in the 1920s, the lemuria concept was popularized by the tamil revivalists to counter the dominance of indo-aryans and sanskrit. tamil revivalist writers claimed that lemuria, prior to its deluge, was the original tamil homeland and birthplace of tamil civilization. they often misquoted or miscited the words of western scholars to grant credibility to their assertions. during the british era, the loss of small patches of lands to cyclones was cataloged in several district reports, gazetteers, and other documents. the tamil writers of the period cited these as evidence supporting the theory about an ancient land lost to the sea.