POOMPUHAR, INDIA, January 14, 2005: For generations, the people of Poompuhar have spoken of the days when their sleepy fishing town was the capital of a powerful kingdom, and traders came from Rome, Greece and Egypt to deal in pearls and silk. Then, more than 1,500 years ago, it was gone. The thriving town, according to ancient Tamil-language texts, was “kodalkol,” “swallowed by the sea.” Perhaps, archaeologists and historians thought, the sea water had gradually risen. Or, some think now, perhaps it was something else. “Nobody knew what had happened,” said Murugaiyan, a 38-year-old fisherman whose family has long talked of the vanished kingdom. But on December 26, when the tsunami struck, he says it all became clear. “Now I know,” he said. “It must have been another tsunami.” At least 170 people died in Poompuhar in last month’s tsunami. More than 150,000 other people died across nearly a dozen countries, the deadliest tsunami since the one caused by the 1883 volcanic eruption at Krakatoa in Indonesia which killed an estimated 36,000 people.
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