If Edward Pococke’s above three propositions are valid, then we can come to only two conclusions in this book: Atlantis existed - in Mexico! And India is the mother of both.
     Of all the frequently told myths and legends on earth, the one about ancient Atlantis has never ceased to be popular. More than 25,000 books, plus countless other articles have been written about this fabled confederation of city-states. Yet, speculation continues, especially as to where it was located. Every place on earth has become a candidate. One article I recently read on a certain website states that Atlantis existed on some planet in Outer Space. Another assures us that it existed only as a particular dimension of human awareness.
     In Timaeus (24), Plato pinpointed the location of Atlantis so clearly that I, at least, am amazed that anyone would think that it is any place other than the Americas:

     Libya was the Greek name for the whole of Africa. Both Americas are greater in size than Africa and Asia combined. In olden times, ships could sail from and to these two continents safely because the whole area was lined with a number of large and small islands between Europe and America. A ship was probably never over a day’s distance from land. After the death of Atlantis, the ancients (that is, everybody except the Phoenicians) had to cross the Pacific Ocean, which also had numerous islands and safe harbors, to reach what are now Meso- and South America.
     The names that the Incas, Nahuas, and Mayas gave to sailing vessels indicate that after the Great Flood, the Phoenicians generally went to the Americas via the Pacific Ocean. A Sampan is a seaworthy flat-bottomed sailing barge that was once common in China, Japan, India, and the South Seas. The word is derived from the Sanskrit Sam (Association; Company) plus Pan (Trade). The South American Indian coastal tribes called it Mayu (Skt: “Wealthy”) Chimpana. For the Nahuatl speakers it was Chan-Pan (Moving House). The Mayans used the East Asian version: Sam-Pan (Moving House). The Sanskrit term for “floating wooden vessel” was Van-Plu, also Va-Plu (“Floating Transport”). The Hawaiians and other South Pacific islanders’ word for “rowboat” was Wa-Apa; the Incas called it Wam-Pu.
     The “boundless continent,” which Plato said Atlantis controlled, had to be both Americas. As Plato said, the Pacific Ocean separated Atlantis from other land masses lying westward. East Asia?
     Plato explained that the volcanic explosion which destroyed Atlantis had left a huge, muddy barrier, possibly a swamp, beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar), keeping ships from going farther westward. Skeptics have used his statements to prove that he had invented the story of Atlantis. Gradually, over the centuries, this muddy swamp dissipated, worn away by the movements of the sea and tides. Even now, the 1,300 low-lying islands of the Maldives, a still visible relic of Atlantis’ twin brother Lanka, are being destroyed in this fashion. Geologists say that by 2050 AD the small nation of Maldives will have sunk under the sea forevermore, just as Atlantis did.
     The huge floating expanse of aquatic salt-water plants called the Sargasso Sea also could have persuaded many sailors not to venture farther westward. Until this day authors sometimes write dismal fictional stories about ships getting tangled in those seaweeds, never to escape.
     Although Atlantis could have extended far beyond the regions I discuss in this book, as much as possible I intend to stay well within the boundaries of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea; Plato said that Atlantis lay just beyond a group of smaller islands which are our present day Antilles or West Indies. It’s more than possible that Atlantis extended beyond this region. However, if this riddle is to be solved once and for all time, we must start on solid foundations, venturing eastward step by step. The existence of Atlantis can definitely be proven if we slowly move eastward from Mexico’s eastern shores.
     Etchings on Phoenician coins often contain maps of the whole world. Yes, they even include the Americas! Mark McMenanim, a geologist at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, believes that the Carthaginians cast gold coins produced between 350 and 320 BC, depicting maps of the Mediterranean world with India to the East and America to the West.
     When McMenanim enlarged pictures of some of those coins with his computer, he was amazed to note how the strange markings on them resembled maps made by Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer and geographer. The maps show what appears to emphasize the Mediterranean region, with Sardinia as a dot in the center. The north coast of Africa appears at the bottom. Europe is arched above the Phoenician homeland and India. The Strait of Gibraltar lies to the west; after that is the land mass of America. When skeptics see the enlargement of the coins, they become convinced of the correctness of this geologist’s opinions.
     For reasons we can now easily suspect, the Carthaginians, who were Phoenicians, made laws forbidding any non-Phoenician craft to venture beyond the Strait of Gibraltar. Only in the presence of a Carthaginian government representative could certain individuals venture beyond the Strait of Gibraltar. Anyone caught challenging Phoenicia’s hegemony over the Atlantic ocean was put to death. Phoenician ship captains and their crews were ordered to commit suicide and sink their ships on the open sea, rather than let others follow their secret trade routes. The Phoenicians also reinforced non-Phoenicians’ superstitions about the potential perils of sailing across the Atlantic. Today, no one can understand such possessiveness. The Phoenicians, however, did not see their nationhood in terms of land boundaries, but in terms of all the oceans, seas and coastlands of the world. With huge warships and armies of Celtic mercenaries, themselves descendents of Phoenicians, they defended their right to own those oceans.
     The Greek historian Diodorus Seculus said the Carthaginians possessed a large and rich land far out on the Atlantic ocean. According to him, the Phoenicians had found it by accident when some ships got lost off the coast of Africa and were carried to the island by the Atlantic currents. Diodorus said the Carthaginians would not tell anyone the location of this island. When the Spaniards invaded the Americas, the natives told them about a mysterious nation called Cabeiri, somewhere in what is now Northern Mexico and the American Southwest. The Spanish called it La Gran Quivira (The Great Quivira).
     Plutarch (2 AD) wrote that both the Phoenicians and the Greeks had visited this island which lay on the west end of the Atlantic. The Greeks even intermarried with Native-American girls.
     Before the eastern part of Mexico (Atlantis) became the bottom of what are now the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean sea, the present narrow strip of swamps and the river Chimalapán connecting Southern Veracruz and Oaxaca, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, was a wide waterway uniting the Gulf of Mexico with the Pacific. About four thousand years ago, sailing vessels could and did easily cross from the east coast of Mexico to the Pacific in about two days. Hundreds of years after Atlantis submerged, Phoenician traders passed through the Isthmus from both the Pacific and the Atlantic.
     From the days of the Spanish conquest, the people of Mexico have dreamed of widening the Chimalapán (Sheemala-pahn) river and others, reconnecting the two coasts. In North Indian languages, Shimal = “The North;” Pan = “Phoenician; Trade.” Thus, Shimal-Pan = “The North Phoenician.”
     During the 1950s, my lifelong friend Haig Kurdian and I once crossed part of this wide expanse of water-logged swamp and narrow rivers on a trip we took to Costa Rica. In those days, it was almost impossible to cross the Isthmus of Tehuantepec by auto alone. However, the railroad did go to the Guatemalan border. We had to load Haig’s auto onto a flatcar.
     Farther to the south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, we find Panama. Its name also derives from Sanskrit or Kashmiri: Pani (Phoenician; Trader); Maha (Greater; Great). Pani-Maha = “The Greater Phoenician.” Evidently, the ancient Phoenicians and Atlanteans preferred to reach either of the two oceans via the Panama route.
     In Nahuatl, Pan or Opan means “traveling or sailing from one side to another.” However, we must take into account that the Panis named those waterways; their homes were the great seas and rivers of the world. Nahuatl Apantlaca = “People who live on the water,” the same name that the Hindus of India also called them. The Hindu holy books say, “Pani lives on water.”
     The Usumacinta (“Oo-soo-mah-SINT-ah”) River snakes between the common borders of Mexico and Guatemala. It is Mesoamerica’s largest and longest river, with a basin of 106,000 square kilometers. The sixth largest river in Latin America, it represents 30% of Mexico’s fresh water. The Usumucinta was extremely sacred to the Mayans and was a center of their culture. Several Mayan archeological sites are located on its banks. Even the word Usumacinta derives from Sanskrit or Kashmiri. Usuma could have been derived from either the Sanskrit Zamu or the Kashmiri Shuma, meaning “Peaceful; Tranquil.” Although the Usumacinta is generally peaceful and meandering, its color is a brackish brown. Perhaps it received its Sanskrit name for its color: Shom (Dark-brown).
     Cinta (Cin-ta) is readily recognizable as the Sanskrit Sind, Sinde, or Sint, the ancient Persian word for “River.” Even in languages like German, Sint means “Sind; Indus.” Since this word Sint also means “Holy” in many languages, I am assuming that we derived Saint from Sind. For the Hindus, the Indus (Sind/Sint) river was and is equal with the Ganges in sacredness and as a center of Hindu culture.
     Several of the largest Amerindian tribes use variations of the word Hindu, Inde, or Sind in the Americas to identify themselves spiritually and culturally. I am going to separate each of these “Hindu” derivations by syllables so that you can more easily notice the relationship:

     These astonishing similarities cover a large part of both Americas - from the United States Southwest down to and including much of South America. It is highly unlikely that they are coincidences.
     If, as Plato stated, we can still cross the Atlantic ocean, inevitably reaching a place that all the Indians of Mexico once called A-tlan-tis, which is what much of Mexico still calls itself, do we need any other proof? History has proven that until now, everyone has disregarded the proofs that Plato, Diodorus, Plutarch, Herodotus, and the Phoenician maps have given us. Will I be an exception to the rule? I have my doubts.
     The pre-conquest Meso-Americans claimed that their primordial founding city was Tollán. The original name of the Toltec ruins of Tula, Hidago, on which the Mayan city of Chichén Itzá was modeled, is also Tollán. However, similar place names omitting the “O” exist all over Mexico: Atlán, Autlán, Mazatlán, Cihuatlán, Cacatlán, Tecaltitlán, Atitlán, Zapotlán, Minititlán, Ocotlán, Miahuatlán, Tecaltitlán, Tepatitlán, Tihuatlán, Texiutlán, and the like. Notice that the Nahuatl Tlán root of these place names is exactly like the Tlan in “Atlantis.” Tollán is just another variety of “Tlan” and the Sanskrit word Talan. The “n” part of both the Mexican and Sanskrit equivalents means “People.” Even in our English language, we do the same thing: America(n); Europe(an); Mexica(n); Russia(n). In both what were once North India (Southern Russia, Chinese Turkestan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.) and Meso-America, the “n” suffix was often omitted, especially if the name of the place ended in Tal/Tala. In Mexico we find places like Tlaxcala; Mixquiahuala; Sinaloa; Guatemala; Cosalá; Ayutla; Mitla; Tonalá; Chapala; etc. Similar endings, from Southern Russia down to Pakistan, are Nepal; Coushala; Sinhala; Bhopal; Tal; Shawl; Kabul; etc.
     Besides the Tlán root, other Meso-America place names end in Tán and An: Yucatán; Juchitán; Champotón; Celestún; Comitán; Tehuantán; Rostán; Mexcaltitán; Tehuantán, etc. The regions from Southern Russia down to Pakistan, once part of India, also have place names ending in Tan and An: Afghanistan; Pakistan; Multan; Rajasthan; Tajikstan; Bhutan; Hindustan, plus many others. As in Mesoamerica, these Tan/An endings are stressed. Only in what were once ancient India and Mesoamerica are these Tan/An endings found so abundantly. There are many other similar linguistic correspondences between the two regions.
     The inhabitants of both regions even gave the same titles to their gods and leaders: The Mayan priestly class was called Chilam-Balam. Given the Mayans’ dislike of the “r,” in India such priests would have been known as Shi-Ram Brahm (Shiva-Ram Brahmins). The ancient Hindus called their hereditary leaders and warriors Kshitriya or Kashis. The Mayans called them Quiché (Kish-ay) and Cachikhel (Kashi-khel). In Sanskrit, Khel = “Family.” Ancient Indian princes and holy men were deified in their lifetimes, becoming known as Ishas or Isvaras (Messiahs). The Mayans revered them as Itzaes. The Mayan nation of primordial origin or “emergence” was Shivalva. In Sanskrit, Shivava = “Temple of Shiva.” The Northern Mexican state of Chihuahua lies contiguous to the United States. It was named after what the Native-Americans called the region. However, the Native-Americans pronounced the word as Shivava. The Amerindian name for the region which is Mexico’s state of Chiapas is the Sanskrit Shia-Pas (“Princes of Shiva”). Other India-derived place names in Mexico are as follows: Tamaulipas, derived from Tamralipta, an ancient port of Bengal; Colima (Kaul-Maha - “Great Brahmans”); Sonora (Sonita, name of a Hindu Devil. Sonora is one of the harshest deserts in the world); Tabasco (Tapas-Koh, “Place of Austerities” or “Shiva’s Place”); Campeche (Com-Peshe, “Trading Tribe”); Michoacán (Mishi-Khan, “Shiva’s Family); Jalisco (Halys-Koh, “Place of the Sun”); Zacatecas (Zaca-tokh; “Scythian-Land”); Tehuantepec (Devana-Tepec; “Divine Mountain”); Oaxaca (originally pronounced “Vashaka”) derived from Boshika (God Shiva); Nayarit (Nayariti); Sinaloa (Sinhala), plus hundreds of other similar correspondences. Historians say that the name of Veracruz was derived from the Spanish Ver la Cruz (Seeing the Cross), but more and more authorities are saying that “Veracruz” is a derivation of an Amerindian place name.  If this is so, its true name is Vira-Kurus which in Sanskrit, means “The Hero Kurus,” a famous tribe that fled India after the Great Flood. Throughout the American Southwest down to the tip of South America, I can give almost a non-stop list of Hindu place and divine names.
     Had the English colonists of Belize not swept that country free of Native-American place names, few people today would have difficulty believing that the Americas and the ancient Hindus once had a tight relationship. Belize itself derives from a name of Shiva: Balusha. Its first capital, Belmopan, derives also from a name of Shiva: Balmuj-Pan (Shiva Phoenician). An Amerindian tribe called Rama lives in Belize.
     The country now called Mexico did not originally have that name. It is named after the Mexica (Meshika) a.k.a. Aztecs (really Aztatecas), a bloodthirsty, cannibalistic, and bellicose tribe that once lived in and around what is now Mexico City, about 50 to 75 miles in each direction. All the non-Meshika tribes, from Central America to our own American Southwest, hated and feared them. This negative legacy still exists among Mexico’s non-Meshika indigenous peoples who bitterly oppose being called mexicanos, even infecting the mestizo and white citizens inhabiting the various regions of this fascinating and enigmatic country. Such festering resentment fuels almost insurmountable political, social and economic problems in Mexico and will continue to do so. Movimiento Meshika is a small activist group seeking to force all Mexicans of Indian descent to speak Nahuatl, take on Nahuatl names, reject Spanish culture, and call themselves Meshika (Mexicans). But such a movement, if successful, would just divide and fragment Mexico even further. Even now, several Indian tribes in Mexico, such as the Totonacs, Mayas, and Huicholes, are plotting to shake off the yoke of Mexican hegemony. Troubles between the Mexican government and the Maya-related tribes in Chiapas have been keeping that region in turmoil for several years. Some Mexican intellectuals knowledgeable of their country’s linkage with Atlantis have told me that Mexico would be better served -- possibly keeping it from cannibalizing itself -- by restoring its original name: Atlán, Aztatlán, Tollán, or Tlan. They say that such a name change could unite all the different ethnicities and territorial factions as one truly national entity for the first time in Mexico’s turbulent history.
     Nahuatl scholar Angel Maria Garibay K. deplores the pro-Nahuatl activists’ zeal to restore Nahuatl as Mexico’s official language:

     All the area south of the state of Sonora down to Chiapas contains an infinity of districts, villages, and cities with the root syllable Tlan contained in their respective names. This fact leads me to suspect that the Mayans were not an exclusive part of the Atlantean confederation. In fact, I have reason to believe that originally they were refugees from that other great ancient nation which sank under the waves: Lanka -- the twin brother of Atlantis, an ancient, powerful Indian nation composed of thousands of islands which almost encircled the entire globe. Lanka was much greater and more highly civilized than Atlantis, but, thanks to Plato, it has received the least amount of publicity. Also, like the people loving to insist that Atlantis wasn’t where Plato said it was, there are those who prefer to call Lanka Lemuria and Mu.
     Like all the tribes of Meso-America, the natives of what is now Michoacán had close contact with India, especially with the Phoenicians. Their deities, place names, and some traditions prove conclusively that they immigrated to America from the Indus Valley. Authorities are also certain that immigrants from South America, possibly the Moshika, immigrated to Michoacán. The Phoenician gods of good fortune were the Cabeiri. The Michoacanos worshipped Cabeiri as well, whom they called Curi-Cauveri (Hereditary leader Cauveri), along with his consort. And, like the Phoenicians, the Michoacanos also sacrificed humans to their deities.

     Because of the paucity of Atlán/Tlan place names in the United States, Northern Mexico, extreme Southern Mexico, Central and South America, I have concluded that many Indian nations of the present Americas did not belong to the Atlantean confederation, but to other associations of Indian immigrant nations. The northern half of Mexico, including our Southwestern United States, belonged to a confederation called “The Great Cabeiri” (La Gran Quivira), the Phoenicians who mined the earth of its valuable metals and precious stones. Places, sacred and tribal names in Mesoamerica and Southwestern United States emphasize this fact only too clearly. There were also two American “Atlantises;” not one. The second “Atlantis” was Lanka-Atalantes, composed of what are now The Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, and all the other nations of Central America. Even the Olmecs were called Xilanca (“Shee-LAN-kah”) - “People of Ceylon.”
     The observant reader, while admitting that the root syllable, Tlan, exists also in “Atlantis,“ may want to know why the initial A and final Tis are missing in Mexican place names containing Tlan.
     Hard evidence suggests that Sanskrit is the father of most world-class languages. If we use Sanskrit to explain the true meaning of “Atlantis,” we’ll learn that the initial “a” means “Not; no longer.” The final Tis derives from the Sanskrit Desa, Des, or Tes, meaning “Nation.” Atlantis = “No-Longer-the-‘Tlan’-or-‘Tollán’-Nation.” When A-Tlan-Tis sank under the ocean named after it, it certainly ceased to exist. However, the westernmost extreme of Atlantis, which is Mexico, is still above water. It continues to be Tollán or Tlan.
     Now that we have established the meaning of the initial A and final Tis in “Atlantis,” we must search for the meaning of Tlan or Tollán. In Sanskrit, Tala = “Surface; a place on the surface.” The “n” refers to the people living on this surface. A (not; no longer)-Talan (on the surface)-Tes/Des (nation; land. Tlan or Tollán (Mexico) is the part that remained above water. Even in Nahuatl, Tlan/Tollán = “Surface; a place.” In Greek, Tala means “To bear; support; hold up.” Tala is also one of the thousand and eight epithets of God Shiva. Talan, therefore, means “People of Shiva.”
     Atala = “Not to bear; not to hold up; bottomless.” Like the word Patala, Atala also means “Hell; Bottomless Pit.” The Hindus used both names to refer to the Americas. Thus, Patalan and Atalan mean “People of Hell.” Lanka-Atala was “The Lanka Underworld or Hell.” Before you finish this book, you’ll know exactly why the ancient Indians believed that America was “hell.”
     One of the greatest archeological zones ever discovered in Mexico, during the 1990s, was (el) Pital, which could easily be a derivation of Patal/Patala, as America was once called. Of course, some authorities may point out that this word derives from the Native-American word Pita, a member of the agave plant family. But even the authorities will admit that this word is extremely vague; no one knows what it really means. Also, investigators should ask themselves why many of the most important names for America, and parts of it, occur in the Veracruz and Yucatan areas, exactly where they should be found, if what I’m saying in this book is true.
     The following article, “An Ancient 'Lost City' is Uncovered in Mexico,” by John Noble Wilford, was published in the New York Times, Friday Feb. 4, ’94:

     In a 11-16-2000 Los Angeles Times article, feature writer Christine McDonald described the past beauty and productivity of El Pital in its heyday:

     Patala was described in ancient Hindu mythology as a place of abundant water soaked in the ground, under it, above it, and falling from the sky. The Mexican Atlantis more than fits such a description.
     A Hindu myth states that the God Vishnu (just another name of Shiva) once went to Patala-Loka (The Underworld or America) to help the people recover from a huge flood which had destroyed their society. The myth states that a worldwide fire once reduced the surface of the earth to ashes. I have interpreted this part of the myth to mean that Man himself destroyed his environment through slash-and-burn farming, along with other unscientific agricultural practices.
     The God Vayu then blew huge rain clouds all over the earth, causing torrential rains to fall. After the rains had washed away the once-fertile topsoils in the Vera Cruz area, God Vishnu went there and fought a war with the demons who had caused this severe deluge. Then he drained away the excess water, causing the earth to rise above the water again. In other words, he just educated the natives in correct agricultural practices.
     Vishnu expressed his desire to reside on the Earth to protect its people. He commanded his vehicle, Garuda (a Divine Eagle) to fetch Kridachala (an extensive mountain chain with lofty peaks, embedded with gold and precious stones) to America. Although this part of the myth may be incomprehensible to many people, it just means that God Vishnu ordered the ancient Meso-Americans to diversify their economy. If mining was to be included in this new, diversified economy, as the myth appears to suggest, we can reasonably infer that God Vishnu was none other than the Phoenician Cabeiri who had decided to extend their operations in America to include mining and manufacturing.
     God Vishnu’s representative on earth had to be none other than the Mexican deity Quetzalcoatl. I say this because Vishnu’s Vimana (modes of transportation) were an eagle and a raft of snakes. Quetzalcoatl’s Vimana were also an eagle and a raft of snakes. The eagle signified the ability of those ancient travellers to traverse long distances, heedless of obstacles. The raft of snakes was just the Phoenician Nagas on their ships, the prows of which resembled snakes and dragons.
     The following description of the world’s first truly civilized race from India, the Nagas, was taken from the Encyclopedia Brittanica:

     The above description of the Nagas stated that because they had become too populous in India, they were sent to other parts of the world, especially to Patala. These Nagas were the ones who built the beautiful floating gardens in Kashmir. The Kashmiris produced the world’s first great civilization, even antedating the Sumerians. They brought their expertise to America.

Proof that Quetzalcoatl was from India

     These Sanskrit, Kashmiri and Nahuatl words are too nearly exact, both in meaning and in pronunciation, to be “coincidences.” I dare anyone to find such similarities in languages other than Sanskrit, Persian, Kashmiri, and Nahuatl.
     I can keep listing many other proofs, but I don’t want to load the book unnecessarily with too many boring details. For example, the name of the Aztec God of Rain, Tlaloc, is especially revealing. Tal/Tala = “Upper; Surface” in Sanskrit. In the same language, Loki = “Region; World; Land; From that region.” It is also the Sanskrit word for Lanka. In Nahuatl, Tlaloc means “He who is on the earth,” a name which is more than similar to “From the top of the Land.” Tlaloc’s mythical homeland was Tlalocan. Since rain always falls from top (Tala) to bottom (Atala), it’s only natural to assume that people of that relatively unenlightened and unscientific period of human history would regard Tlalocan as Tlaloc’s place of residence. The Indian or Lankan origins of many Aztec and Mayan deities can be found easily if investigators will divide such names into tiny syllables.
     The present floating gardens of Xochimilco give us a faint hint of the true beauty and splendor of the great civilization which the Nagas, Phoenicians, or Cabeiri, the same people with different titles and depicted in Mexican myths as Quetzalcoatl, brought to Patala or America. This civilization sprouted up on Mexico’s central and western coast, extending eastward to what are now the islands of the Caribbean or the Antilles, and northwards up to what are now the Florida keys - perhaps even to Florida itself.