the native tamil intellectuals first started discussing the concept of a submerged tamil homeland in the late 1890s. in 1898, j. nallasami pillai published an article in the philosophical-literary journal "siddhanta deepika" (aka "the truth of light"). he wrote about the theory of a lost continent in the indian ocean (i.e. lemuria), mentioning that the tamil legends speak of floods which destroyed the literary works produced during the ancient sangams. however, he also added that this theory had "no serious historical or scientific footing".