Mamuni Mayan

Mamuni Mayan-- great ascetic" is a honorific title; also called Brahmarishi Mayan, Sangakala Sirpachithan Mamuni Mayan, Mayamuni, Mayendran) is a culture hero character from Tamil Sangam literature (the Silappathikaram, Manimekalai, and Civaka Cintamani epics), identified with the asura Maya Dānava (Mayasura) of the Mahabharata, the mythical founder of Vastu Shastra. V. Ganapati Sthapati, head of the "College of Architecture & Sculpture", is further of the opinion that Mayan was adored by Vyasa as Vishvakarman, the primeval craftsman revered by the Vishwabrahmin sect.

He is credited with feats ranging from the composition of a primeval "Pranava Veda" to the construction of UFOs. In Tamil national mysticism, Mayans "Pranava Veda" is considered the original Tamil Veda, written some 10,000 years ago in Kumari Kandam, from which the Hindu Vedas are imperfect derivations.
Sthapati at the site of his college near Mamallapuram in 2004 has begun the construction of an "Rs. 2.5 Crore worth" (ca. USD 600,000) monument to Mayan.

Mayan is credited with the authorship of the Mayamata Vastu Shastra, the Surya Siddhanta, as well as the Aintiram (Aindra, a school of grammar connected with the Tolkāppiyam). If there had been a grammatical treatise called Aintiram, it has been lost, but a text called Mayan's Aintiram dealing with Vastu Shastra was published by Sthapati in 1986, with the support of C. Aranganayakam, Tamil Nadu minister of education, and again in 1997 by the "Vaastu Vedic Research Foundation" with English commentary by S. P. Sabarathnam.

The 29 September 2003 edition of the Deccan Herald had an article on Mayan by R.R.Karnik,
The originator of all these ancient sciences is one known as Mayasura of the same tribe that constructed the mayasabha of Mahabharata. But the period is that of Ramayana some 16,000 years ago. He is the father of Mandodari and father-in-law of Ravana. One of his niece was Sita, who had married Rama and [by] an error of judgement started the epic war. He was master in many subjects. Some of these are: Vastu Shastra, Jyotirganita-Surya Siddhanta, Aintiram, ... cartography, fundamental physics, the Brahma principle, the yogashastra etc. His contribution to Aesthetics ... was highly appreciated by late Prof. [Surendra] Barlinge.

Tamil national mysticists via the sunken continent of Kumari Kandam derive all of human culture from this "Mayonic tradition", including the mesoamerican Maya civilization. Intrigued by the homonymy, G. V. Sthapati visited Central America and "traveled throughout that region visiting ancient monuments and meeting with modern Mayan representatives.