Who discovered New Zealand ? Certainly Indian tamilians atleast during late 14th or early 15th century, but not Abel Tasman.
Tamil Bell is a broken bronze bell discovered in approximately 1836 by missionary William Colenso.
It was being used as a pot to boil potatoes by Māori women near Whangarei in the Northland Region of New Zealand when found.
The bell is 13 cm long and 9 cm deep, and has an inscription running around the rim of the bell has been identified as old or ancient Tamil. When translated, it says “Muhayideen Baksh’s ship’s bell“.
Some of the characters in the inscription are of an archaic form no longer seen in modern Tamil script, thus suggesting that the bell could be more than 500 years old, possibly from the Later Pandya period.
This Muhayideen Baksh’s or Muhaideen Vakka’s was interpreted in few books by authors wrongly as Spanish Helmet.
This Bell dating back to atleast 15th century, proves the origin of human settlements in Australia and New Zealand.
Seafarers from Trincomalee may have reached New Zealand during the period of increased trade between the Vanni (Wanni) country and South East Asia.
The discovery of this Bell proves that the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman and British Captain James Cook were not the first Europeans to reach New Zealand.
Maori people questioned through Cook’s Tahitian interpreter, were consistent in their belief that no white men had been seen in the country before the Endeavour’s arrival.
This also proves that it was Asians (Indians), who reached New Zealand earlier than Europeans.
Infact, New Zealand was first explored and explained in earth’s geography by Sugreeva in Valmiki Ramayana.
When William Colenso, visited a remote inland Maori village in the north, near Whangarei, he was surprised to find the local Maori people were using an old upturned ship bell as a cooking utensil. When questioned as to where the bell had come from, they gave an interesting reply.
The bell had been discovered hidden in the roots of an old tree uprooted in a storm. Other than that they had no idea about what the bell was or how it had arrived there. There was nothing similar in their culture with which to compare it.
Colenso managed to exchange the bell for a large iron cooking pot and kept the bell, hoping to find out more about it. The bell was donated to the Dominion Museum in 1890 and now belongs to the New Zealand national museum, Te Papa.
Experts studied the 24 letters of the inscription, which seem to make up six or seven words and appears to date from the period 1400 to 1500 CE, making the bell, at the time of Colenso’s discovery of it, already 400 years old.
