Agastya (
Tamil:
அகத்தியர் Agathiyar;
Telugu:
అగస్త్య;
Kannada:
ಅಗಸ್ತ್ಯ;
Sanskrit:
अगस्त्य;
Malay:
Anggasta;
Thai:
Akkhot) is one of the Saptarishis who are extolled at many places in the Vedas and a revered
Vedic sage and earliest
Siddhar. He is also believed to be the author of Agastya Samhita. Agastya is a name of
Shiva too. The word is also written as
Agasti and
Agathiyar.
A-ga means a mountain, and Asti means thrower.
Agastya the Muni, son of Urvashi was born of both Gods,
Mitra and
Varuna.
[2][3] Agastya is also the Indian astronomical name of the star of
Canopus, is said to be the 'cleanser of waters', since its rising coincides with the calming of the waters of the
Indian Ocean. He was son of
Pulasthya, son of
Brahma.
Siddhar were spiritual adepts who possessed the ashta siddhis, or the eight supernatural powers. Sage Agathiyar is considered the guru of all Siddhars, and the
Siddha medicine system is believed to have been handed over to him by Lord Muruga, son of the Hindu God Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi.Siddhars are the followers of Lord Shiva. Agathiyar is the first Siddhar. His disciples and other siddhars contributed thousands of texts on
Siddhar litratures, including medicine and form the propounders of the system in this world
.He is considered as the
Father of Tamil
literature and compiled the first Tamil grammar called
Agathiyam. It is believed that he has lived in the 6th or 7th century B.C and specialized in language, alchemy, medicine and spirituality (yogam and gnanam). There are 96 books in the name of Agathiyar.
However, some Tamil researchers say that Agastya mentioned in Vedas and Agathiyar mentioned in Tamil texts could be two different characters. In Tamil language the term 'Agam' means inside and 'iyar' means belong. One who belong inside (soul) is the Tamil meaning for Agathiyar.
Agastya and Lopāmudrā
The left of these two statues represents Agastya as a Hindu sage. It is located in the archaeological museum at
Prambanan,
Java,
Indonesia, and probably dates from the 9th century A.D. Agastya was one of the divinities worshipped at Candi Siva, the main temple at Prambanan.
Agastya needed to marry and sire a son, in order to fulfill his duties to the Manus. Once he resolved upon doing this, Agastya pursued an unusual course of action: by his yogic powers, he created a female infant who possessed all the special qualities of character and personality that would be appropriate in the wife of a renunciate. At this time, the noble and virtuous king of
Vidarbha (an area in south-central India, just south of the Vindhya mountains), was childless and was undertaking penances and offering prayers to the divinities for the gift of a child. Having come to know the plight of the king, Agastya arranged for the transformation of the child he had created, to be born the daughter of that noble king of Vidarbha. The child thus born was named "
Lopamudra" by her parents. Upon her attaining marriageable age, Agastya approached the king and sought the hand of his daughter. The king was initially chagrined to hear such a suggestion from a renunciate, but found that his daughter, who had already exhibited extraordinary standards of mind and character, was insistent that he should accept the proposal. She was utterly intent upon renouncing the royal palace of her father and set out to live in forest at the hermitage of Agastya. Lopamudra and Agastya were duly married and lived a life of extraordinary felicity and happiness. It is believed that they had two sons - Bhringi & Achutha. In
Mahabharata (Vana Parva: Tirtha-yatra Parva), there is mention of his penance at
Gangadwara(
Haridwar),in Uttar Khand State in India, with the help of his wife,
Lopamudra (the princess of
Vidharba).
Lopamudra attained the rank of one of Mahapativrathas in the world by her dedication to worship her husband Agastya, and remained with other Pathivrathas (Noble exalted wives),like Mandodari (Ravana's wife),etc.
Legends and beliefs about Agastya
Sage Agastya is often considered the father of traditional Indian Medicine among many other streams of knowledge. In his book, he is believed to have given the description of, and instructions for the creation of medicines for many types of fevers, cancer, treatments for impotence, abdominal problems, brain and eye problems, bone problems, etc.
Among the various legends associated with him is that of the Vindhya Mountains. According to a story in the Shri Rama-Charitra-Manasa, at one time, Mount Vindhyachal was continually growing in size due to taunting comments by the Sage Narada. So as to temper the vanity of the mountains, Sage Agastya and his family traveled to South India, via the Mount Vindhyachal. On their way, when the Vindhyas saw Sage Agastya, he bowed with respect and reverence, upon which Sage Agastya, jokingly asked if he would stay bowed and subdued with respect till the sage returned. The Vindhyas was truly benevolent and promised to not grow until the seer's return from the South. After passing through the mountain, sage Agastya told his wife, that they would never again cross over to the North side of mount Vindhyas.
Another reference is in the
Mahabharata Book 10 in Sauptikaparva, section-12
as the sage who gave
Drona, the greatest of weapons,
Brahmastra (used by both
Arjuna and
Ashwatthama at the end of the war).
Agastya's Hermitage and references in Valmiki's Ramayana
Agastya is mentioned most among all the existing Hindu texts possibly in the
Ramayana. He is mentioned in the oldest and most original existing versions of the Ramayana (those by Sage
Valmiki), as having his abode in the form of a hermitage in the
Malaya Mountains, at more than one place. His main hermitage is placed by the epic somewhere in the western half of the Indian Ocean, further south of the so-called
Malaya Mountains, amongst a series or chain of large islands and submerged mountains.
His hermitage building there is supposedly eighty miles in both length and breadth, and again an astounding eighty miles in height as well, and adorned with inestimable amounts of gold, diamonds, and all other kinds of precious metals and stones.
From Etymology to Recorded History
The critical link between Dravidian etymology and history is brought out by the following two sets of entries: DEDR 7: aga-m ‘inside, house, place’ aga-tt-u ‘within, inside the house’ aga-tt-an\ ‘one who is in, a householder’. C.W.Kathiraiver Pillai’s Dictionary (1910) (gloss in English added by
Iravatham Mahadevan ):
aga-tt-i : (1) agattiya mun\ivan\ (‘Agastya, the sage’)
(2) ul|l|-irukkir\a-van\ (‘one who is in’)
(3) oru maram (‘Agasti grandiflora’).
Note how agatti in (1) and (3) get transformed to agasti in Indo-Aryan loanwords.
Agastya and the southern migration of the Velir
The story of the southern migration of the Velir from
Dwaraka under the leadership of Agastya is narrated by Naccinarkkiniyar in his commentary on
Tolkappiyam (payiram ; Porul|.34).
Agastya's legacy is associated with the Chengannur Temple in
Kerala in South India, considered to be first built by Agasthya Muni, where he sat in meditation. Here Siva-Parvathy’s idols are worshiped in the same temple. One half of the temple is dedicated to Lord Siva and the other half behind Siva is dedicated to Goddess Parvathy. It is believed that They are available to Their devotees for worship, as husband and wife here. Interestingly it is believed that even today the idol of Parvathy has menstrual flow, though not regular. But if the priest observes blood (claimed to be tested true menstrual blood) in the 'odayaada' during 'nirmalya pooja', Parvathy's idol is removed and kept in a sanctum opposite to the temple within the premises and after a festival 'tripoottaraatu' (7 days) Her idol is placed back into the temple. The festival is celebrated only if Her menses occurs.
Vathapi legend
Another story has it that two demon brothers, Ilvala and Vathapi, used to kill brahmins as a revenge in a special manner.Ilvala had once requested a Brahmin to bless him for getting a son as powerful as Indra, the king of gods. The Brahmin refused the request right away. That made the demon angry. He wanted to take revenge on all Brahmins because one of them refused to grant him his wish.
He had a younger brother by name Vatapi. Being demons, the two had special powers. They came up with a plan to take revenge on Brahmins. Ilvala would turn his brother into a goat. He would invite any passer by, especially Brahmins, for a grand feast at his house. He would cut his brother, turned goat, into pieces and cook a delicacy with it. He would offer the guest this special meat dish.
After meal he would call his brother out, “Vatapi”. His brother would respond from the belly of the visitor and come out alive in one piece. In the process the guest would be killed. The two demons, later, would enjoy a curry made of human flesh. All the valuables in the possession of the visitor would go into their treasure.
Ilvala was so good at cooking that the smell of the food started attracting Brahmins around.They queued to have a taste of it.Anyone who went inside the eating place never came back and the brothers were intelligent enough to only allow one brahmin to enter and eat at a time.Thus the numbers of brahmins began to reduce.One day,Agastya happened to pass through.By the plan,as usual, one changed into a goat and the other disguised himself as a
Brahmachari who invited Agastya to a meal. Agastya knew beforehand about the plan due to his immense
Vedic powers, but he resolved to teach both a lesson. After the meal, Agastya simply rubbed his stomach saying
Vathapi JeerNo bhava; literally
may Vathapi be digested, while the other demon tried to bring his brother to life in vain. Agastya plainly informed the demon that his brother has been digested and could no longer be brought back to life.
Other facets of Agastya
Agastya drinking the whole sea
Very ancient period before Agastya, on the period of "Abhisheka pandian", On the grace of lord Shiva (avatar) "Sundharanandhar" is a first siddhar in world. Those incident (Thiruvilaiyadal) was held in Madurai. He is avatar of Lord Shiva explain to the people about meaning of "Siddhas" and also he explained human body is control by "Pancha boodham". Agastya is considered as the first and foremost
Siddha. He is considered the guru of many other
Siddhas. He is also called Kurumuni, meaning short (kuru) saint (muni). He made contributions to the field of Medicine and
Astrology - especially
Nadi astrology. He is said
[Tamil sidhhars] to have lived for over 5000 years, and that one of his medicinal preparations, Boopathi Kuligai, is so powerful that it can even bring the dead back to life. Two of his students and disciples were
Therayar and
Tholkappiar.
Another story about him is that once when the great sage accompanied by his beloved royal wife were wandering through forests, she fainted due to the humidity and hot conditions prevailing in the south. She was royal, hence not exposed to hard conditions. By seeing this the great sage became angry and prepared to punish the Sun God. The sun god immediately, frightened, appeared before Agastya and presented him with umbrella and
chappals (foot wear).
Unity of Vishnu and Shiva
At a Saivite temple named
Kutralam, formerly a Vishnu temple, in
Tamil Nadu, Agastya, in one legend, was refused entry. He then appeared as a Vaishnavite devotee and is said to have miraculously converted the image to a Shiva
linga.
A symbolic meaning of this conversion is to show that Vishnu and Shiva are different aspects of the one and same God
