder of the twins. As we just said, the elder twin stands for the Pelasgians and Phoenicians, the predecessors of the Greek people later absorbed by the Indo-Europeans who invaded and conquered the whole Mediterranean region. Indra is the patron hero of the Aryans, and it is at least puzzling to see him being invited here to be the herdsman (or king) of the Panis. This luciferine Indian people has been identified by many experts as the predecessors of the Phoenicians (Poeni = Pani).
The ultimate etymology of the name of Gadeiros is also the Dravida gaderu (“place where cattle are forded”). The first root is from #1109 gad (“to land, cross, ford,”) and the second from #815 eru (“cattle”). The idea is both that of an oxford or, alternatively, a port or quay where people or cattle are embarked or disembarked. This last one is really the etymol
ogy of the word, which is connected with the Sanskrit ghat, a sort of quay or port or gate, generally located in riverbanks, where cattle was gathered to be forded over by a ferry.
In Hindu traditions, a ghat is the place in rivers where the worshippers bathe themselves in sacred ablutions. As we show in other works, this is a sort of ritual baptism. Now, Baptism is, as St. Jerome reveals, a ritual commemoration of the Flood as the event where people were drowned en masse. The idea of “oxford” and “ghat” is also connected with the name of Kattigara (or Cattigara) as the site of the famous strait (Malacca) or its dual (Sunda).
Kattigara is also the famous Indian port which figures in essentially all ancient maps ever since the one of Ptolemy himself. The name of Kattigara can be again derived from the Dravida #1123/1114 kati (“cattle”) + #1109 kaţa, kar, *kara (“to embark, cross over, ferry”) > kati-kara (“place where cattle are forded or ferried”). The idea is, as we already said, connected with the miraculous “Crossing of the Red Sea”, which is really an allegory of the mass exodus from Lanka after its destruction.
Lanka is, of course, the same as Atlantis, being the capital of Ravana’s worldwide empire. Lanka was destroyed by Rama and Hanumant, very much as Troy was destroyed by Achilles and Menelaos, and Atlantis was itself destroyed by a coalition of Greek armies. Ptolemy places Kattigara at 8.5oS; 180oE, which means the place is located near the Equator and almost opposite (antipodal) to the Canary Islands, where his longitude measurement started. And this was no sheer coincidence. ↑144
Atlantis the Lost Continent Finally Found Page 42