as early as 1903, suryanarayana sastri, in his "tamilmoliyin varalaru", insisted that all the humans were descendants of the ancient tamils from kumari kandam. such claims were repeated by several others, including m. s. purnalingam pillai and maraimalai adigal. in 1917, abraham pandithar wrote that lemuria was the cradle of human race, and tamil was the first language spoken by the humans. these claims were repeated in the school and college textbooks of tamil nadu throughout the 20th century.