AGASTYA IN THE TAMIL LAND

BY

K. N . §IVA RA JA PILLA I, B .A

Re ader in T am il , Unive rs ity ofM adras .

UNIVE RSITY OF M A DRAS .

Pr ice Rupee One] [F oreign l s. 6 d.

S ection.

i . Introduction.

Universal ity of th e Agastya trad it ion in the Tami l

country— its r ise from Bgvéd ic Times— Agastya

not included among th e s'

dpafi J— Agastya

and th e Star Canopus .

11 . A gastya’

s bir th .

Incred ible myths about h is b irth—his divine parentage .

i ii . E arl ier M y ths.

T h e ear l ier group , Aryan and the later group ,Dravidian— Paral lelism between these groupsAryan source of th e Dravidian myths —At temptto D ravid ianise th e Agastya myth— F ancifulder ivat ion of th e name Agastya from A kath i

Agastya not a Dravidian Saint .

iv . Reflections .

Contac t wi th nature-myths—f-Agastya’s cursing

proclivi ty- Persons who have suffered from h ismu ses— h is tute lage under Siva, M uruga, and th eSun43od .

v . H is E xodus to the South .

Three strata of tradit ions : ( 1) h is residence nearN ii sik— mar r ies Lopfimud ra and meets Ramawhi le here , (2) h is residence at M alakfita, E astof Bfidfimi— Destruct ion of Vfitfip i and I lvala

takes place here , (3) h is residence at Poth iyi l

in th e Péndya country— his founding th e first

8802 09

PA G E .

iv CONT ENT S

Sect ion .

V“

Tami l Academy and wr it ing th e first Tami l

G rammar— T wo more strata of legends (4) h isvisits to Indonesian Islands , (5) h is travels toSiam and Cambodia— h is marry ing Y asomat i

addi t ional legends by later Pure-

mic wr i tersAgastya

’s attempt to p lant Aryan rel igious r ites

in th e South— h igh venerat ion in which

Agastya’s name is held— Tami l race adop t ing

h im as their sp ir itual guide .

vi . A ppraisement of T radi t ion.

Tradit ion , natural background of history— i t i s a

means of unders tanding some aspects ofman’s

sp ir itual evolut ion— necessi ty of sc ient ific sift ingof tradi t ions— scient ific temper , method and

sympathet ic imaginat ion necessary for such si fting— Tradi t ions to be trustwor thy should be freefrom internal inconsistenc ies and contradic

t ions and should c laim unbroken cont inui tyw ith th e t ime of its or igin .

A nt iqui ty of T radit ion .

N ot ear lier than when th e A ryans crossed th e

Vindhyas— Tide of Aryan migrat ion along th e

course of th e G anges— i ts south-wester ly courseto Or issa— Reference in th e A itaréya Brahmanato cer tain D asyu t r ibes on the outsk ir ts of th e

Vindhyas— D r . B h andarkar on Panini ’s want of

knowledge of South India— Berars, th e oldestAryan province in th e South— Agastya marryingLopamudra , daughter of th e K ing of Be rarT est imony

‘of th e Ramayana— Test imony of

Ktesias of Kn idos and M egasth enesf- want of

reference to th e South in their works— Ki tyiyana

’s imper fec t knowledge of th e SouthPatanjal l

’

s reference to th e South .

PA GE

Sect ion . PAGE .

vi ii . A gastya in th e Tamil country.

P tolemy’s reference to Bett igo and his si lence

about A gastya— Tami l C lassical L iterature has

no reference to Agastya— N acch inarkkiniyar’

s

attempt to introduce th e Agastya legend into

M adur a z’

édfic/zz— ~ H is interpretat ion examined

and rejected —P ar z'

pdda l a late Sangam work . 15-18

ix . A gastya T radi tion— its post

- classical

origin .

Aryans and Dravidians— their dist inc t ive nat ional

character ist ics— Pre-A ryan South India comparat ively free from M yths— M ythic lore most lyimpor ted from th e nor th .

x . A gastya T radi t ion— its post Jainistic

origin .

Buddhist Tradi t ion assoc iates Poth iyil w ithAvalok i t

'

e‘svara— Agastya tradit ion later— Due to

re l igious schisms then prevalent . 2 1 -26

xi . Predisposmg causes for the accep t

ance of t he A gastya t radi tion .

T hree in number ( i) A ppeal to th e sense of rac ialdignity, (i i) T h e high charac ter and re ligioussanct i ty of the early Brahmans , (i i i) T h e

decadence of th e Tami ls . 26 32

xi l . A gastya T radit ion in th e R amayana .

I rreconc i lable references to A gastya in th e

Ramayana— Agas tya tradi t ion r ises after the 4thcentury A . D . 32-34

x iii . A gas tya T radi t ion and T olkapp iyam .

N o reference to Agastya in T olkapp iyam— noneby Panamparanar and A tankottasfin, two otherstudents of Agastya . 34-36

Vi CONT ENT S

S é etion .

xiv . A gastya’

s wefks.

Sangam Tradit ion and Agastya-é Agastya’s miscel

lafiediis Wr i t ings in Tami l— t heir Spur iouscharacter— H is G rammar Agatt iyam Themodern charac ter of i ts S ii tras— cr it icism of thei rstyle and contents. 36-43

xv . A gast ya S ut ras and T olkapp iyam.

Agastya Sfi t ras later than T olkapp iyam— Thetr ipart ite divi s ion of Tami l into Iyal , Isai , and

N atakam, a later classificat ion .

xvi . A gastya S utras— a later forgery .

Agas tya S ii tras composed by different authors at

different t imes . 45-47

xvn . A gastya T radi t ion in later T amil

L iteratu re .

Stanzas from Panm'

r upadal am, P a rappor ulwnbd

mdl a i , Agappor ulw'

lakkam, D z’

vdkamm, quoted . 47-48

xviii . Agastya T radi t ion in Tami l Puranic

L iterature .

References to eight Pur i nas— Their test imonyworthless , for histor ic purposes— Faul t iness of

using induct ive methods in respect of their

mater ials . 48-50

xix . A poth eosis of A gastya .

Construc t ion of a temple in honour of Agastyafl

Al l iance of Agas tya cult w i th Saivism— A gastyacult in th e Indonesian Islands and CambodiaFresh recrudescence of myths in peninsularIndia. 50-54

xx . In t r insic imp robabi l i t ies .

Cr it ical E xaminat ion of th e Agas tya legends— F ivereasons to reject them as histor ically unworthyof acceptance .

CONTENTS

Sect ion.

xxi . Agastya— a historical individual .

National migrations due not to single individuals

but to soc ial forces— aryanisat ion of differentpar ts of South India cannot be ascr ibed to a

single per iod of t ime— difference of social condit ions in different local it ies necessitates our

assuming more than one Agastya for th e work .

xxu . A gastya— A semi-h istoric personage .

Agastya’s p lace in Aryan history in North India

H is t ranslat ion to the South br ist les w i th b istor ical difii cul t ies .

xxiii . A gastya— an a l legor ical charac ter .

Agastya legend taken as typ i fying th e aryanisat ionof South India .

xxiv . Conclusion .

Agastya legend viewed from a str ict Dravidianpoint of

.

View

vii

I’AGE .

57-6 1

63-64

M

A G A STYA IN T H E TAMFE LA ND1

3 0 ss

a

c a s .

N O tradit ion i s so widespread throughout the l ength and

breadth of the Tam i l country as that

concern ing sage Agasty a and hi s nume

rous exp lons. Of a l l the myth i c,sem i-h istor i c and

h i stori c personages of the A 1 y an annal s , wh o have figured

i n South I ndian H i story, Agastya has occupied the fore

most p lace a nd secured the largest homage of the cu ltured

a nd the masses a l ike . H e meets us from t he very start of

Aryan H i story , be ing a composer of ce rta i n hymns of th e

e arl iest of the Védas , the Rg Veda. S t i l l he seems to

h ave been not i nc luded amongst t he seven holy sages,

th e i dpa tis, or t he progen itors of the human race .

T hese were G otama,B haradwaja, V iéwam itra

, Jama

d agn i , Vasistha, Kasyapa an d Atri . E ven late r Puranas,

l ike the d a and the Vise/m, wh i ch have amp l ified the

l i st of the pr im i t ive sages by inc lud ing B h rgu and

B aksa , have on ly quiet ly passed Agastya over . This

c ircumstance may l end some colour of support to the

d oubt whether Agastya is not after al l th e sage of a

l ater day . However that be , poster ity has made amp l e

amends for th i s om iss ion by ra i s i ng h im to a st i l l

h igher pos i t ion and ass ign ing h im a pl ace among t l e

S tars . The Star Canopus,whi ch sheds i ts bri l l iance i n

th e Southern heavens, i s be l i eved to be none other t han

the austere Sage Agastya,the sem i -d ivi ne benefactor of

the human race,wh o has been thus honoured by a gratefu l

p oster i ty.

I nt roduct ion .

[

QA GA ST YA I N T H E T A M IL LA ND

I t i s no wonder t hat th is famous figure shoul d have

become the centre of mu lt i far ious

myth i c accret ions . H i s advent into

th i s wor ld,equal ly with h i s trans lat ion to th e starry

h eavens, fal ls beyond human bel i ef an d even concept ion

H e i s known as Ka lafaj a , Ka laéisu ta , Kumbhayon i,

Kumbhds'

mflbhawa , G h a todbhava (the pot-born ), from th e

fact that he was born from the seed ofM i t ra rece ived and

preserved in a pot . The story runs that once upon a t ime

both M i tra and Varuna had a sor t of love contest i n res

pect of th e heaven ly damse l Urvasi and that they cou ld‘

not do anyth i ng more than depos it ing the i r fert i l e seed,

one i n a pot and the other i n the sea . I n t ime , Agastya

was born from the pot an d Vasisth a, one of the reputed

S aptarsis, started h is l i fe from the sea . From th is

d ivine parentage Agastya i s ca l l ed a lso Ma itra-Varun i andOurvasiya . There are var iat ions of th i s story i n l ater

trad i t ions ; but i t serves no purpose to recount t hem here .One fact is p la in enough from Agastya ’ s b iography

,that

to ord i nary morta ls h is birth i s as myster ious as h is translat ion to a star . From the trend of the pr imi t ive Aryan

m i nd to reve l in th e supernatura l , one shou ld be i nc l ined

to be caut ious , to t he extent of even scept ic ism , i n seek

i ng to reach a nuc leus of truth in an overgrowth of

materials legendary to the core . St i l l one may be a l low

ed the consol at ion that even after d iscount ing the val ue

of the mi racu lous and myth i ca l chaff i n the l i fe of th is

sage,th ere may yet rema i n cert a in so l i d gra i n s of human

history which cou ld be garnered i nto the h i storic store of

th e ancient Ary ans . H ow far and in what manner t hat

can be effected without doing v iol ence to t he demands

of norma l huma n reason rema ins a prob lem to t h is day .

The myths that have gathered round th i s Aryan sage

fa l l i nto two broad c lasses, t he ear l i er

and the l ater . H i s so-ca l led E xodus to

H i s b i rt h .

E ar l i er M yt h s.

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 3

th e South from A ryavarta serves to d ivi de the inc idents

in to th e Aryan and th e D ravi d ian group ofmyths . From

the poi nt of view of the h istor i ca l i nvest igator, there is

hard ly any ground for d ist inct ive choi ce between them .

Both run on para l l e l l i nes and are steeped i n the m ira

culous through and through . The H ima l aya moun ta in

of the nor thern myth i s replaced by the Poth iyi l of th e

South ; Agastya’ s compos it ion of many Rg Ved ic hymns

an d med ica l works i n Samscr it i s answered by hi s nume

rous myst ic and med i cal treat ises in Tam i l ; h is effort i n

br i nging down the G anges wi th the consent of S iva (vz’

de

Kas i Kandam) finds an echo in h is gett ing T amraparn i

from S iva and h is barga in i ng with G od G anesa for

Kavéri ; h is seat i n Benares seems to be replaced by h is

abode i n B ad imi, known as D aksina Kas i ; h i s marr iage

with L Opamudra, t h e daughter of a Vidarbh a King, h as

a lso a para l l e l i n h is wedd ing of Kaver i, the daughter

of King Kay era ; and ,tak ing into consi de ration th e

curses , wh ich had i ssued from h is sp ir i tua l armoury

i n the nor th , h is curse of T olkapp iyar, h is own student ,shows unm i stakab ly how the dwar f sage— for on ac

count of h is d im i nut ive si ze h e was known as Kam

mum’

al so— kept true to h is old habi ts, i n th e far

away South . Th is para l le l ism is suffic ien t to estab l ish

that the southern myths are largely mere echoes of th e

northern and may be presumed to have been due

e i ther to a pu re Aryan source i n th e South or to a

D rav id ian or igi n borrowing its motif and whol e in sp irat ion from the Aryan . I nc identa l ly, i t may be interest i ngto refer to some recent attempts to make out of th i s far

famed Aryan protagon ist an i nd igenous saint of b lue

D rav id ian b lood . The fanc i fu l theorizers,wh o have

been led to do th is , have been dr iven , i n the absence ' of

sober grounds,to i nvoke to the ir a i d Ph i lology— a fra i l

reed to l ean upon . They connect Agastya,or Akattiyan

4 A GA ST YA I N T H E T A M IL LA ND

i n Tam i l, with Aka tti tree and elaborate for t he

occasion a fab le that the Sa i nt be ing a phys ic ian h imse l f

was very fond of A ka tti and had i t p l ant ed round h i s

herm i tage . H ere we fi nd myth oppos ing myth and the

ends of natura l j ust ice more than sat i sfied . But,apart

from any d ia l ectica l v i ctory, the quest ion for us to con

s ider i s whether Agastya cou ld be made to c la im a

D rav id ian parentage . If Agastya were a D rav id i an by

b i rth, one m ight j ust ifiably ask what necessi ty there was

in th e Southerner to dup l icate the inc idents wh ich hadbefa l len the l i fe of h is northern compeer. M ere

acc ident can scarce ly be supposed to exp la in away so

many poi nts of contact as we fi nd i n the l i fe-h istory of

t h i s i nterest ing couple .

Taking the myths as a whol e, a few po i nt s str ike us

as worthy of ment ion here . Natura l ly

enough the name of th i s ant ique figure

has been i ntertwined to a large extent w ith nature-myth s

of the remotest a nt iqu ity . H i s comi ng down to the

South to equa l ise the Southern H em i sphere with theN or thern i n t he t i l ted scale of the heaven ly balance

,h is

suppress ion of the V i ndhya mounta ins and h i s dr inki ng

up the ocean dry may be connected with certa in as

tronom ical and geolog ica l phenomena (of wh ich we

have no knowledge at present), com ing as ca tac lysms

once i n a way to di sturb the otherwise un i form flow of

natural events ; Sett ing these as ide , we find tha t by far

the gr eater numbe r of the m iracu lous inc idents wh ich fi l l

h i s l i fe fa l l under the c l ass of curses of unerr ing potency .

I ndeed so free was he wit h h is curses and so deep-rooted

was the i nst i nct of curs ing i n h im that one m ight be

temp ted to dub h im the Curs ing Sain t par excel lence. H e

was born a dwarf and what he lacked in stature he seems

to h ave more than made up by h is acqu i s i t ion of extraor

d inary powers borde r ing on the m iraculous . H i s temper

R efl ect ions.

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 5

was at no t ime ba lanced and under the s l ightest provoca

t ion wou ld rush i nto an irate mood of destruct ive procl iv i

ty. Indra,Nahusa, Urvasi , G h r taci . M ad iyanandai, T ataka,

Sunda ,Kraufica , M an imanda

,Lopamudra, and Th olkap

p iyar had al l to pay heavy pena l t i es, one way or another ,for provok ing him . A beneficent mood too he seems to

have had ; but very rare ly cou ld the sa in t be prevai l ed

upon to do l e out h i s benedict ions to t h i s si nfu l wor l d . I t ‘

may be char itab le to suppose that a reform i ng saint, as

our sage was reputed to have been , must have been

under spec ia l necess i t i es at that remote per iod to wh ip a

wicked wor l d i nto some sor t of acceptab l e moral order .

A good deal,however , cou ld be forg iven i n one who had

become the centre of l igh t and l ead ing by s itt ing at the

feet of G od h imsel f— S iva,M uruga, the Sun -G od , al l had

a hand i n h is instruct ion and tra i n ing— and imb ibing

knowledge for the gu idance of err ing human ity . H i s

very med iat ion between G od and Man may be urged as a

ground for measur i ng h im by a standard other than

what we adopt i n th e judgmen t of ord i nary morta l s . Leta lone h is act iv i t i es i n Northern Ind ia

,t he events wh ich

mark h is progress towards the South have an in terest a l l

the ir own for t he student of South I ndia n H i story .

H ence these deserve to be studied i n greater deta i l .G eograph ica l ly h is exodus to the Pen insu lar I nd ia

d ivi des i tse l f i n to three dist inct st rata .

3 1

5118 35333 8 t ° The earl i est finds h im lodged i n the

Agastyasrama, a few m i l es nor th of

Nas ik, the anc ient Pafi cavati , on th e northern borders

of the D andakaranya Forest . H is marr iage of L Opamudra,

th e daughter of t he Vidarbh a King and Rama ’ s first i nter

view w ith h im take place here . The second stratum

begi ns w ith h i s res iden ce at M a lakuta, t hree m i l es east of

Badam i (t he anc ient Vé tap ipura) otherwise known as

D aksinakasi,i n the Kaladgi D i str i ct of the Bombay

6 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

Pres idency . We must remember that th is new res i

dence is about three hundred m i l es down south

from h is Nas ik A srama of the first per iod .

Agastya ’ s eat ing up Vatap i and h i s destruct ion of

I lvala (known a l so as V ilva la) may be referred to

t h is period of h is sojourn i n the South . The th ird

stratum of stori es gathers round h im at Poth iyi l, known

a l so as Mal aya,one of t he southernmost promontor ies

of the Western G hats, i n the Pandya country .

”

W ith

such a res idence i n the very centre of the foremost Tam i l

N atu of those days , he is cred ited w ith having founded

the fi rst Tam i l Academy and hav i ng pres ided over i t , be

s ides wri t ing an E xtens ive Tami l G rammar and sundry

ot her works on med i c ine , myst ic i sm , and even magic .

Tradi t ion , however , does not l eave h im here i n h i s

southernmost home , about e ight hundred m i l es away

from h i s Nasik A srama . T wo more strata of l egends

are added by maki ng h im cross the seas . In the fourt h

epoch,we find h im l anded i n the I ndonesian Is l ands i n

the E ast,where he is sa id to have v i s i ted B arh inadv ipa

(Borneo), Ku sa D vipa, and Varaba D vipa . Here too

he appears to have taken up h is abode in the M aha

Ma laya H i l l i n Ma laya Dv i ps . The fifth and last stage

is reached when he is made to cross over to the ma in

l and and enter S iam and Cambodia . I t was here , at theend of h is ever- l engthen ing journ ey eastwards

,he had to

marry a loca l beauty, Y as'

omati by name, and leave by

her a roya l progeny among whom King Y asovarma was

an outstanding personage . Leaving out of account the

exploits of h is trans-Ind ian tour , wh ich happi ly many of

h is I ndian fol lowers i n the mai n land are unaware of to

th i s day,the other l ayers of tradi t ion , wh ich c l ing to h is

a ch ievements on the I nd ian soi l , have a l l been la id one

over another i n the course of a few centur i es and have

t hus grown into a vast p i l e by themse lves . T o make

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LAND 7

t h is ‘Confus ion worse confounded ’

,the later Pauran ic

wr iter s al so have spun a l l sorts of amaz ing tal es of

mystery and imaginat ion round th i s Aryan sage without

an eye to smooth away inconsi stenc ies and escape con

t rad ictions. Probab ly they may have thought t hat the

sage was too great a man to s ink under the weight of

t hei r l egendary lore

A s a first step i n the so-ca l l ed Aryan isat ion 1 of

D aksinapatha (Sout hern Indi a) and Furt her I ndia, th enorthern trad it ion wh ich has gathered round h is her

m i t age near D andakaranya gives us a va luabl e c lue .

I . I f by‘c ivi li zat ion ’

one means th e possession of ab ody of l i terature , re l igion and phi losophy, as is too oftendone by cer tain Sanskr it ists , then Dravidian India could be

truly spoken of as aryanised . I f , on th e other hand , th e terms ignified , as i t should , very much more than these very lateaccomp l ishments , as for instance man

’s control of Nature bywres t ing from i t not only th e necessit ies but th e comfor ts andconveniences of l i fe by a we l l-deve loped and well-orderedsystem of arts in almos t every depar tment of human pursui t ,and th e consequen t ame l iorat ion of man ’s estate both in h is

individual and corpor ate exis tence in soc iety by al l th e devicesat h is command and by al l th e effor ts h e is capable of, thenmore than three- four ths of th e b elongings of th e present-dayl i fe must go to th e credi t of an indigenous c ivi l izat ion th e

Dravidian h as inher i ted from h is ancestors . T ake for in

s tance , two of th e pr ime ar ts of l i fe , A gr iculture and A rch itec

ture . W here is th e Aryanisat ion in them P T 0 Speak st i ll of th eA ryanisat ion of Dravidian India, in th e extreme ly l imi tedsense , is to lose th e r ight histor ical perspec t ive and grow ingeven unfair to th e substant ial contr ibut ions of th e Dravidiansto th e stock of th e presen t -day South Ind ian c ivi l izat ion . E venin th e fie ld of le t ters , re ligion and phi losophy , no student of

history w i l l be inc lined to discount th e character ist ic share of

t h e Dravidians , although i t maynot compare in quant ity favourably w i th that of th e A ryan nation .

8 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

As at present , even at that ear l y t ime, secu lar movements ,of wh ich colon isat ion of countr i es may be taken as a type ,went i n the wake of mi ss ionary enterpr i se and Agastya ’ s

trying to plant t he Aryan re l igious r i tes , amongst th e

al ien t r ibes of the South,on ly furn i shed the opportun ity

for the later expans ion of the Aryans into the Southern

region . I t woul d not be true to say that Agastya h im

se lf was consc ious,

ai t he t ime , of th e far- reach ingconsequences of h is act s pursued for other purposes than

land occupation . N evert hel ess,be ing th e first man who

had p ioneered t he race i nto a new country of unmeasured

potent ia l i ty, he shou ld natura l ly come to be looked upon

as a benefactor of h is race, deserving the i r h ighest homage

and worsh ip . The re i s absolute ly l i tt l e or no d ifficu l ty

from the Aryan poi n t of vi ew in expla i n i ng away the h igh

venerat ion in wh ich Agastya 's name is st i l l he l d . But

the rea l prob l em begins only when we try to approach

the subj ect from the D ravid ian s ide . I t i s i nconceivab l e

how a whol e race cou ld be brought round to exto l

a fore ign l eader of men as th e type of perfect ion in

l earn ing,wisdom, and sa int l iness and accept h im as t he ir

own sp i r itua l over lord and guide . Here,at any rate ,

we find the extraord inary phenomenon of a lmost the

ent i re Tam i l race of the presen t day enthron ing Agastya,an Aryan R si , i n a rank l i tt l e removed from that of

d iv i n i ty and paying h im homage as to one of the i r own

ki th and k in . Is i t poss ib l e, one may ask, for a racet o

exh ib i t such utter lack of race -consc iousness as is here

d isp l ayed ? I t may be doubted whether the attempt to

make a D rav i d ian out of th e Aryan sage has not been

done with a V i ew to cut the G ord ian knot , here presen t

ed . H owevermuch race-consc iousness may f ee l fl atter

ed by th is dar i ng feat, i t i s a foregone conc lus ion that no

scho lar of any stand ing w i l l be found to stake h i s repu

tation on the acceptance of th i s new- tangl ed theory.

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IO A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

has to see first , whether they sat i sfy the most impor tan t

pre- requis i te , absence of i n ternal i nconsi st enc ies and

contradict ions and second ly,whether they can c l a im an

unbroken continu ity with the remote past . Let us se eh ow the Agastya trad it ion fares j udged as i t shou ld be

by these fundamenta l tests .

However ancien t th i s t rad i t ion has been made to

A nt iqui t y of T ra

look l ike in later t imes, certa i n ly i t

d i t ion .

cannot be anter ior to the found ing of

the ear l iest sett l ement of the Aryans

beyond the V indhya mounta ins,which for a long t ime

stood as an impenetrab le barr ier i n th e i r way to the South .

The north- eastern and south -wes t ern ends of th i s cha in of

mounta in s we re known to the inhab i tants ofA ryavarta asPar iyatra, because they marked the boundary of the ir

vd trci or range of commun icat ion . The t ide of AryanM igrat ion wh ich was thus stemmed in , towards the

south , fl owed on i n an easter ly d irect ion a long the course

of t he G anges up to i ts very mouth i n the Bay of Benga l .

Later on, i t seems to have overfl owed in th is corner taking

a south -westerly course as far as U tkala— t he modern

Ori ssa . Reference i s made in A itaréya Brahmana to th e

Sage ViSwamitra having condemned by a curse the progeny of fi fty of h is sm s to l ive on the borders of t he Aryan

sett l ement and these were “ t h e A ndhras,Pundras,

Sabaras,Pul indas, and M ut ibas and the descendants of

ViSwamitra formed a large proport ion of the D asyus.

” l

l . A itaréya Brahmana, VI I , 18.

cf. Prof . M ax M uller ’s conclusion in pp . 334— 335 of h is

H z

’

rfory of A nn e)” S anskr i t L i/er a ture.

A t a l l events th e T ai t t iri ya A ryanyaka represents th elatest per iod in th e development of th e Vedic rel igion , and

sh ows a strong admixture of post-vedic ideas and names .

T h e same appl ies also to several parts of th e T ai tt ir iya Brahmana , th e last par t of which does not be long to T ait t ir i , but i s

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 1 1

These tr i bes are referred to i n the l ater ep ic s and th e

Puranas as occupying the country to the Sou th of theV ind hyas, begin n ing from a l i t t l e to th e nor th of themouth of th e G odavari i n the east to the mouthof the N armada i n t he west . But th i s knowledge of

a few tr i bes to the South -east of the V i ndhya range on

th e part of t he author of t he A itareya Brahmana hymn

does not count for much . F or , Pan i n i , whose date on

the most l ibera l ca lcu lat ion 1 of D r . R . G . B h andarkar

is taken to be 700 B . C ., makes ment ion in h is Sutras of

Kacca , Avant i , Kosa la, Karusa, and Kal ir’

rga as the far

th est countr i es i n the South . D r . B handarkar wr i tes“ Supposi ng that the non-occurrence of the name of any

country farther south i n Pan in i ’ s work i s due to h i s not

h av i ng known i t , a c ircumstance, which look ing to themany names of places i n the N orth that he gives appears

probab l e, the conc l us ion fol lows that i n h is t ime the

Aryans were confined to the north of the V i ndhya but

ascr ibed to Kath a , th e same M uni to whom th e beginn ing of

th e Aryanyaka i s said to have been revealed . There are sometraces which would lead to th e supposi t ion that th e T ait t ir iya

Veda had been s tudied par t icular ly in th e South of India , and

even among people which are st il l considered as un-A ryan in

th e B r ii hmana of th e Rg Véda . In th e T ai ttir iya Aranyakadifferent readings are ment ioned which are no longer ascr ibedto different Sakhas but to cer tain count r ies in th e South of

India, l ike those of th e D riividas , A ndhras and Karnatakas .This fac t by itself would throw some doubt on th e ant iqui ty and

genuineness of th e c lass of Vedic wr i t ings at least in that formin which we now possess them.

”

1 . F or instance , D r . W ashburn H opk ins of th e Y aleUniversi ty t r ies to ascr ibe Panini to th e 3rd century B . C . H e

wr i tes But no evidence h as ye t been brought forward toshow conclusive ly that Panini l ived before th e 3rd centuryB C .

” Vide 7 716 G r ea t E pic of I nd ia , p . 391 .

1 2 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

d id not proceed or communicate with the northern -mos t

port ion of th e E astern Coast , not by cross i ng that range ,but by avo i d ing i t by taking an easter ly course .

” 1

Thus then Agastya p ierc i ng the V indhya in h i s colon ising exped it ion to the South cannot be dated

ear l i er t han 700 B . C . Taking next the referen ces

made to Vidarbh a, the B erars, in both the E p i cs, th eRamayana and the Mahabharata , D r . B h andarkar gives

out as h is cons idered Op in ion that th is State was th e

ol dest Aryan province i n the southe rn country .

2 H e

does not te l l us wheth er i t was founded by th e Aryanswho came from the E ast or by the fol lowers of Agastya

wh o cut acros s the V indhyas from the N or th . It may,

however,be presumed from the tradi t ion that Agastya

gave the gir l Lopamudra to a k ing of V idarbha to be

brought up by h im and afterwa rds cla imed her for h i s

wi fe , that that k ingdom must have ex i sted somet ime be

fore Agastya ’ s en ter ing into a mar i ta l a l l iance wi t h one

of i ts K ings . E ven suppos i ng that the two epics beganthe ir ex is tence at about 500 B .C .

- and there are schol ar s

who br ing down the dates of the compos i t ion of theseE p ics much lower— the K ingdom of Vidarb ha must have

started in to ex isten ce somet ime between 700 and 500

B . C . And in th is i nterva l a l so Agastya ’ s meet ing of theV idarbh a King must be p l aced . We shal l not be far

wrong then i f we date the beginn ing of Agastya's colon i

s ing career somewhere abou t 600 B . C . I f,on th e other

hand,we give we ight to th e argument s of schol ars that

t i l l 1C0 B . ( 2. these ce lebrated epics have been undergoing

mater i a l addit ions i n success ive recens ions— and i n fact

the force of these arguments cannot be l ight ly set as ide

we may have to revise the date to a s t i l l lower leve l .

1 . D r . Bh andarkar’

s E a r l y H i sfor y of D a mn , pp . 1 2- 13 .

2 . D r . Bh andarkar’

s E a r l y H i stor y of D eccan , p . 7 .

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 13

Thus 600 B . C . i s a fa ir ly ear ly enough date . I t was

about t his per iod that the hero of the Ramayana met

Agastya,i n h i s A sram near Nas ik, the anc ient Pafi ca

vat i . T h e country to the south ofVidarbh a,the s i te of

t he modern Maharastra,was then an impenetrab le forest

known as D andakaranyam i n fested by fierce an ima ls a nd

wi ld tr ibes . 1 I f,however, a h igher ant iqu ity i s cla imed

for the ep ics, we have to s imply l eave them as ide as

i ncapable of be ing brought i nto re l at ionsh ip with th e

h istor i ca l i nc idents of Aryan imm igrat ion into South

Ind ia . However unserviceab l e these ep ics may be forchronologica l purposes of a pos i t ive h i stor i c character

,an

unexpected l ight i s thrown upon th i s tract of t ime by the

early G reek wr iters. I sha l l . re fer on ly to two of the

earl i est of them ,Ktesias ofKn idos and M egasth enes, bot h

of the 4th cen tury B . C . The I nd ia of th es e wri ters was

on ly India north of the Vindhyas. Had they rece ived

any in format ion about th e southern pen i nsula,cer ta i n ly

they wou ld have i ncluded i t i n the ir otherwise e laborate

accounts . N ot on ly t h i s, the impress ion they seem to

have formed is that from Patalé a t the mouth of the

Indus i n the W est to G ange at the mouth of t he G anges in

t he E ast there ran an a lmost st ra ight coast- l i ne washed

by the Southern Ocean . Th is ignorance on the par t oft he ear ly wr iters, i nc lud ing Ktesias, may have been due

to various reasons and need not concern us here but

when we find it pervading the writ i ng of so carefu l a

wr i ter as M egasth enes, who l ived at the cou rt of Pata l i

putra and had at h is command a l l t he sources of i n forma

1 . Compare w i th this th e observa tions of such late wr iters as th e author of th e

‘Per ip lus of th e E rythrean Sea

’and th e

Chinese Travel lers of th e 5 th and th e 7 th Centur ies afterChr i st . They refer to th e extreme difficul ty of get t ing by landinto S . India .

I 4 A GA ST YA I N T H E T A M IL LA ND

tion ava i lab l e at t he t ime , h i s om iss ion of South I ndi a

becomes tru ly s ign ificant . I t could be ascribed to no

ot her reason than the paten t one, that pen i nsular I ndi a

was then an unknown region in the Nort h and hence th esources M egasth enes must have tapped for h is accoun tcould not have furn i shed h im w i t h any informat ion re

garding the South . E ven Katyayana’

s reference to

Pandya, and Col a i n h is Vart ika marks on ly the first

fa i nt gl immer ings of an imperfect acqua intance wi th

South India about 350 B . C . wh ich broadens subsequently

i nto c lear knowledge somet ime about 1 50 B . C . ,the t ime

of Patafi jal i . Thus t hen the test imony of Sanskr i t

L i terature and the early G reek wr iters places beyond a

doubt that Southern India about 400 B . C . was a lmos t a

term incogn i ta to t he Nort hern Aryans ] . V i ewed in th is

1 . This conc lusion is more than c linch ed by th e findingof Prof . A . A . M acdonel l in h is H istor y of S anskr i t L i ter a tur e:

pp . 89.

T h e H istory of A nc ient Indian L i terature naturally fallsinto two main per iods . T h e first is th e Vedic , which beginningperhaps as ear ly as B . C . extends in its latest phase to

about 200 B . C . I n th e former half of th e Vedic Age th echaracter of i ts l i terature was creat ive and poe t ical whi le th e

centre of culture lay in th e terr i tory of th e Indus and i tstr ibutar ies , th e modern Punjab ; in th e lat ter half , L i teratur ewas theological ly speculat ive in mat ter and prosaic in form,

whi le th e centre of inte llec tual l i fe h ad shifted to th e valley of

th e G anges . Thus in th e course of th e Vedic Age Aryan

c ivi l izat ion h ad overspread th e whole of H industan proper , th evast t ract extending from the mouths of th e Indus to those of

th e G anges , bounded on th e Nor th by th e H imalayas , and on

th e South by th e Vindhya range . T h e second per iod con

current w ith th e final off-shoots of Vedic L i terature and c losingw ith th e M ah ammadan conquest after A . D . is th e Sanskr i t pe r iod str ict ly speaking. In a cer tain sense , ow ing to th e

cont inued l iterary use of Sanskr i t mainly for th e composit ion

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 15

l ight the very deta i l ed and el aborate references to th e

South that we find i n th e two epics shou ld be taken as

noth ing better than subsequent i nterpol at ions .N ext, l et us see whether there i s anyth ing i n th e

late r G reek wr i te rs or Tam i l Class ica l

L i teratu re, com ing about the fi rst twocen tu r i es after Christ . There i s abso

lute ly noth i ng about th is sage i n any of the wr i t ings wehave now taken up for cons i de rat ion . Ptol emy makesmen tion of B ettigo,

1 the Poth iga i , a va r i an t of Poth iyil,but passes on w i thout any al lusion to the res ident sage

.

H is s i l ence i s str i k ing and suggest ive i f cons i dered wi th

the s i l ence of the Tam i l C lass ical L i te rature taken as awhol e .

E xcept Pa r ipdda lz, which belongs ve ry l ikely to the

s ixth or the seventh cen tu ry A . D . , not a s ingle work isthe re among the Sangam works— works shorn of cou rseof t he legenda ry embel l i shments of l ate r commentators

which makes any mention di rec t or i n d i rect or gives us

any clue by name or impl i cation to the l i fe of Il' l l S sage,

his works or even his very ex istence . In Pa ttuppd ttu

A gast ya in t h e

T ami l Country .

of commentar ies , this per iod may be regarded as coming downto th e present day . Dur ing this second epoch Brahman culturewas introduced and overspread th e Southern por t ion of th e

cont inent called th e D ekkh an or th e South .

”

1 . Vide Appendix I .

2 . Judged by th e style and sent iments of th e poems contained in this work , few cr i t ics , I bel ieve , w i ll contend for itshigh ant iquity . T h e op inion is common amongst Tami l scholarsthat this late product ion was inc luded in th e Sangam col lee

t ion of wr it ings to do duty for th e missing genuine Par ipadalsof old . M r . R . S . Narayanaswami Aiyar , B . A B . L . , from

cer tain astronomical calculat ions , suggests 372 A . D . , as th e

probable date of th e composit ion of this Poem . Vide Ch entami l ,

Vol . 19,p . 384.

1 6 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

(The Ten I dyl ls) no poet has refer red to Agastya or his

c iv i l i s ing activ i ty i n behal f of the Tam i l race . N or i s

there any refe rence to Poth iyil as the seat of Agastya in

the ve ry heart of the Tam i l country . N o doub t the word

(Qu rrgh flé i ) Poth iyil occu rs i n Ti r umur i igdr r i ippa ta i ,

Ma tura ikkc’

i iici , etc . ,but i n al l ofth em i t means a common

place of meet i ng. L i kewise , excepting Par ipd ta l as al

r eady stated , ih none of the works compos i ng E ttutoka i

(The E ight Col l ect ions) i s there any refe rence to Agastya .

In places whe re the Poth iyil h i l l i s men tioned in

Purand zz r’

iru (aide st anzas 2 and 128) or i n N arri zt a i (aide

s tanza 379) Agastya’ s name does not appea r . I n ce rta i n

texts a connection between the h i l l and the Pandya Ki ng

and not the sage i s al l that is b rought ab out. It i s worthyof note i n th i s con nect ion how N acch inarkkin iya r, a

late commentator, tr i es to popula r ise the Agastya cult by

twist i ng a few l i nes of ve rse in Mad i l ra ikkd i i ci f rom the i r

most obv ious and natural mean ing, and the reby almost

manufactu r i ng a reference to the sage Agastya . H e re are

th e l i nes“G

's eiirsura i yb Qu wrfiru M a rci

-

9s 5 1.36 7nGig/yez

'

irgog l J L Q L: rfiszir sar r'

r G row

arena j e r 590543543 Qu ng ifid’p? G ri eg /s .— wg aor é 5 rr@9 .

I ts translation i s as fol lows Oh ! W ar-l ike Pr ince,

l ord of the h i l l resounding wi th wate rfal ls, and known as

the Southern King ’

(by p re-em i nence) and , i n poin t of

unapproachab l e prowess , standing second on ly to that

ancien t p r imal Be ing (S iva ) h imsel f . The adj ect ival

p h rase Os ez'

vm a irfo Ou runflu; may also be taken as qual ifying

G enerirgcg s d ajm’

r and interpreted as the god who subdued

b y his m ight Y ama , the Lord of the South . The term

M utukatavu l (505 7.5 ; a leir i s herei n used to dist ingu ish S ivaf rom M u ruga or Kumara, the youthful de i ty , h is son .

N acch inarkkiniyar makes ‘M utukatavul’ denote Agastya

a nd ‘T h ennavan,’

Ravana,and imports i nto. the l i n es the

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18 A G A S'

I‘YA IN T H E T AM IL LA ND

arrest ing.One and all of them compose the i r vers

‘es inut

ter unconsciousness of the ex istence (if the S a iii t or h is

exploi ts . The on ly poss ib le explanat ion for th is pheno

menon of genera l s i l ence is t hat at that t ime the re did not

exist even a sc rap oi the Agastya t radit ion,I t was al l a

manufactu re of late r days and any attempt to look for i t

i n the pages of these early records must tu rn out fru it

less . Thus , about the ea r ly centur i es afte r Christ , th e

seed of the Agastya trad ition had not yet been sown i n th e

Tam i l l and . F rom t he fol lowing th ree l in es of a stanzaof Poet En issér i M udamosiyar (Pur a ndnil r u , one

can on ly conclude that the Poth iyi l had not then secu red

the auste re assoc iat ions due to Agastya ’ s sa intly p resence .

aqyqz. rung /u) m y p ai gb G u nfi re?

am a oir (gm/Q aura )

6 6995 69 weirami g fig a G a m6 1 1969;

N atu ra l ly the quest ion wil l ari se that myths be ing

the co i nage of the ea r l i est t imes why

A gast ya t rad i t ion the Tami l count ry a lone shoul d Show

giis

ogmf lm ‘

a reverse process . Any sat i sfactoryan swer to this l egi timate que ry forces

on us the necess i ty of glanc ing a l i tt l e at the rac ia l

characte rist ics of the D rav idians and the A rvan s taken as

a whol e . I t rust I sha l l not be wrong i n ca l l ing the

Aryans predom inant ly a nat ion of th inkers and the

D ravidi an s cha racter i st ica l ly a nation of doe rs . N ot that

the Aryans had not great men of act ion amongst them nor

the D ravid ians great men of thought i n the i r ranks . But

the for te of the nat iona l cha racter of the two races , takenin the lump, l ay one i n thought and the othe r i n act ion .

Although the speculat ive and p ract ica l tendenc i es of a

man l i e m ixed up beyond the poss ib i l i ty of a defin i te

1 . The t erm classical per iod used in this pap er refers toth e per iod to which th e extan t Sangam wor ks are ascr ibed ,i .e., th e few ear ly centur ies of th e Chr ist ian E ra.

A GA ST YA I N T H E T A M IL LA ND 19

separation, yet f rom a lmost al l the b iographies of ind iv i

dua l men we l ea rn that for one i n d iv i dual who shows a

balanced men ta l make-up the re are hundred others in

whom e i the r the speculat ive or the p ract ical tendenc i e s

asse rt themselves i n a more or l ess decis ive way. This

i ndiv i dual cha rac te ri st i c runs th rough the race a lso. The

a ncient h isto ry of the D ravid ians glean ed from thei r

ea rl i est records and the i r later l ives and achievements

l ead us to i n fer that they were from the beginn i ng a

h ighly p ract ical race which had given itse l f ove r to sus

tained act ion i n many fi elds of pract ical pu rsu i t. They

se em to have had no spec ial apt i tude for pure theor i z i ng

i n any di rect ion . They were neve r d reame rs and bu i ldersof castl es i n the a ir. They were ea rnestly and i ntensely

p ractical and the p ragmatic success , which had c rowned

the i r act iv i t i es i n Agricul tu re,Commerce, War and Pol i

t i cs, could hard ly have favou red anyth ing savou ring of

theoret ic doubt and speculation . The fabric of c ivi l i sat ion 1

that they thus bu i l t up i s i ndeed a mass ive one, though

i t may not Show to any great exten t the gl i tte r of ce rta incultu ral accompl i shmen ts . The A ryans who came am i dst

them f rom the N or th were howeve r cast i n a differen t

mould . The i r res tl essness from the dawn of the i r h i story

l eaned towards speculat ion . I t would be a m istake to

suppose tha t the tendency to speculate and theorize

developed i n them per sa l tum at th e time of the Upa

n ishads. The R ig Vedic hymns, though addressed to

numerous de i t i es or forces of N ature for meet i ng the

eve ry day wan ts an d necess i t i es of the race, for i n s hort

h elp ing it i n the various p ractica l concerns i n th is

world, bear marks, i t must be adm itted, of a pecul iar

theoreti c stra in in th e ir composers . I t s ass i duous

c are i n gett i ng by rote those hymns and handingthem down to the remotest pos teri ty and its unfa i l ing

1 . Vz'

rl e Appendix II .

20 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

pe rformance of t he r i tes an d r i tual s la i d down i n the

sacred books are cer ta i n ly not the ways which wil l appealto the hard matter-of- fact man wedded to the p ract ica l

concerns of l i fe . I f such a peopl e could be cal l ed p ract i

cal,they were p ract ical i n amanne r ent i rely nove l , not to

say un ique, i n . the h istory ofnations . 1 Such a race addict

ed to pure thought and theor iz ing,i n the i r southe rn

wander ing , had -to meet w i th a race en ti rely al i en i n

modes of thought and l i fe . He re it had to bend an

intensely pract i ca l race to i ts own stan da rd of pe rfect

c iv i l i zat ion or adapt i tse l f to the new type . And how

could even th is adaptat ion be effected N ot ce rtain ly by

meeti ng the D rav i d ians in the i r own ground and ach ieving

greate r success there i n— an alte rnat ive they could

sca rcely even th i nk of, in the case of so wel l -equ ipped a

nation as the Tam i l s who could g ive them poi n ts i n al l .

Arts of peace and wa r. There was another and a surer

way of approach . With al l h i s achievements the D rav i

d ian . was not s trong i n speculat ion . That was the

Ach i l l es ’ heel , which was readi ly caught hol d of by the

incom ing Aryans and ‘th e ir grip of i t was in deed tight .

W hatever be the ach ievements of the practi ca l man i n any

fi eld of act ivi ty , he has to bow down his head before

knowledge and theory or what passed for such,which

came in handy to r at ional ize and even i l lumi nate p ractice .

I T his is what I h er ing says about th e Aryans in h is

profoundly.

interest ing work T 126 E vol ut ion of t i l e A r yans ,”

p . 62 .

This also denotes th e charac ter of th e people . I t was apeople w i thout th e least pract ical apt i tude— th e diametr icalOpposite of th e Romans . H ighly gi fted intel lec tually theyturned their tastes and thoughts to th e inner-wor ld— to Speech ,rel igion , poetry and in later t imes a lso w ith great results to

phi losophy— w ithout‘

feel ing th e necessi ty of app lying theirknowledge to th e ame l iorat ion of their external condi t ions .

A GA ST YA‘ I N T H E T A M IL ‘LA ND 2 1

The adage ‘the wor l d i s ruled by thoug ht ’ appears to havebeen more than ver ified i n t he matte r of the ~D rav idiana

Aryan contact and the p resent‘day m ixed c ivi l izat ion .of

Southe rn India is the resu l t oi a h ealth y zv blend (If. the

two fundamen tal el emen ts of human nature , b rough t into

the common stock by two d iffe rent races. .

I t wi l l now be clea r why the ea r l i est h istory of the

D ravidian s shou l d bea r very l i ttl e trace of any mytho

poetic tendencies wh ich l ie at the bottom of al l myths in

gene ral“ Pre-Aryan Southern I ndia was comparat ively

f ree f rom myths and with . th e advent of the Arryans in the

South— h H indu s, Buddh ists and uja‘

ins,— a vast*mass of

mythic lore began to make i ts.way into the land . S ta rt i ng

from the secta r i an c ontrovers ies and schisms of the

va r ious rel ig ious fact ions in » South India, the H i ndu , the

ja i ii and the Bud dhist, the Sa i'

v i te , the“

Va ishn’

avite,and

the L ingayet, and the many s ub -d iv i s ions of these , the

myth ic ri l l seems, in a few ‘centuries, to have swol l en into

a form idab le torrent and l i te ra l ly submerged the land in

the Pu ran ic period . which comes ve ry close “

to our own

t imes .

It was the late M r. Venkayya, I th ink, who drew the

attent ion of schol a rs to the ex istence of

A gast ya t rad i t ion a Buddh is t trad i t ion that Avaloki tés

gét

frf

gfzf ami s '

va ra,a B uddhist Sage was res id ing in

“Podalaga”or Poth iyil mounta in . I n

fact,that tradi t ion goes much farth e i than th is and hol ds

that Agastya owed to Avalok i tesva ra h is i n i t iat ion into

knowledge as wi l l be seen fromthe fol lowing stanza, app ea r i ng i n the d iram (Introduction ) of Vim sé l z

’

yam, a

Tam i l grammati ca l work .

qguréz (ga nge d : a fi fi air we

'

re; wa gffi wair fi’s d

G’L iqtbqQJm‘lé s bdliu g ran d ad? {fit /(5 6213175 5

f ay (sea-

119m Qw afi lgbs cg g ci rGDg air p rfi’

oiroSlanbtflJ

«fi ll-{Lnu rmig uilgb a

'

air G’wréfificmepG’aJ .

22 A G A ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LAND

I n sett l i ng the riva l c la ims of Agastya and Avaloki

tésvara'

for prior i ty i n the occupat ion of the Poth iyil

mounta i n and compos i ng the first gramma r of the Tam i l

L anguage, we are th rown into the ve ry thi ck of the re l i

g ions wa rfa re which raged i n the Tam i l land just afte r afew centu ri es from t he dawn of the Ch rist ian E ra . From

a read ing of the Tam i l L i te ratu re of the ea r l ie st pe r iod , i t

is not poss ib l e to say that one sect even b efore another

had set foot i n T amilagam. Qu i te probab ly the Bud

dh ists and the ja i ns may have preceded the H i ndu Aryans

i n the i r arr iva l i n the Tam i l l and i n the fi rst two cen tu r ies

prece ding the Chr i st ian E ra l . The pictu re afforded byt he ea rly Tami l L i te ratu re

,howeve r, is that of a few

Brahmans,orthodox and he ret ic , lead ing i solated l ives

and fi rst feel i ng the i r way amongst a n a l i e n pOpuktt ion .

In stanza 166 of Purandnam the Poet Avii r Mulamkilar

pra ises one P ii fichar r i'

i r ParppanKaun iyan V innantayag

for perform i ng the twenty-one yagas,not be ing m isl ed

the rei n by the false preach ings of the he ret i ca l sec ta r i es.

E v i dently the poet seems to have had the Buddhist and

the ja ina S rama ns i n h is m i nd as the commentator h im

sel f make s i t p l a i n . H e re are th e l ines

1 . This suppos i t ion receives some suppor t from th e Jaint radit ions and the S ravana Be lgola Inscr ipt ions , publ ished as

Volume I I of th e E pz'

gr ap/z ia Carna t ika of th e M ysore State .I f by 69 A . D . Buddhism can travel to China , Peninsular Indiadown to th e South may in al l l ike l ihood have been reached by

that t ime by th e z ealous miss ionar ies of these reformingsec ts . Jaina tradi t ions as test ified to by th e M ysore I nscr ip

t ions make it c lear that on account of a Twelve Y ears ’

famine in N or th India, S rutak'

évali Bhad rabfihu, an eminent

Jain monk , and h is disc iple , th e monarch Chandragupta, led alarge company of Jaina monks to th e South. From SravanaBe lgola they seem to have sent a party under one Visfikficharya

to th e Chola and th e Pandya countr ies .

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 23

g amma; gogmairm Que u

s'

ua afmC°t_. rni fl s ebe nubwmi'

Qwu'

i waira ir Qu rrib iqm myG umirQqrg frg Qs rrsrf

’

Qg a ng ed) t fufil Q UQQJ /fl i LD@ 6 .

I f th is i s so, the a ttempt to ante-date th e incoming of

t h e H in du A ryan to t he exc lusion of the heret ic can

ha rdly find any support f rom the ea r l i est stratum of

T am i l Li te ratu re known to us . \Ve have to i nfer from

t he c i rcums tances of that ea r ly t ime that the A ryans fi rst

c ame i nto the land ne ithe r as colon i sts nor as guests butas m i ss iona r i es to propagate the i r d iffe ren t rel igions and

r e l igious p ractices . Si nce the B rahmans , unl ike their

O pponen ts the Buddh is ts and the ja i ns , were not at a l l

p ropagandist ic , one may reasonably hol d that the heretics

had p receded them i n the South to spread the l ight of the

new fa ith i n countr i e s far beyond the confi nes of the A ryan

s ettl ements . W hoeve r be the fi rst batch of the A iy an

immigrants wh o came to the South,they appea r to have

b een quickly foll owed by othe rs of a diffe rent rel igions

pe rsuas ion . But they were very few i n number1 and hencecould not have engaged themse lves in any rel igious

contest on a l arge sca le. N or were the soc ia l and

pol i t i ca l cond it ions of'

the Tam i l countrv at tha t t ime

favourable for carrying on any sort of r el ig ious p rOpa

gand ism. The Tami l M fivéndar or Triumv i rs (the Chéra,the Chola and the Pandya Kings), from about a century

perhaps ear l i er than the Ch r i st ian era , entered on a pol i cy

of aggrandisement and were engaged in w ip ing out the

T h e Brahmans of th e South India appear in thosed ays to have consisted of a number of isolated communit iesthat were set t led in separate par ts of th e count ry and that wereindependent each of th e other .

”— P tolemy’s G eogm M y of [mi nt

and S outbem A sia (M ccr ind le’s Translat ion , p .

A GA ST YA IN THE T A M IL LAND

communa l ch ieftainc ies th en exi st ing"

and add ingthe i rterr itories to th e ir own dominions . ‘T amilagam then wasactual ly studded with a large number of vi llage commu

n ities under the i r r espective el ders, head’

men or ch ie fs

cal l ed K i lars and of t r ibes or c‘

onge'

r i es of suCh commu

n ities ruled over by the ir k i ngs known as Vél irs or Kos

These’

petty ch ie fta i nc i es and kingsh ips were, i n the

cour: e of three or four centur ies, swept out of ex istence

and th i s i nvo lved i ncessan t fight i ng and i nterm i nab l e

forays among the many Tam i l ru lers concerned . Such a

per iod could sca rc e ly have been propi t ious for any re l i

gious work among the people ;

More favourab l e condi t ions , however, en sued later

on by th e consol i dat ion of t he Tam i l monarch ies and by

the stabi l i ty of th e soci a l cond i t ions i t gave r i se to. The

schismat i c wa rfa re of the N orth was then waged w i th re

doub l ed fury i n the d is tant South and thence i t spread also

to the Indonesian'

l slands i n the E astern Ocean . I t is but

natu ral tha t in th i s fight, both pa rt i es , the orthodox'

and the

heret i cal, must have resorted to eve ry weapon in the i r res

pective armou ri es for ga in ing'

a victory ove r the i r Opponeuts

.Apa rt f rom the b i d for pOIitic

‘

al powe r, wh ich both

had been t ry ing to make from the beginn ing , the schola rs'

too of the war r i ng sects appea r to have fed the m i nd of

the peop l e with al l sorts of myths and m i racles,as another

powerfu l means to secu re'

the suppo rt of the masses . Of

the many expedients resorted to conci l iate the Tam i l

popu lat ion and'

to win them ove r to th e H i ndu fol d,the

Agastya trad it ion was one and it se rved its pu rpose admir

ably i ndeed . The Tam i l people were treated to stor i es of

soc ial, rel igious and sp i r i tual k insh ip with the more adr an

oed H i ndu A ryans of the N orth and we re thus b rought

ove r to view th e Ja i na and the Buddh ist ic secta r i es

as absolutely beyond the pale of H i n du orthodoxy.

The Tam i l k i ngs too we re ra i sed unde r pr i estly ausp i ces

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26 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

conc i l iate the ki ngs and th e masses al i ke proved,a long

with oth e r causes l ike the advent of the rel igious devotees,the N ayanmars and the A lvars, a powerful means ofstamping ou tth e Ja i na and Buddh ist ic heterodoxy f rom theTami l l and i n the cou rse of the next few centuri es .

Among such devices of a l ater rel igious wa rfare, the

Agastya tradit ion , as al rea dy obse rved , appea rs to be one.

But i t may st i l l be asked .why that tradi tion cou ld not be

given i ts face value an d taken for one of the authenti crace- lore of the D ravid ia ns themselves. The re is ha rdlyany a pr ior i necessi ty to dism iss such a suppos i t ion as

unenterta i nable . St il l the absol ute s i lence of the en ti re

Tami l L i te rature of the ea r l i est period prec ludes us fromcons i dering i t even as a reasonabl e h i stor i cal hypothes is.

The most potent cause which appea rs to have p re

P r e d i S p a 8 i n gd i sposed the people to a

. ready acce

pcauses for th e tance of th i s fore 1gn trad i t ion was i ts

appeal to the sense of rac ial d ign i ty,or

t ion van i ty pe rhaps, from which few races

of antiqu i ty a re found to be free . If a sense of racia l

supe r iori ty i s seen to pe rs ist even to th is day among many

en l ightened people,one w i l l not go w rong i n pos i ti ng i ts

ex istence in those bygone t imes . At the begi nn ing,the

systematizat ion , i f not the creat ion , of the language of a

peopl e by some D iv i ne agency or semi-div ine sage must

have evoked f rom them the g reates t adm i ration and

respect. And al l the more powe rful should be the infl uence of that doctr i ne when i t puts the i r own language

i n a pos it ion of co-ordinate au thori ty and odou r of sanc

t ity wi th the d iv i ne language of the N orth, the Sanskr i t.Late r l i terature i s fi l l ed with al lus ions which exp ress

unfe igned grat i fi cation at the ennob l ement of Tam i l, to

stand on a pa r wi th the sacred language of the Védas .H ere a re a few stanzas cul l ed at random from some

l eading works

A GA ST YA I N T H E ‘ T A M IL L A ND 27

(gapip cdlclg tsrrairwanrlp lqLorr@ 657 g a ting “)

“ 95 155 1193 597 g mfiw‘asné Qrfiw

’

r‘a fl

— £5 5 roi étana fi (Samurai .

W EQ G u nybifl tfi/S ,emfi w j ®§ rr® G er/5p trllbbij u wsér

Qgfi fi wn

J /téfi a riéQa afl G’tuan' Gwezirpflg Q M’

GVQJ U'

tu n a firttBa Qar

”

Gamma) .

6:57m m j pwsér u nmade-6793 Qwé a om G w@ oir

fi l l- QM gélég w up'

p rairQuiair wov tu um Gasvfia'

sg fif

rag ga 9 1

,579t Owrréélécla fi r na’

sQuJ 695 65795 17 63)

wg w «inl a nd? 9 6 6511 15 G regg/arr g si rCBCty.

"

— £5 a93a tmtmtbqnwm fii .

wL a bélanuJ u u nm fisrfié g wg fip g afi web

Qa fi

Qfi fl L Ifl-{GIDI—tu Qfi alTQLOITWG D lU tqts Quae-

omé G ene?

@ W &@ w afltqmtg'

p mi Oa nebCPsvfim/t) unaQr avfiaFr

a g a’

wm r é ifi a flgsfirG ugmw tue J G’r amfigfi rfilmrr.

"

amw gwmi (gop ybg na : tf'ltu e'

v

QJmIJ LDLJ

‘QgQwr tfiqtb wgfifiu®j fi fl ff GDevfiG’ai /éfi (ficwg u r fiqd)

Qga ‘tfl tL/fé ,etfi@@ uncorp we r Qwairgy afléi

a ilg Gwrr‘tflqIQJ QU GZVQ / tfi p ybma tu gomG t u tr .

manp eogfi fl air/5,9 ai rrtu rrair wfi gofi bb (guy

G are-om“!

uS’mp auip tb G u nman land s). aflevé s m g Qa tb tu i)

QufiGm

28 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LAND

wmp s g év G i anni /tile u nmg -wiiemj g tbG Q tsér

cr rfiwfcwr

M egan Hm mfifimé G’fi fi fl éJ

Qanbe mu'

a.

,oevfl/sg tzii g al leria/65 J —‘Lbl -{ IS LEJ G ug wm

ir

(mang e r) ump a

’

wa’

mcoy@ a gar G amir

w h e ez e” Areas"G HQODM

(QC GOJD. G eorg Og tfi j m w G u n'a )

G amma; fi g Qu rrtbé g sérp ai

a ép gmair S towe} J UAQ‘BW ailfi tigfg

‘

J /cgfém é -Qs trm m fifim

fig éfia fi y w é a é G ar/5,5 15? gflwa ilfinfl é:

Og dmw dv

amnufia sir .

These extracts, though made most ly from l ate r

authors . give us a valuab l e c lue for cor rectly a rr ivi ngat the mot ives that must have swayed the Tam i l people i n

the ready acceptance of the Agastya legend .

Anothe r p redispos i ng cause might be d rawn from the

h igh character and rel igious sancti ty of the few ea r ly B rahman se ttl e rs in the Tam i l land . The a rr iva l of the Aryans he remust, i n the ordina ry cou rs

i

e ofevents , have taken p lace only

afte r the Maharas t ra , A ndhra and Karnata

aka countr i es

had been fa i r ly occupied by them . This penetrat ion into

the las t t wo border count r i es of T am ilagam may requ i re ,at the lowest, two to three centu r i es f rom 350 B . C . S o

the fi rst or the second centu ry before Ch r i st may reason

ab ly be fixed as the term inus a quo beyond wh ich theAryan immigration i nto T am ilagam could not be pushed .

That the H i n du Aryans who set foot i n the Tam i l

land a littler

late‘

r ha i led f rom these borde r'

coun tr ies re

ce ives some support from two subsequent tradi t ions . One

of th i s ‘ wi th h im e ighteen fam i

l i es,

ofi

kings, Vélirs and A ruvalars from T uvarapati, the

A G A ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 29

modern D waratsamud ram i n the Mysore State, and the

othe r to Parasurama peop l i ng Kérala 1 with colonists

f rom the banks of the G odava ri and the K r ishna.

i

T h e

Travancore S ta te Manua l i n page 2 13 refers to the latter

t radi tion thus “The new land was not fi t for habi tat ion

the settl i ng down had not been completed . The quak ing d id

not cease,so the Purana says hence Parasu rama spr i nkled

some gol d dust and buri ed coi ns and thus formed a t rea

su re- t rove which stopped the quaking of the land . H e

prepa red a g reat yagam (Sacr ifice) at Varkala for the same

pu rpose . Thereafte r Paraéu rama b rought colon ies of

Brahm i ns from the nor th , f rom the banks of the K r i shna,the G odavari , the N armada, the Kave r i and from Madu ra,Mysore and Maharastra and f rom many other places and

peopled Ke ralam. The B rahmi n colon ists so b rought

belonged to e ight gotrams or fam i l i es .” Presumab ly th is

i s a very late t rad i t ion . Sti l l we may i nfer that what oc

cu rred in Kera la has had its analogue i n the Tam i l land tothe east of the ghats . 2 Large r and larger colon i es of the

A ryan imm igrants must have come i nto the count ry from

I . M r . L ogan is of op inion that th e Vedic Brahmans musthave arr ivad at M alabar in th e ear ly par t of th e 8th CenturyA . D . , and not ear l ier and that they must have come from thecoast of th e T ulu country.

2 . Is i t not a li t t le cur ious that ident ical methods h ave beenadopted by th e Aryan immigrants or their immediate deseendants , in Peninsular India both in th e E ast Coas t and in th e

W est ? Agastya was brought into th e T ami l country on th e E astCoast and Paras

'

urfima was p lanted on th e W est . Just as Paras'

urama created th e whole Ke ralam from ou t of th e bedof th e Arab ian Sea and became i ts vir tual propr ietor , h isE astern companion seems to have got th e whole Tami l countryfrom G od Sk anda at T iruvenkatam and handed it over to h is

Sishya , th e first Pandya k ing. Again as Parasurama had topeople h is new cduntryby br inging down fami lies of royalty and

commonalty from th e banks of th e G odavar i and th e Kr ishna ,

30 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

the watershed of the Krishna and the G odava ri r ive rs ,the Maharastra and the Karnataka in the West and of

the A ndhra i n the E ast . The p i ctu re presented by th e

ea rl i est body of Tami l L i te rature, via , Purandyaru , A ka

udw'

tz'

u , Pa ttu/d ttu etc . , only tends to confi rm the con

e lusion otherwise a rrived at he re . A few Brahman pr i es ts

seem to have taken up the i r abode he re and there and

assISted the kings and Chiefta i ns i n the pe rformance of

yagas and other rel igious ri tes . Though they were very

few i n number , they had acqu i red by the i r l earn i ng ,peaceful character and by the ir l i fe of self-den ial and high

aspi ri ng spi ri tual i ty an unbounded in fl uence with th e

ru l e rs and the ruled a l ike . The fol lowing quotat ions from

Purandm'

tz‘u wi l l es tabl ish beyond doubt the sanct i ty

that had a l ready begun to hedge round the B rahman

teache rs of those days . 1

A gastya h ad to take 18 fami l ies of k ings , Vél irs and A ruval arsfrom T uvarapat i (Dwarasamudram). T h e paral le lism is not ye tended . E ven as th e W est Coas t owes its very rudiments ofc ivi l ized l ife to Parasurama, Agas tya h ad also to perform hisc ivi l i z ing work by sys temat iz ing th e Tami l L anguage and founding th e first Academy whence al l culture flowed for th e benefi tof later generat ions . After their labours for th e spread of

knowledge and cul ture , Parasurama is said to have betakenh imself to th e M ah éndra H i ll in Or issa, and Agas tya, l ikew i se ,had to ret ire to th e Pot h iyi l mount of th e South . Jus t as

Parasurama who first rec laimed S‘

fi rparaka country aboutBombay in th e Nor th was later on shifted to t h e South to re

claim Kérala, A gastya had to Quit his M alakfita residence , inth e Kanarese country , and take up h is quarters in th e Poth iyi lmount in th e hear t of th e Tami l country in t h e South . T h e

inference from this close parallel ism of tradi t ions is obvious .I . M r . F . E . Pargitcr , in his A ncient [ h a/tan

T r ad i t ion, p. 6 2, wr i tes as fol lows :“There have been broadly

‘speak ing, three classes among Brahmins th roughout Indian H istory , via , ( 1) T h e ascet ic devotee and teacher , the rsi or th e

A GAST YA IN TH E T A M IL LAND 3 1

Qkhp é é‘ré Ou c

‘

gtiiiélsar Oe

’

efii eufi ago/5,6

ord i iblcziip (30695796 7 Qnéfi a

’

ifié Qiu $691! —6 : Karikilfl l‘.

«3age, e rases nitrous wfi3 6 @ m

"— 9I N ettima iyar .

m anure; smut 945m ou trag e— 34 : A latti

'

i rkki lar .

1596e @ m @@ Or e'

uewrtb

u rrti tjiu rni Gmrwm Oe u’

i tu ewi”

,—43 T amappalkannanar .

This h igh respect,wh ich the ea r ly Brahman priests

won, natu ral ly ripened in a few centuries i nto a

bl ind be l i ef on the part of the T am i l i ans i n al l the myths

and l egends which the i ngenu ity of the pr i estly order

could coi n for success i n a l ifekand-death g rapp l e w i th the

hereti cs .

muni (2) pr iest and th e sp ir i tual guide of K ings , nobles and

people and (3) the minister of State , Royal Officer and thosewho fol lowed secular emp loyments . T h e first was th e Brahman par excel l ence, th e Saint th e second th e pr iest and th e p receptor ; and th e third th e semi-secular Brahman and somet imeswholly a layman . In the Tami l country th e ear l iest Brahmansett lers as test ified to by l i terature seem to have be longed toth e second c lass ment ioned by M r . Pargiter . E xcep t A gastya ,Tami l land cannot boast of a single Aryan Rishi as having h adh is hermitage w ithin its borders . L iving sec luded in theirforest hermi tages , and cut off from th e current of secular l i fe ,those A ryan Rishis did not come to th e South . T h e later Tam i lPurfinic wr iters , for their own purposes , h ad to draw theirRishis from th e N aimisa and other forests in Nor th India.T his total absence of th e Aryan Rishi or h is herm itage in th e

Tami l land renders Agas tya’s connect ion w i th th e South high ly

problemat ical , be ing a sol itary except ion which does not fit in

w ith histor ic condi t ions and chronology . Aryan immigrat ioninto th e Tami l land in any considerable scale having begun in

th e Post-Chr ist ian centur ies , the at tempt to impor t therein aRishi be longing to th e Pre-Chr ist ian per iod is nothing less thana crude anachronism.

32 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

And a th i rd predispos i ng cause ar ises f rom the

decadence wh ich the Tam i l ians fel l i n to after atta i n

ing the elements of a mater i a l c ivi l izat ion so c lear ly re

fl ected i n what i s adm i ttedly the classmal por tion ofTam i l

L i te rature . A period of repose, as i n the' case of othe r

natiohs, followed in the wake of one of construct ive and

c reat ive act ivi ty and the nat ional m i nd thenappears to havefal len i nto a torpor. H e re too

,as el sewhere, i d l e m i nds fel l

a p rey to supersti tion— for a se r ious act ive l i fe and

supe rst i t ion neve r go togethe r— and when thi s supe rsti t ion

ente red i nto al l iance wi th re l igion,human . natu re could

not but succumb .

The myste ry of the rel igion of N dyma ra i ; the fou r

seal ed a rcana , and the m i racl es of devotees and rel igious

preachers wi l l, as a matter of course, make a powe rfu l ap

peal to the masses whose m i nds have al ready grown vacant

by a l ife of ene rvat i ng ease and i nact iv i ty . I t i s diffi cul t

to imagine how the successors of the ea r ly Tam i l ianswho

had ach ieved such wonderfu l success i n many of the arts

of c ivi l ized l i fe at so ea r ly an age could have allowed

t hemselves to be t hus hopel essly bound by the mythologic

cobwebs of a later t ime . The myste ry of th i s w i l l van i sh

the momen‘we real i se that human natu re— even the best

cult ivated— can i n no wa y be developed al l- round . Its

strength i n one di rection spel l s weakness i n another .

Th is i s the N emesi s that alway s dogs the footsteps of

every spec ial i st . I f h e i s grea t i n one field . he must paythe penal ty by h is weakness i n anoth e r . The p ract ical

Tam i l i ntel lect, when i t had accomp l i shed i ts work of

bu i ldi ng up a mater i a l c ivi l i zat ion and fel t i tsel f fl agged,

was only too ready to rece ive i ts sp i r i t ual pabulum and

mythologic luxur ies from the Aryans of the North .

A st t dmN ot only i s the Agastya t radi tion

f: The a l ate one 1n the Tam i l land , i ts ea r l iest“ 118 °

reference i n the Ramaya na of valm i k i

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34 A G A S’

I‘YA IN T H E T A M IL LAND

later , 1 does i n no way enab l e us to a rgue for a h igh ant i

qu ity for th is t radit ion in T amilagam .

Taking a long w 1th th i s the compl ete si l ence of th e

Tam i l class i cal l i te ratu re spread about the fi rst th ree cen

tu ries of the Christ ian E ra,the conclus ion appea rs h ighly

probab l e that the fou r th, fi fth and sixth centu r ies afte r

Chr i st,wh ich ma rk the keenest struggle with the heret ical

sects i n the Tam i l Land, may also have been the pe r iod

when the fi rst seeds of the Agastya tradit ion were sown in

the South . H ow ent irely i ncorrect is the su rm i se of D r .

Caldwel l who claimed for th e tradit ion an antiqui ty go ingback to 700 B . C . needs therefore no furthe r e luc i dat ion .

Conced ing for the p resent tha t theA gast y a T rad i t ion

and T oikapp ipoets who composed the works wh i ch

yam. are gene ra lly known as Sangam

L i teratu re may have om itted to make ment ion of Agastya

for var ious reasons of the ir own,st i l l we shal l be p re

cluded from making such a concess ion in the case of

T olkappiyar , h is l eadi ng di sc i ple , and the author of the

fi rst and foremost G rammar of the Tam i l Language . I t

is qu i te reasonabl e to expect that at least he , cons i der i ngh is relat ionsh ip with the sage and by the spec ia l fact of

h is compos ing a grammar to compete with the monu

mental work of h is master , should have given us some in

format ion regard i n g h is reputed predecessor . H as he done

anyt h ing of t he ki nd N ot a l i n e is th ere i n al l that ex

tent of his great grammar whi ch may be const rued evem

as an i ndirect reference to t he Sage .

2 Tradit ion , whose

1 . F or instance , D r . W ashburne H opk ins in h is work , th e

G rea t E pic of I nd ia fixes 4CD A .D . as th e latest date .

2 . I t is true that N ach ch inarkkiniyar interprets cer taint

sii tras of T olka'

ppz'

am ending in a sir u,Gm TQM

, e tc . , whose t e

ference is not at all spec ific as a reference by impl icat ion tot

Agastya, th e author’s guru . But th e correct me thod of interpret

ing these indefini te statements of Tol l-rapp iyar is to be drawn.

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA N D 35

or igi n though late remai ns obscure,i s no doubt respons ib le

for creat i ng twelve d is c iples wh o had to s i t at the feet ofAgastya for th e ir l earn ing. They were ( 1) T iranadh fimakkin i a l ias T olkapp iyar (2 ) Chempfitch éy (3) Atankottacan (4) T ural ir

'

ikan (S\ Vaiyapp ikan (6 ) Vaypp iyan

(7) Panamparan (8) Kalaramban (9) Av inayan

( 10) Kakka ipatin iyan ( 1 1 ) N agrattan and vamanan.

Somet imes S ikanti i s seen in terpol ated i n t he l i st .I t i s wor thy of note that Panamparanar, one of t he cos tudents who stud ied with T olkapp iyar at the Agastya

Academy , is cred ited with compos ing an i ntroductory

stanza for h is mate’ s work Tolkd tpiyam . H ere a refe

rence is made to A tankottacan, another c lass-mate of

the irs , and a lso to T olkapp iyar'

s proficiency i n the A indraSchoo l of S anskr i t G rammar . H ere too, Agastya has been

passed over i n studied si l ence . E ven assum i ng that T olkapp iyar

’

s re lat ionsh ip wi th Agastya was a tr ifle strai ned

as Tradit ion assures us— t here is not the s l ightest ground

why Panamparanar shoul d forget h i s guru i n th is recom

mendatory stanza . N ot on ly has the sage been severely l eft

out i n the col d, but to add insu lt to i n j ury Panamparanar

makes another of th e i r co-students, A tankottacan, pre

side over th e assembly wh ich had gathered to hear the ex

pos it ion of T olkapp iyar’

s great work and set on i t i ts sea l of

approva l . I s i t conce ivab le that these three students of

Agastya woul d have behaved so i n decorously as they seem

to have done, i f they had actua l ly acknowledged the great

sage as the ir preceptor ? The conduct of th is student

triumvirate is expl i cab le on ly on the assumption that none

of t hem had anyth ing to do W i th Agastya and might be

from cer tain other sfi tras of that author which contain word.

ings l ike £ 62551 mfifigy sm firi-Qami sw g ma6 p ,

’

6 7657 10n6 760TU g QwaQa , 67 65T tJ g/‘cfl tiQQ-IQQQQU .

’

E xpl ic i t ly and quite dec is ively these refer on ly to previous

grammar ians in general and not to Agastya in part icular .

36 A GA ST YA I N T H E T A M IL LA ND

supposed to have been even ignorant of. h is v ery exi stence

at the t ime . The pervers ity, wh ich undoubted ly seems toc l i ng to the ir conduct i n th i s matter

,i s ent i re ly due to our

t rying to foist on them a la ter day l egend, for wh i ch they

cou ld hardly be ca l led to accoun t. If, however, we dis

m iss the Agastya legend as a p iece oi chrono log i cal i r

r e l evancy, the conduct of ‘T olkapp iyar, Panamparanar

and A tankot tacan assumes qu ite a natura l character .

Trad it ion credits Agastya withA y a

i

8founding the first Sangam and pres idi ng

over i t . H e i s al so represented as having composed the first

‘

G rammar of the Tam i l Language .The Sangam trad it ion , as it stands, i s too indefin ite and

etheria l to be made the subj ect -matt er of . any h istor ical

i nvest igat ion ; for i t does not afford us anywhere any foot

hold,any sol i d verifiabl e fact , from which to start . N ear ly

t he whol e body of i t hangs in cloud land and few wi l l be

d isposed to tamper with that beaut i ful aer ia l st ructure wi th

p rosa ic confrontat ion with facts and h istor i ca l deduct ions.

Scient ific cr it i c i sm must fee l a l itt l e nonplussed when

vast periods ofgeo logica l t ime are a l lowed to step i nto

t h e l imi ted fie ld of a n at ion ’s l iterary h i story . N or do

t he l ater N oach ian D eluge and M ann’

s flood offer us a

surer ground to plant ourse lves on .

1 S o, the Sangam

l a Regarding such deluges M r . L . W . King wri tes thusin page 1 2 1 of h is work B abyl oiu

'

a uR el ig ion and M yt/wl ogy.

In th e tradit ion of many races ,

scat tered in var ious par tsof th e wor ld is to be found a story , under many differentforms and w i th

' many var iat ions , of a great flood or delugewh ich in former t imes inundated and laid waste th e

,land in

which they dwe lt . T h e explanat ion that such tradit ions referto a universal deluge which took pla ce in th e ear ly ages of th ewor ld , is now generally regarded as inadmissible , inasmuch asthere is no trace of such a catas trophe in th e ear th ’s geologicalformat ion . M oreover Sc ience h as shown that in th e presentphysical condit ion of th e wor ld such a universal deluge wouldbe impossible .”

A G A S T vA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 37

ques t ion may be left undisturbed for th e present . 1

Agastya’

s compos i t ion of the fi rst Tam i l G rammar,

however , stands on a di fferent foot i ng . I t Opens for usan ave nue of approach ; Though here also, accord ing to

t rad it ion , the major po rt ion of h is work is sa id to have

fa l l en into the maws of a far-d istant t ime,st i l l some stray

Sutras of h is have escaped that fate and come downto us . T hese, then , shoul d give us some interest i ngma ter i a l s for j udging, however imper fect ly, the na tu re ofAgastya ’ s extens ive grammar of twe lve thousand Sutras

I . I t is wor thy of note , in th is connect ion , that no champ ion of th e Sangam h as ye t come forward to ser ious ly refuteany of th e arguments contained in th e search ing c r i t ic ism of

th e late Prof . Sesh agiri Sastr i on th e subject . T h e at temptof th e late Prof. P . Sundaram P i l lai , wh o ingenious ly put

forward th e best defence th e quest ion admi tted of, that th eSangam poets though be longing to var ious t imes and p laceswere brought together in a group because in th e histor ical pers

pec t ive of a distan t poster i ty they appeared to hang together ,is real ly giving away th e whole case . N o doubt , i t is a poet icway Of defending the Sangam but th e h istor ic authent ic i ty of

the lat ter must be bui lt upon more solid mater ials than figura

t iv e language . S O th e arguments of Prof . S esh agir i Sastr i st i l lhold th e fie ld . T h e mistaken impression that th e an t iquity of

Tam i l L i terature h as to be surrendered in th e absence of

a Sangam to support it from behind h as been at th e root

of this tradi t ion being careful ly preserved , tended and

made to persist even now . T h e ear liest T ami l worksth e Sangam l i terature— have undoubted intr insic mer i ts

of thei r own and carry w i th them their own credent ialsfor th e grateful acceptance of th e present-day Tami l ian . I n

stead of establ ishing their ant iquity on these intr insic h istor ic

grounds , as I think we can very wel l do, some are engaged inpropping i t up on such extr insic and almost legendary data as

th e three S angams. I n my view , it is cer tainly spoi ling a strongcase by unnecessary mythologi z ing.

8 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

and of the grai n and temper of scholarsh ip that charac

ter ised i ts author .

Before we proceed to va lue th e fragments of Agastya’ s

G rammar whi ch have been handed down by the Tam i l

commentators and col l ected by a recent ed itor,i t wi l l not

be out ofplace to glance i nc identa l ly at the huge body ofmi sce l laneous wr i t i ngs wh ich has s i nce been ascr i bed to

h im . They range over a wide fie l d from M edi cine and

Myst ic i sm to Magic and Witchcraft1 and be ar e loquent tes

t imony to the ir author having been an unabash ed char la

tan . The reputed sy stemat iser of the Tam i l Language

cou ld scarce ly have descended so low as to produce such

sense less and d isma l dr ivel as the extant Agastya l itera

tu re, wh ich h as absolute ly not h i ng i n e i ther matter or

form to commend i t to a cu ltured soc iety. This is what

Professor M ahamah Opadh yaya S . Kuppuswami S astriar ,

M . A . , says i n the i ntroduct ion to Part I I of Vol . I I of

t he D escr ipt ive Catalogue of the Or ienta l Manusc ript sL ibrary , Madras The name of Agastya or A hattiyar i n

Tam i l has to be spec ial ly ment ioned as the most prol ific

wri ter on these sub j ects (Alchemy, Med ic ine, Y ogam of

t h e S iddh ars) . W ho thi s Agast iyar is . to whom so many

works are attri buted,cannot be stated . H e does not seem

to be the same as the wel l-known Agast iyar , wh o i s sa id

to have systemat ized the Tam i l Language and wrote the

Fi rst Tami l G rammar . I n a l l probabi l ity works wr i tten bv

1 . T h e Catalogue of th e M adras Or iental M anuscr iptsL ibrary gives , in all , detai ls of about 96 Agas tya works . M ay

b e this col lect ion just touch es only th e fr inge of a body of

l i terature not ye t ful ly explored . I f th e cavernous profundi tyO f that author could gush for th in such numbers as

“u rm

'

J u r maefifi év awai t}: s a tin—{ L}

u nraG asrair mwefi weglé ) 675 65v G a ma

c ould even th e most consc ient ious book-collector ever thinkO f running th e whole quarry to ear th ?

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 39

d ifferent persons at different per iods of t ime seem to have

been attri buted to A hattiyar to invest them with d ign ity

and ant iqu ity,but the language used i n many of these

works i s very commonp lace and betrays them i n the ir

t rue colour as l ater compos it ions . ” T0 cal l the language

of th i s trashy col lect ion— for l i terature i s too dign ified

a name to be used for it commonplace ’

is to err on

t h e s ide of moderat ion . Let me extract -a few l i nes of

verse for th e j udgment of the reader .

Q J QQq irQ / G er rei i g t G p air a fiw rrulté (Br ay;

Qg s ép ea-RQeu g amma 6

,5 5)?n

5 &fim’

o

a rm amgé Qa mfl tu r grieve)

p tsv®§ rf19pfg7fi G U fln fl aefilwéj G er/raivG

’m cér

— s ta$£mft 5 am g$£ufii

QQ JGtfluJ /m é g efi necwfi Glaxo/79 QSlL ITG’fi

(Ra gweed qj fi uflggév ar teri es s ac/5— ata§ £ui ft aau g trm 5 553535 111 g fl fl ég @ 5 £§ Hml

6 95m§ ®tu airp fi j mfiQwevevmb fl rfn /é (geirCfi

’m

aflg fi L O Oi gfiag 5 6965

6636115558ma béltu trsw 3 16 a i i i /refer

g i mp /Tu) a cgeGlfi sba m entree?”

a i G

egfr‘ofl G u r afléfi fl ame Oe rrairGgp tb

s avag aerrfii u ao95 @ ai Gamin g /7 11°

;

oéy rfi’u rr afléggocwp (airb a g/7&6

mentor ed?“ maubasfisrre gagged ; G a ining /ti)

G a ga wmi a wa fifg rr rflri e gate»

Ga d g rrgm'

t G asrrOaiasrfig Qs drail aflcérfld igs-G at rigs /Hag Gamm a

-Br 67.9:n

G ammawr J uli /5,5 63.5 0 f-F G

’tu .

— e t& éi £lu i afififl t’fl ® t§ 5 fl 5flwfi U 55al

I s th is commonplace language or the language

puny mi nds absolute ly devoid of l earn ing, cu lture , and

40 A GA ST YA IN T H E‘

T A M I L LA ND

moral e levat ion ? T he'

Professor i s aga in a l i tt l e caut ious

and hes itat i ng to draw theconclus ion that the whol e lot

bears the impress of the popu lar mi n t of .quite recentt imes . Suc h l i nes as

g r ailtu QU ITQQDG fl GZBT GKPGNQ-

i'r;

wa gigrrcor {Hafiwcwg w QJ ITé g Charisma:

— e ta>55£ lui 5mm9£

afifiO admufifi’

grras tb GTQPLDLSJOID (galsg @ aas tb

occurr ing in some of the works t hemselves give the l ie

direct to the ir ever hav ing been written by the sage

h imse l f. But why waste t ime in explor ing the back al l eys

and s lums ofTam i l L i terature ?

l n retrac ing his steps to the grammat ical 3 13t of

Agastya,the reader may expect that perhaps i n t hese the

reputed sage might be seen at h is best . But I fear blankdi sappoi ntment must gr eet h im here a l so. First

,a few

spec imens of the Sutras of th i s far- famed or iginator of th e

first Tami l G rammar . H i s defin it ions of E luttu (firep j g )Mol i (Owrgfl) and Kftgp i (a r

ea ) are i l lum i nat ing to t he

last degree and we feel that w i thout h is cr i t ica l gu idance

i n a region so recond i te we would be l eft i n the lurch forever .

LJ @,6 6\NT Qwe i arsurL} Ou tu riG’umt tb.

’

7

G ravy /3,6 Qwepfiip rair G wagflwfi

’

e Qwrreé'

ltumb.

’

an y u®§ffl svtr6°

v

Then he gives the lead to future grammar ians h ow

shou ld d ist ingu ish between the sexes of l etters“g fl svrrou

'

w u r ge; Qa taé tQu abr u agywrrtb’

$ 14,5 6 p Omaha; wa l t ua rL

'

J uQDG’ta

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

42 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

89. wwé a u'

) L issa /i 539 5 1511a w fl wrw é

ag g év a wéfi e'

vqs'

ve l ewrcgQu ng L Qe e sv.

139. W QLM SQufle rffl n rrlfi Qu eg QwrrlCé)6 6m®wrr567,aem rrbé? s wim/gmw iélQn b.

141 . g fi é fi as g mak e wwd fi fl gscmb u ns p u’

:

Gwrrbélfsfrezir s érG’p e rbéhuej

142 . F fi éafl s éj g i mp /1'

s Gemifi wrrgfl Qwszir u .

143. J EQLMwuJ G’arfi GoTrié 6 ”@ Lb.

144. Gre'

vewf maelmgy ufhuémvg U fl 6 fi tb.

145 . u ns g rb, g ibu aué ,agbarwé G g fl w w DU G Lb.

148. (Dwain /is Qw e éQg fl Qwefirm 695 51 145 .

149. Qrié a é g em }: fi g fifi W ms wmh.

163 . a wair a ilg fi QuJ u'

J gnb Lfldrfiaré G’a .

a bélwair gem /p a. ) Qp fi fiy s G olfing /mm

G’QJQmasr aflm rbu zra’

sr Glu u mg 6 57.5 .r aGmair

Ger/"Qty g auze/gal

l(m ggQ; G IM UJ J

6 27955917 l g mb G av/1342162910 Qwsér p m

(21135103e gésgfim‘b, 1 4

It is hardly doubtfu l whether the author or authors

of such m i scel lanea had any clear not ions of the func

t ion and Scope of G rammar and Lexicology . The con

c eptions of t hese two d isc ip l i nes are so hope l ess ly m ixed

up in these . Next , th e styl e and ph raseology of th e

Sutras have ne i ther s imp l i c ity nor ancientness about

them . Both poi nt unm i stakab ly to the very latest per iod

i n the growth of grammat ical term i nology . I n the th ird

p lace , the attempt to squeeze the cl ass i fication and nomen

c lature of the Sanskr i t G rammar i ans i n to the facts of an

a l i en language is on ly too patent throughout . The author

of Tolkdppiyam , i n sp i te of h is Sanskr i t erudi t ion , h ad at

l east the sound in st i nct of a born grammari an to respect

1 . This c lear ly referr ing to Pfinin i ,‘Agas tya must be

considered as having l ived after h im. H ow could th e Bg V'

éd ic

Agastya come after Panini

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 43

th e l ingu ist ic phenomena of a foreign tongue and to care

ful ly avo id tamper ing w ith th e ir pecul iar i t ies in h is class i

cal grammar . La ter -day scholars, in their adm irat ion of

Sanskr it, seem to have been engaged i n import ing whol e

sa l e the conceptions and terminology ofthe Sanskrit G ram

mar i ans i n the form of stray sutras composed for the

nonce and father ing them on the great sa int Agastya with a

v i ew to secure for the ir productions an author ity more

anc ient and compell ing than what belongs to Tolkdppiyam .

I n the l ight of the exuberance of th is orthodox Tam i l

L i terature,the hypoth esIS of Tolkdppi

Awa

331

1123325 yam be i ng the work of an ear ly ja in a“m author can scarce ly be l ight ly brush

ed as ide l The diffi culty , however, of com ing to any

1 . T h e ident ificat ion of T olkfip p iyar w i th T rnadhfimfig

u i , th e son of Jamadagni , th e Véd ic Bsi , is due to a latert radit ion and i s absolutely indefensible on histor ical grounds .T o assign T olkdpp iyam to th e fourth century A . D . is indeed areasonable work ing hypothesis and this receives ex traneoussuppor t from th e fac ts of Tami l L iterary deve lopment also . Ifhowever , th e Véd ic Bsi , Jamadagni , th e fath er of Parasurama

and of T rnadh iimfigni , is impor ted into th e story of this work ,t h e W hole ends in a chronological dis locat ion of no ordinaryk ind . That Jamadagni l ived towards th e close of th e Krta A geis th e view of th e Pur i nas . Summing up their conc lusions , M r .

F . E . Pargiter wr i tes , in page 3 15 of h is A ncient Ind ian H istor i

ca l T r ad i t ion thus According to that reckoning Viswamitraand h is sons (w i th whom began th e real Vedic A ge , as ment ioned above) l ived towards th e c lose of th e Krta Age and so also

J amadagni e tc .

”T h e follow ing observat ions of D r . Burnel l are

apposite in this connect ion I t is possib le to show histor ically h ow th e Brahman gradually supp lanted th e old Buddh is tJaina c ivi l i zat ion of th e Peninsula, th e ear l iest histor ical c ivi l iz ation of which there is any record in that par t of India and

th e fac t that th e Vedas of th e South are th e same as those of

t h e Nor th proves conc lusively that this was done at a t ime whent h e Brahmanas and th e Sfi tras h ad been defin i tely reduced to

44 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

defin ite conclus ion on that quest ion ar is es from th e

fact that the theologi ca l concept ions and cosmogon i c

legends of”the Jai nas show a fami ly l ikeness to those of

the orthodox H in dus excep t i n a few abstract doctr ina l

poi nts . 1 Th ere is reason for be l ieving that the Agastyam in t was opened and kept going for somet ime sol e ly . to

br i ng down the author i ty of Tolkdppiyam and bel it t leits importance . V i ewed in i ts h i stori ca l set t ing, Agastya

trad it ion appears as l i tt l e e lse than an orthodox counter

bl ast to Tolkd‘

ppiyam. But th e superior meri ts of that

work cou ld not t hus be ext inguished. I t stood its

ground and even at th is d istan ce of t ime wh i l e a number

ofgrammat ica l works have i n the interim succeeded it, i t s

broad ly- la i d foundat ions have not been touched nor th e

c lass i c br i l l iance of i t s supe rs tructure sur passed . Thus

thei r present form or at al l even ts not before th e Chr is t ianE ra .

” —E i emenl s of S our/z l nn’

ian P a l aeogr ap/zy, pp. 1 1— 1 2 .

Prof . E . J . Rapson in page 6 6 of h is work A nr zcni Ind ia

says They (th e Jains) have also p layed a notable par t in th e

c ivi lizat ion of Southern India , where th e ear ly l i terary developmen t of th e Kanarese and Tami l L anguages was due , in a grea tmeasure , to th e labours of Jain monks . ”

T his may be also due to th e wonder ful assimi lat ivecapac i ty of th e H indu Rel igion , which has always received intoi ts bosom alien doct r ines , admi t ted in to i ts pan theon al ien godsand th rown open th e doors of i ts hagiology to al ien rel igiousteachers . T h e admission of Buddha , th e stoutest and th e

most formidable opponent of Brahmanism, into th e H induc i rc le of A vatars is a lone suffi c ient to es tabl ish th e great catho

l ic i ty of H induism. T h e remarkable st rength of this re ligion isno doubt par t ly due to this .That th e same tendency was powerful ly at work in th e

heterodox sec ts too need not be doubted . T h e fol low ing obser

vat ion of M r Vincent A . Smi th appl ies w ith double force to th eJaina sec t T h e newer form of Buddhism h ad much in

common w i th older H induism and th e relat ion is so close th ateven an exper t often fee ls a diffi culty in dec iding to which

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 45

t here is ampl e j ust ificat ion for conclud ing that the Agastya

trad i t ion is dec idedly poster ior to th e ear ly Ja ina per iod1

ofTam i l L i terature, and must b e ascr ibed to the age which

succeeded the compos it ion of Tolkdppiyam . Anot her

ground of improbabi l i ty of t he so-ca l led Aga slyam be ing

anter ior to Tolkdppiyam may a l so be adverted to here. I f

the or igin a l grammar, Agastyam,

. h ad real ly treated of th e

three k inds of Tami l , via ,Iya l , Ica i , and N d iakam,

there

was hardly any reason for T olkappiya‘

r to om i t t he treat

ment of [m i and N d jakam i n h i s great work . He too

would have fo l lowed h i s predecessor and g iven h is gram

mar an a l l-comprehens iveness wh ich , at'

present, i t l acks .

H i s fa i lure to do so was due s imply to the“fact that the

tr ipart i te c lass i fication of Tam i l i n to Iya l, Ica i and

N d iakam d id not exist i n h is t ime . It . was i ntroduced

on ly at a l ater stage of the growth of the Tami l Language

and stamps Agastyam as a work of t hat per iod .

The time and ci rcums tances of the or ig in ofAgastya

Sutras,no l ess than thei r l anguage and

A gastya S utras

A L ater F orgery .

import, are such as wrl l warrant on ly

one conc lus ion , that the whol e mass of

them i s a bare-faced forgery— not, of course, commi tted by

a s i ngle wri ter at a smgle per iod of t ime but the resu l t of

d ifferent authors at diverse t imes contr i but i ng the i r share

to the pi l e, whose sundry fragmen ts cha l l enge

system a par t icular image should be assigned .—E ar /y H istory

of Ind ia ,p . 3 19.

Compare also M r . Vincen t A . Smi th ’s views in th e samework r e th e absorpt ion of foreign elements into th e H induSociety, given in pages 340 and 341 and th e decay of Buddhismin India, in p . 382 .

1 .

’

T he age of T irunanasambandh a and T irunavukka

rasu,about

‘th e beginning of ’

the 7th cen tury A . D .-may .be

taken as , th e dividing l ine which marks th e ear l ier and th e later

periods of t h e Jain H istory in T ami'lagam

46 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

attent ion to-day and create a probl em i n th e l i ngu ist ic an d

l i terary h istory of Tam i l for sol ut ion . That th is is not

mere id l e theor i z ing wi l l come home to the reader i f h ehas the pat i ence to scrut i n ize a l i tt l e the l anguage of th e

fol lowing Agastya Sutras extracted from the commentar i esofN acc inarkkiniyar on j iva lza -Cintdman i and of A tivarkkunal lar on Ci lappa tikc

’

iram.

1 . e rr/5&5; a fig tb 6 99 05e 5 .. i

(gubégup al g j fi car w a fifi wa’

v m .

”

2 .

“6 7096 1 6106 3 a fl g tfl fl g w‘g Qfi n

'm fl

qrg a lg j gm m a j fiwair g ear .

"

3. 153 5 17 11 5 Gmrrfigpé G irli e/ru b

5 2556 53 5 5530a nrra G’w— ifl é c fi p gb

a rr/5,5 4 3 Qmair aocD /éfl tb um ; Qp clwairgyri

g ép rr'

as fiQe i Qumég

I s i t unfai r to suppose that these late commenta

tors,wh o quote such sutras without l ett i ng us know

whence they drew them, shou ld have real ly intend

ed that th ey shou ld be taken for Agastya Sutras ? IfAgastya were the rea l author, why shou ld he have refer

red to h imsel f at al l a nd that a l so i n the th ird person

Surely,one wi l l find i t d iffi cu l t to ascr ibe such van i ty , as

th is l anguage pre-supposes , to a Sage of Agastya ’ s saint l i

ness and em i n ence . The on ly way then of exp la in ing

away what to us looks l ike effrontery i s to conclude

that these are not th e genuin e writ ings of Agastya but

on ly forgeri es perpet rated by the l ater devotees of

the Agastya cu l t . The reference to th ese Sutras i nthe commentar ies does in no way estab l i sh the ir

authent ic i ty . On th e ot her hand , they are rendered

doub ly suspic ious, fi rst by the suppress ion of the names ofth e ir authors and secondly by the absence of the originalAgastya Sutras on wh ich these later ones m ight be supposed to have been based . H ence th i s floatsam and j etsamof Agastya L i t erature d eserves on ly to be stored away i n

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 47

a spec ia l n i che reserved for l i terary forger ies unt i l the i r

authent ic ity i s vouched for by extraneous ev idence of an

i n controvert i b l e k i nd .

Human m i n d loves the marvel lous . E ven now‘

i t has not cl ean outgrown that hab i t .

A gast ya T rad i t i on When once the Agastya Trad it ionin L at er Tm

was planted i n th e Tam i l soi l,i t burst

i nto a rank and over-abundant growth .

The fol lowing quotat ions from certa i n l ater Tami l works

wi l l bear th is out.

Pann ir upa i a lam has the fol lowing i n its d iram

mi d g e t. QQIn aflwsérs afar @ rrsv,afg 7,é

fi nd/a rr 5 696 5767535 5 fi tdibbécgaflmé <5 a

wn@@ 9& 6n QJ ITUDQLD In Li u évqa bb%@ L

.

J Qucgamo g/asgffi iu Gm airg ub

Gmfiw Gagg ing

Qu ng éfi é 45,m qm ngu qm ééfi’g ni

[seimiianar £7411n G e rre'

uamj dlwair .

T h e d ir am of Puz'

apporu l Venpd Md la i conta ins

wsérszrfiw Qp LDLSlaiT amCfi’gpri (36 1 66317 A }OM c -muflg éfi grie

f/mi ) goa fia mair

(mséru rrp

'

p{manag ifi g} gw e y aw n/5

,5

g sér sorg é; Qrij fi j G errévmnj Alm a.

The d iram of Akapporu l Vi lakkam runs

5 10W mrevair will ow ?

meu'

maw aflswwG’q i Gmefimg aflfi (EU /Trig }

g g ém wdw QG G IEVQ/fi uflsws fizhg'

genia l. eug aifi menu ; gig /5,5

Qg ép wefir p air u rr a i pp ui? (m ni /ég

qswaui u eir GU‘HQ5Q IQ5L

.

L eave: @ @ iu

Ogrwa rru dl iuair .

"

T h e D ivdkaram has th e fol lowing

G ig /nib 5 16 6535 w g fimmj G ugq é

QM fim e é Qy mwtqiii éQuJ

48 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

(gra mma r) u bp ibqeurfib 6 11 6 9a n cbu é?

iu tbu yba fiiufi ,

These references are enough to estab l i sh h ow th e

Agastya trad i t ion fi rs t began i n the upper stratum of

Tam i l L i terature before tr ick l i ng down to i ts lower or the

popu lar l eve l .

Leaving these , i f we turn to Tam i l Puran‘ifi

ch

L itera

ture of st i l l l ater t imes,the Agastya

A gast ya T rad i t i On l egend wi l l be found to have grown inin T ami l Pura1110 L i terature extent a nd e laborateness , wh i ch the

earl ier wr iters could hardly have even

imagined . The fi rst promulgators of the Puranas i n

t he Tam i l la nd bei ng Poets , the characters and inc i

dents of N or th Ind ian Trad it ionswere imported bod i lyinto the ir works and hand l ed wi th a freedom . wh ich the

imaginat ive ch i l dre n of Poet ry a lone possess . Kanta

puranam (a ), Kacikantam (b), T irukkurralappuranain (c) ,

T iruvénkatatta lappuranam (d ), T irune lvél itta lappuranam

(c), Kutantaippuranam ((f), M ayilaippuranam (g), Veta

ran iy appuranam (h ),1 to ment ion on ly a few, have each

someth ing to say about the sa int and h is m i racu lous per for

manees . The array of the Puran ic batta l ion is i ndeed

t remendous, but i ts arms are loaded with on ly blank

cartr idges . I t may enve lop its e l f i n vast volumes of

smoke and ratt l e bu t for h itt i ng at one fact of h istory

i t has not the means . St i l l some people fee l a sort

1 . (a ) vi de ,gi/a j fi wd u g w ib.

(b)‘

n m a'

fefg é s ib.

(c) G gai fis eir g s efi wrrfi fl wwmg éj g g a’

smb.

(d ) g ia j fi wrr sig ma.) ai emiiauép g l j fi iu riu ib .

(e) asiéfi fi rfié e gé a ib.

(f) p . 198.

(g) Qu rrfi wwrrw‘aa ié N agad l- é

5 ® é J Lb

(h ) wm wnméc’a nwé J afié S Lb.

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50 A GA ST YA - I N T H E T AM IL LA ND

different in essent ia l s from that wh ich guides certa i n in

vestigators i n thei r work of construct ing h istO Iy with th e

help of the Puran ic poet s . The attempts of these remi nd

us of the venerab le Professors of the Un ivers ity of Lagado, .

who were engaged in gr im earnest i n extract ing sunbeams

f rom cucumbers .

W hen Agastya passed from th e hands of the Poets

to the care of the masses, h is sa int l i nessMat h ew“ °f came to be immed iatel y surroundedgastya .

with a halo of d ivin ity. I n a l l coun »

tr i es and at al l t imes,group psychology h as been oh arac

ter ised by one feature— i ts tendency to occupy extremes

e i ther way .

1 Hen ce , measured j udgments, app reciat ion

with in l im i ts,are not of the peop l e . They must make of

th e persons brought to the ir bar e ither a god or a devi l .

N atural ly , t herefore , the popular Agastya was ra ised at

once to the rank of a d iv i n ity and thei r worsh ip fu l hom

age fl owed towards h im i n an unceas ing stream .

~A

temple too, known as Agastisvaram,was ra ised i n h is

honour and it stands to th i s day some four or fi ve‘

m i les

to th e'

north of Cape Comori n . Though th i s‘ temp l e has

now fal len into negl ect , i t must have at one t ime att ract”ed a large concourse of votari es and been an important

l . I t is th e lack of th e condit ions“ necessary to

collect ive resolut ion and vol i t ion that renders a Crowd so fickleand so inconsistent so capable of passing from one extreme of

'

action to another , of hurrying to death th e man whom i t glor i

fied at ,

an,earlier momen t , p r of turning from savage . butchery

to tender and tear ful sol ic i tude . — W i ll iam M cD ougall’

s G roup

,M ind

’ p . 45 . Just as th e lack of the condit ions necessary to

collect ive resolut ion leads to th e fickleness of th e crowd , so alsoth e want of fac i l i t ies for collect ive de liberat ion and judgment

of th e populace p rechides th e appl icat ion of th e necessarycorrect ive and br ings about th e extremist character of popularjudgments in general .

AGA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 5 1

place of pi lgrimage . That Agastisvaram may have once

en joyed its heyday of prosperi ty,

i s rendered probab le by

the fact that the Taluq or revenue divi sion i n wh ich it i s

located is even now known as Agastisvaram Ta luq in

South Travancore .

1 N ot only th is , there a re cer ta i n

commun i t i es i n that part of the country, the weav ing

c l ass for i nstance, who cons ider th e sa int as the ir own

tr i ba l de i ty and offer h im r egu lar dai ly worsh ip .

Anoth er re l igious cu lt a lso l at er on seems to have

m ingled i tse lf with the Agastya . When the Sa ivite rel i

gions ph i losophers appeared and began to spiri tua l i ze st i l l

more the rel igious concept ions of the earl i er N ayanmars

i n South I nd ia , they dep icted G od as the sp i r i tual guru

who wou ld present h imse l f before devout and r ipe sou ls

and free them from the coi l s of Karma and reb irth by

bestowing mukti on them. Th is spec ia l grace on the

part of S iva, the Supreme Lord , became one of th e

cai dinal doctr i nes of the Sa iya Siddhanta School of

Ph i losophy, wh i ch even now c laims the l argest numberof adh erents i n South I nd ia . That Sa iv i sm, at l east i ni ts l atest phase

,emphas is i ng as i t d i d G uru B haki i as the :

foremost v i rtue amongst its three types of sp ii itual devo

t ion , powerfu l ly reacted on the Agastya cul t and helped,

its spread amongst th e masses goes without say ing . A n

acarya of the type of Agastya, hovering m i dway between

D ivi n ity and man,cou ld very eas i l y be taken for S iva .

G u ru or the div i ne teacher h imse l f . And i n fact no

orthodox Sa iv ite could afford to treat a re l ig ious guru,

with i nd ifferent fee l ings l est he shou ld thereby lose th e

chan ce of sa lvat ion , wh ich wou ld be vouchsafed to h im

i

1 . T here I S a vi llage known as'

I i ruA gat t iyanpall i , abouttwo miles to th e south of T irumafaikkatu, in th e Tanjore D isti

’

iet . Th e Saint is said tohaveperformed penance h ere for Home

time . T his place‘comeswithin "

the i t irie‘rary of th e S ai

’

xia devotee"

i

T rruiianasambaii dha and i s ifoundment ioned inone of h is hymns

52 A G A S T vA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

by(

S iva h imsel f appear i ng i n the form of a h uman teach e r,

at some t ime or other. Thus, i n the ident ificat ion of the

Sa i nt with S iva G uru Murttam, brought about by the

ex igenc ies of Sa iv i t e re l igious deve lopment,the apotheos is

'

of Agastya reaches i ts fi nale i n the Tam i l l and .

Th e fol lowing deta i l s given i n M r. G angoly’

s arti cl e

i n the j ourna l of the Myth ic S ociety th row a fresh l ight on

an ear l i er phase of th e same rel igious tendency working

i tse l f out i n the Ma lay i s lands i n the E ast . I n javacerta in images ca l l ed “ S iva G uru or Tri sula ”

images are found i n many places and are worsh ipped

as those of Agastya , wh o i s be l i eved to h ave been

the first miss ionary of Sa iv i sm i n that count ry .

T hi s, i n a wav, expla ins h ow in the ma i n l and of

I nd ia Agastya cu l t recei ved a fresh impetus by its a l l iance

with the Saiva rev iva l ism, espe c ia l ly during i ts later

stages when it s doctr i nes and ri tua l s were e laborated and

codified by M eykanta T éva a nd th e other re l igious

ph i losop h ers wh o fol lowed h im. That of al l teach er s

Agastya shoul d be brought in to co l l ect and arrange the

T évara hymns l ets i n some l ight on the re l igious tenden

c ies of that t ime . I n the d i stant java too, Agastya’

5 name

became i nt ertwined with that of S iva or S iva G uru and

assumeda sectar ian importance of i ts own . The d isi l lu

s ion i n the matter of t he peop l e worsh ippi ng t he S iva

G uru images as the Agas tya came , howeve r, from an un

expected, but author itat ive quarter . D r. Voge l,th e

emi nent Dutch Archaeologist , to whom t he photographs

of the'

S iva G uru images were sent for i nspect ion and

i dent ifica t ion , came to the correct conclus ion t hat th e

images, al l of wh ich bore the Tr i su l a or the tr ident in

the i r hands, were those of S i va and not of Agastya ,

From my own i nspect ion of the photos I was sat isfied

that all th e images were S iv’a s and that D r . Vogel had

given the correct verdict in thema tter Furt her , from the

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 53

extract i n page 55 of th is paper from B erga ine’

s S anskr i t

Inscr iptions of Cli ampa, i t wi l l be seen that Agastya

journeyed to Cambod ia to preach the worsh ip of S iva

l i t'

i gam known as Sr i B hadresvara. T h e S ivaG uru images

of java are al so known as B h at t z’

i raka G uru images . Bha

dresvara of Cambodia and B hattaraka of java bear a close

resemblance and may be var iant forms of probab ly‘one

namefit< However, t h i s is a matter for San skr i t i sts to deci de .

Hav i ng been t hus deified Agastya h as come to

evoke the greatest venera tion among the'

peop l e . Th i s

wave of piety l ed to a fres h recrudescence of myt h s and

mi rac l es which have now l i t era l ly buried the or iginal

figure “ ten thousa nd fathoms deep .

” One need not

wonder at t he fecund ity of the imagi nat ion , from th e

most cul t ivated to t he most ignorant , thus pi l i ng on th e

devoted head of Agastya layer after layer of l egends of

every descr ipt ion and colour . Almost every century had

its quota to add and if the mass of tradi t ion wi l l i n any

manner supply a standard for dete rmi n i ng th e per iod of i ts

growth and accumu lat ion , at l east a thousand years mayfa ir ly be al lowed for the Agastya cu l t for i ts deve lopment

to i ts present d imens ions . St i l l i n t he fie ld of psycho

logy of a race, we cannot absol ute ly be sure of th e va l i

d i ty of such surm i ses .

1 When a G eologist ca l cu l ates

*These words are given th e follow ing meanings in S ir

M onier W i ll iam’s D ict ionary .

Bh ad résvara ar ious S tatues or L ingas of Siva .

Bh attaraka= Buddhist teachers and Saiva monks .1 . Though th e lore-dimension and qual ity of a t radit ion

may give us an idea of i ts age , i t i s not at a ll possible to reacha correct s tandard for its age

-determinat ion . Judged ei therby quant i ty or qual i ty of th e mater ials that have gatheredround cer tain popular heroes of recent dates handed downin bal lad poe try of th e day, such as M ut tu Bhatitan and

M aturai V i ran of later myths , as Jai Singh and Khan Sahib

54 AGA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

the age of a r iver by the success ive l ayers of i t s a l luvia l

deposi t , he can pos it ive ly be sure of h is ground and con

e l us ions for he i s on ly dea l i ng 'with unvaryi ng physi ca l

forces t hat have at no poi nt of t ime ceased work ing.

N ot so i in the present case,where the thought and l i fe of

a“ nat ion are »dealt with . There may be centur i es of stag:

nat ion to be succeeded by ot hers of unusual product ivi tyand progr ess . The concatenat ion of c ircumstances wh ich

brings th i s about wi l l defy the ana lysi s of even the most

a ccompl i shed histor i an . Y et with a l l these uncer tai n ti es

wh ich affect t he l ater stages in the deve lopment of the

Agastya cul t, the trad i t ion itse l f, accord ing to the tes t i

mony of the early l i terature exam i ned,cannot be taken

beh ind the 5t h Ce ntury A . D .

V i ewing the Agastya trad it ion as a whol e from i ts

incept ion to its most recent deve lopI nt ri nsi c Imp robabum“,

ment, i t str ikes us as an imag inat ive

structure of magn ificent proport ions .

I n the first place, the reason ass igned for t he Agastyaexodus is too myth ica l for ord inary human be l ief . It i ss tated that he was sen t to the South by G od S iva h imselfto equa l ize the bal ance of t he southern ha l f of the G lobe

with the northern . Th is pr im i t ive concept ion of th e one

port ion of the earth t i l t i ng up and another si nking downnot cer ta in ly by any geologica l catastrophe— but by the

sheer weight of the h eaven ly hosts gathered on theH ima layan t0p— is too pueri le for ser ious crit i c ism .

probably of th e Carnat ic W ars , as Kat ta Bommu and Iimai Duraio f th e Poligar W ars of Tinneve l ly , these recent legends seemto vie w ith th e older , both in their e laborate charac ter and intheir mythic ingredients . So th e massiveness of a tradit ion byi tself is not a safe guide for th e determinat ion of i ts age .

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 5 5

Secondly , hi s res idences in the South are too numer

ous and far distant one from anoth er to be rece ived as his

t or ical facts . He had h is res idence first on the southern

outsk i rts of-the V i ndhya Mounta i ns , next on th e Mount

Vaid i’

i rya i n the Satpura range, then on t he M alaki'

i ta near

B ad z‘

im i, then on th e Poth iyi l i n the Pandya country, and

l ast ly h e appears to have m igrated beyond the sea to th e

Malaya H i l l i n Sumatra and thence moved on to S iam and

C ambod ia .

1 Is i t poss ib l e for one man to have d isp layed

such cathol i c i ty of taste for a seri es of h i l l res idences

scattered , throughout the Pen insular I nd ia and the

numerous I ndones ian I s lands i n the E ast ? 2

Th ird ly,a l i ke improbabi l ity ari ses from Agastya

offi ciat i ng as the fam i ly pr iest of the Calukya K ing

1 . T h e following is found quoted by M r . G angoly in h is

ar t icle on Agastya publ ished in th e j ourna l of M e M yi /z ie

S oeiety, Vol . ! VI II Tha t Brahmin A gastya, born in th e landof th e A ryans , devoted to th e worship of Shiva , having comeby h is psychic powers in th e land of th e Cambod ians for t h eJ urp ose of worshipp ing th e Sh iva L ingam known as Shr iBh ad reswara and having worshipped th e G od for a long t imea t tained beat i tude .”— Bergaine

’

s S anscr i t I nscr ipt ions of

C/zampa , 1893 , L ! V , p . 360.

2 . Certainly a fee l ing of monotony w i l l creep on th e

reader when h e tr ies to run through th e l ist of th e Agastya residences in th e var ious countr ies . T h e M ahamalaya h i l l in th e

M alaya-D vipa and th e M alayam H i l l in Sumatra come to h im

mere ly as th e second or third edi t ions of M alaki—

i tga and

M alaya of South India . I n shor t , th e pr inc iple fol lowedappears to be that wherever a mountain or h i ll raised i tshead to th e sky A gas tya should be brough t for thw ith and

located there . A h i l l w i thout a Rish i of h is em inence , in th e

v iew of th e myth-makers , i s almost a contradic t ion in

t erms .

5 6 A G A S'

I‘YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

Ki rt iraja of Lata, N . G uzerat , 1 and of the Pandya King of

the far away South .

2 Is i t probab le that in the cond i

t ions of South I nd i a in that ear ly t ime when roads andother conven iences of trave l d i d not ex ist tha t Agastya

could have had such a large c l ientele of roya l ty to

m i n i ster to ?

Fourth ly, j udged by our ord i nary standards,h i s ex

p loits are most ly superhuman . H ere human credu

l ity i s taxed a l i tt l e too much . These performanceshardly serve the purpose of estab l ish i ng h is histor i ca l

character . Their cumu lat ive effect after a l l seems to be

the reve r se .

Fifthly,h i s l abours as the pioneer of Aryan civi l iza

t ion in the South and i n the E ast have to surmount ser i

ous histori ca l d ifficult ies, before they are fi nal ly accepted .

The aryan isat ion of the Maharastra,then of the Kar

nataka , then of the Tami l country, then of the Malayis l ands and l astly of S i am and Cambod ia must each be

assigned a few centuries at the least . N o ord i nary

human being with a l imi ted span of l i fe of a hundred

years or thereabouts coul d have coped with th i s g iganti c

task on a scal e so colossal . N or can i t be pretended

with due respect for t he facts of h i story that the aryan is

at ion of these var ious countr ies was s imu ltaneous and

cou ld be compressed i nto t he l imi ted space of one ident i

cal century. These a re a few of the d iffi cu lt ies present

ed to us by the Agastya trad it ion .

Thus we find that judged by the two fundamenta l

tests referred to at the begi nn ing via , ( i ) unbroken cont i

nuity of trad it ion with the past and ( i i) absence of i nheren t

1 . Vid e th e j ourna l of fil e M ytnie S oeiet y, Vol . ! VI II ,p . 68.

2 . Vid e S innamanur plate where Sundara Pandya is

referred to as Agastya Sisya .

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58 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

which the soci a l forces had to work the ir way out for theaccompl i shment of the ir task set by the communal or

national wi l l . The anci ent hi story of almost every

country i s fi l l ed with heroes . But to understand such

heroes ar igh t depends l arge ly on th e way i n wh i ch thei r

l i fe-h i story i s approached and studi ed . The appearance

of the sc ient i fi c method in history,supersed ing the

anc i en t art i st ic one, i ntroduces a new angle of vi sion

and with it a new valuat ion of hi stor ica l data. Where the

pre-scientific recorder of facts l a i d too much stress onone human sp iri t embod ied i n a hero

,as descending upon

human i ty from a sphere of i ts own ,th e sc ient ific h i stor i an ,

grown perhaps a l i tt l e imperv ious to the promptings of

hero-worsh i p, tr i es to d issect that sp ir i t and read therei n

the react ions to i t s env ironment, to the pecu l i ar s tresses

and pu l l s wh ich had pl ayed about it and helped i t ontowards it s deve lopment into a ful l-blown personal ity .

’

Science is not b l i nd wonder but i t is adm i rat ion bui lt onpos i t ive analyt i c knowledge . I t wi l l unti e the strands of

a rope to i ts l ast fi lament to understand it ar ight before

adm ir i ng i t . I n judging the nat ional events of a t ime far

1 . A s Theodore M erz h as so wel l shown in th e four thvolume of h is monumental work of th e Synthet ic mode of t e

garding organisms , men and inst i tut ions , not as single things ,self-contained and complete in themse lves , but as mere ly nodesor meet ing points of all th e forces of th e wor ld ac t ing and re

act ing in unl imited t ime and space . — W i l l iam M cD ougal l’

s

G r oup M ind’ p . 2 .

Peop le are always talking about or iginali ty but whatdo they mean ? A s soon as we are born , th e wor ld beginsto work upon us , and this goes on to th e end . A nd , af ter a l l ,

what can we cal l our own excep t energy , st rength and

w i l l ? I f I could give an account of al l that I owe to greatpredecessors and contemporar ies , there would be but a smallbalance in my favour

”— G oethe ’s L i terary E ssays (Sp ingarn’s

trans lat ion) pp . 25 6-257 .

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA N D 59

r emoved from ours , no doubt the m i nd , not bei ng i n

possess ion of th e socia l factors of t hose by-gon e“

t imes, i s

d i sposed to catch hol d of a he i o, rea l or imaginary , here

and there , and ascr i be to h im al l the events of a part ien

l ar epoch , wh ich have to be somehow accoun ted for . Th is

h anker i ng after the creat ion of he roes may be arti st ical ly

sat i sfy ingand even pra iseworthy i n i ts own way but must

impede the growth of a true sc ient ific hi story i n our land .

Applying th is pr inc iple of cr it ic ism to th e Agastya

t rad it ion in South I nd ia and Further Ind ia , we find

tha t the burden sought to be placed i s too vast even

for th e At lantean shoulders of a n Agastya'

to bear .

If he were a h istorica l figure, as some are d isposed to

contend , h i s works"

shou ld be judged by the ordi nary

canon s of h istOr ic cr i t i c i sm. A nd what was h is work in

Sout h India an'

d'

outside ? As a l ready stated,i t is not h i ng

l es s than the introduction of Aryan knowledge and cu l

ture, Aryan bel iefs and customs, Aryan re l igion and phi losophy, i n the Peni nsu lar I nd ia from the Vindhyas to Cape

Como'

r i n,i n the whol e group of I ndonesian Is lands and

in Siam and Cambod ia st i l l farther E ast . E ven on th e

suppos it ion that he was on ly the orig inator,the i n it i ator

of t he movement, i n a l l th ese Countri es and not t he l ater

a rch itect of the works i n ' different area s, one has st i l l to

admi t that the aryan isat ion of a l l these countr i es was

start ed simu ltaneously'

and should be compressed into the

short space of a sage ’ s l i fe- t ime, say, a hundred or a

h undred and fi fty years at the most . W'

ou ld any student

of h istory stand by the impl i cat ions of th i s astound ingadm iss ion ? E ven th e convers ion of the D andakaranya

i n to a habitab l e country for the Aryan colon ists shou ld

have taken up two centur i eson a moderate ca l cu lat ion .

And another two centur ies for t he Karnataka countr i es

to be aryan ised before Agastya cou ld th ink of set ting

h is foot i n the Tami l l an d . I s i t conceivab le th at

60 A G A S T r A [N T H E T A M IL LA ND

Agastya cou ld ever have come to the Tami l l an d

l eav i ng beh ind h im such a broad bel t of terr itory as

th e D andakaranya and th e Karnataka peop led by al i en

tr i bes without first th i nk ing of aryan i s i ng them and secur

i ng there i n a firm base for h is further progress ? I fcolon isation were h is mot ive , these forest regions offeredh im l arger faci l i t ies t han the populated ar e a of the Tam i l

region . I f on the other hand,he acted the part of a mere

mi ss ionary to br i ng t he l ight of h is knowledge to th e

Tam i l i ans, he m ight be supposed to have come direct to

t he Pandya country . But the trad it ion that seated h im

i n the M alaki'

i ta range near Badam i i n the Kanarese

coun try contrad icts th is suppos i t ion . Accord ingly we

have,

to assume that Agastya moved to t he southern reg ion

stage by stage . I n th is scheme , lh owever , h is arriva l atPoth iyi l wou ld be de layed by four or five centur i es , at th e

least . Cou ld Agastya have l ived so long T o meet th is

difficu lty , we have to assume e ither that Agastya was not

an ord inary morta l or that there shou ld have been many

Agastyas to carry on the work of aryan i sat ion . The

former assumpt ion removes the quest ion from the pa l e of

h istory and the latter contrad icts trad it ion . A l l th is

d iffi cul ty is due to the champions ofAgastya tryi ng to mix

up two Opposi ng v i ew- points,the myth ica l and the

scient ific . In j udging of the h istor i c i ty of Agastya , e l ementary canons of histori c cri t ic i sm demand that noth i ngof th e imposs ib i l i t i es and improbab il it ics of myth i c

characters shou ld be imported there in to vi t i ate our

conc lus ion .

The upshot of the d iscuss ion regard ing the h istoric ity

of Agastya th en comes to t h i s : that the aryan i sat ion of th e

d ifferen t countr i es ofSouth I nd ia can i n no way be ascribed

to one common poi nt of t ime but must be spread over a

few centur ies and that Agastya,i f h e were a h istori c charac

ter,could not have l ived a l l that t ime to see h is work

A GA ST YA I N T H E T A M IL LA ND 6 1

even begun in t hose countri es . H e shou ld have been

long ago gathered to h i s forefathers before the later stages

of the aryan isat ion work cou ld be sai d to have been even

started .

Whatever may be h is h istor i c i ty in the Rg Véd ic

I nd ia of o ld , i .e .,i n the Punj ab or i n N orth I nd ia, h is

trans lat ion to th e Poth iyi l of the South i s a myth pure

and s imple and cannot be accepted as a fact i n the pr imi

t ive h istory of t he Tam i l i ans . N ot on ly does it not square

w ith the known facts of South I nd ian L i terature and

H i s tory but i t cont rad i cts them i n many v ita l part icu l ars .

I t may still be contended that l i ke Romu lus of old,

who founded Rome, Agastya m ight beA gastya— A S emi considered as a sort ofsemi -h istor i c per‘B i st orte Per ~

sonage .sonage . H e might be taken as one of

the pr imi t ive heroes of ant iqu ity,whose

features, though dimmed and d istorted by tradit ion , havest i l l a ri ng of rea l i ty about th em . If h e cou ld not be

brough t before th e foot- l ights of h istory, he might at leastbe c lassed with those pre-h is tor i c figures who haveworked at the foundat ions of

,

a nat ion ’ s cu l ture .

Th is, i t may be conceded, i s a perfect ly l egit imate hypo

th es is . On th e stage of Aryan h istory or pre-h i story th e

sage fi l ls a part, wh i ch no h istorian would be d isposed todeny . If he had been l eft w ithout d isturbance i n th e

Ved ic mi l ieu or i n the pe riod to wh ich Ramayana has abear ing, his character wou ld not h ave suffered . But l ater

myth-makers,wi th the strong in st i nct of hero-worsh i p in

t hem, wou ld not a l low h im to rest there . He should be

resurrected and brought again on another stage and that

a l so at a far subsequent period to act anot her drama of

momentous importance . T he on ly d ifficu l ty h ere is ,one

of chronology— the necess ity of squar i ng the facts of one

i nd ividua l’ s l i fe-t ime with those of the cu l tura l per iods

‘

of

many nat ions i n I nd ia and outs ide . The zea lous labours

6 2 A G A S T YA’

~ I N'

I H E T A M IL LA ND

of the mythologists h ave on ly gone to make a pr imitive .

h istor i ca l character , on ly l ess and l ess h istori ca l down th eages , to t he very ve rge of h is los ing that character al together. Their b l ind zea l has done the greatest d isservice

to t he anc ient sage, whose very exi stence has thereby

come to be doubted . In the l imi ted v i ew of cons ider i ng

l iterature as th e standard for a i r iv ing at theciv i l i zat ion ofa nat ion

,indeed it i s a far cry from the RgVéd i c L itera

ture wh i ch cluste rs about B . C . , to.B . C . to

Tami l L i terature which gathers round 100 A . D . H ow

cou ld a s ingle character of th e pr imi t ive h istory of these

nat ions touch both these e nds ? Th is h iatus in chronologycan be remed ied on ly by suppos ing that there were more

Agastyas at work than we are awa re of. Apar t from th e

Rg Ved ic Agastya and the Agastya of the Ramayana

period , we require at l eas t four more Agastyas to have

begun the aryan isat ion of the Karnat ic country,of

T amilakam,of the I ndones ian I s les , and ofCambod i a . Is

i t a rat iona l hypothes is tomake that one part i cu lar fam i lyshou ld h ave specia l ly given b i rth to a series of deseen

dants on whom alone , ofothers , the duty of the aryan isat ion

of the southern region devo lved ? Or were there many

fam i l ies ofAgastyas or many ind ividual s wi th a mere acci

dental coi n c idence in the i r names ? W‘ou l d it not be more

rat iona l to ascr i be thecont inu ity of the trad it ion to the

un ity of the name ‘Agastya’

wh ich had struck roo t i n thepopu lar imagi nat ion by the labours of myth makers and

myth -preachers rather thanto the un ity of t he fami ly from

wh ich hal f a dozen p i otagani sts of cu lture shou ld be

der ivedWe have now arr ived at th e last s tage towhich the

progress of though t i n th is sub j ectshou ld inev i tably take .us

'

. Schol ars who

fee l that the Agastya prob l em i n South

I nd ian H i story br i st l es with many insurmountable difficulties havetr i ed tomod ify the hypothes is not a l i tt le to

A gM Ya— an A l la:

gori cal ch aracter .

A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND 63

reconc i l e it to cert a in stubborn facts . They rea l i se that a

h istor ica l Agas tya in V i ew of the s tupendous vo lume of

work that fal l s to h is lot— not i n one country but i n many,not i n one per iod but i n many— i s absolute ly indefensi b l e .

St i l l to save the s i tuat ion they b y to read i nto th e events

of th e aryan i s ing epoch a dom i nan t idea l , a persistent

note , runn ing through th em a l l . Thus South I ndian

aryan isat ion becomes a beaut i fu l long-drawn -o ut al l e

gory in the ir hands and i n such a poet i c Vi ew of th e

who le process the crit i c i s prec l uded from demand ing

the ex ist ence of a centra l h istori c persona l ity . We have to

take Agastya as ne ither more nor l ess than the embod i

ment of the idea l of the Aryan nat ion in the i r work of

spread ing thei r cu l ture and knowledge to d ifferent coun

tr ies of the South . This new school may urge that th e

Agastya legend need not be taken as treat ing of sober

facts of h istory to be thrust i nto a str ict chrono logica l

frame-work but must be viewed as th e express ion of a

gen era l ized type of act iv i ty wh i ch the Aryan colon i sts

had been pursui ng i n the southern reg ions . Coul d not th e

spir it of Agastya— even after h i s bod i ly d i ssol ution— be

taken as an imat ing h is fol lowers and dr ivi ng them on to

the accompl ishment of the great task to wh ich he had

first set h is han d W h o wi l l ever th ink of controverting

th is figurat ive way of i nterpret ing South I nd ian H i story

I t i s far from t he purpose of th is paper to d isturb the

compl acency of those wh o be l ieve that

the sage Agastya l ives to th i s day i n th e

Poth iyil Mount and rema ins i nv is ib l e to ord inary morta ls ;

nor does i t aim to convert anot her group wh i c h amuses

itse l f by pouri ng the new wine of sci ent ific h i story into th e

old bott l es of mythologic trad it ion and imagines th at the

cause of bot h H i story and Tradit ion i s somehow served

th erebv . N e i ther of th ese is in the l east troubled by th e

oft-repeated taunt of the West th at the I nd ians have no

Conclusion.

4 A GA S '

TYA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

h i stor i cal sense and discrim inat ion . But fortunate ly for

t he reputat ion of I nd ia th ere is a numerous and growing

band of I nd ian scholars, who do not fl i nch fromapp ly ing the modern cri t i ca l methods

'

for the construet ion of a sc i ent ific h istory of the i r past . T o th is n ew and

influent ia l c l ass, the pos it ive facts and deduct ions, I 'have

h ere i n advanced about an ancien t chapter i n the h i story

of th e Tam i l i ans,are commended for its cons iderat ion

and judgment . The l ate M r . V incent Smi th wrote

Attent ion has been concentrated too long on th e North ,on Sanscri t books and on I ndo-Aryan not ions . I t i s t ime

that due regard shou ld be pa id to t he N on-Aryan e lement . ”

1 nee d scarcely add that the present is an attempt to carry"

out t he wishes of that scholar i n a sub j ect wherei n

i ndependent N on-Aryan test imony i s imperat ive and

shou ld make itse l f heard .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

6 6 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

earl ier extended s ignificat ion rece ives cons iderab le support

from the fact that the k ingdom of Aio i (A ayi) , the Pot h i

yi l ch ieftain in P tol emy’ s days

,compr i sed not merely th e

count ry adjoi n ing the present -day Poth iyi l but extendedfar to the nor th and west as far as M elkynda (th e

N e lkynda of the Per ipl i i s) , the N i rkunram or N i ra

nam near Kottayam i n th e northern d istr ict of T ravan

core . M r . Cunningham in h is G eogr aphy of A ncien t

Ind ia (p . 552 ) states that, i n the Chino—japanese map

of I nd ia , the a lternati ve name of M alayakfi ta, the

southern port ion of the G hats,i s given as Ha i-an

men,wh ich suggests a connect ion with Ptol emy's A ioi .

Further,th i s ex t ended ea r l i er s ign ificat ion of t he term

‘Potli iyi l’ serves to give us the correct derivat ion of th e

name, bes ides shedding some l ight on the pol i t ica l d iv i

s ions of T amilakam i n the early centuri es . I t is clear that

i t or igi na l ly meant a common place , ly ing unappropri ated

by any one,though latterly i t came to mean a p la ce of

pub l ic resor t or meet ing as wsérp u'

i . l t formed probably

a lso the sheep or cattl e range of a tribe of shepherds and

cowherds known as Pothuva r . As th is range of h i l ls

(M alayam) ran through the heart of the terr i tor i es of th e

three Tami l Sovere igns of that period (Chéra, Chol a and

Pandya) and separated the ir respect ive sphe res of rule,

i t was considered by them a common belt of h i l l - region

not belonging to any one king exclus ive ly . A s Aioi , t he

ch i efta in of a h i l l or forest region , was the ear l i est occupant

t ion of that name . F urther , t he M ok i'

i r referred to in one of M amfilanar’s

stanz as (A kam 251 ) as the cap i tal of th e ch ief W hose recalcit ranc'

y is sa id tohave brought about th e Mauryan invasion is not different , I shou ld think ,

from Ptolemy’

s‘M agour

’ which is stated to be an inland ci ty in the Paral iaof the S éretai (Cholas) . Mokfir thus fal ls outside the Pandya country. But

here a lso D r . S . K . A iyangar seems to have been misled by M ahémaho.

pédhyaya Swaminatha A iyar’s erroneous i dent ificat ion of t h e p lace in h is

introduct ion to his P ufami n fin e as a town s ituate in the Pég dyan terr itory.

\Vheth er the term Pothiyi l occurring in th is s tanz a refers to a hill at al l is

high ly doubtful . But that need not be gone into at p resent .

A PPENDI ! I 6 7

of the lands on both s ides of the G hats (the vi l l age

Aykkudi i n the Shencottah taluq on the eastern s ide

of the G hats wi l l test i fy to A ioi’

s connect ion with

th e eas t) , he seems to have appropriated the name and

cal led h imse lf the ch iefta i n of Poth iyil a nd i t is

more than l ike ly tha t h is t r i b e was also known as th e

Pothuvar . This terr i tory was afterwards merged i n the

Pandya ki ngdom and the Pandyas then came to be dist in

gu ish ed i n l i teratu re as the‘lords of the Poth iyi l

’

. At that

t ime the Pandya country covered a lmost the whol e ofTravancore and Tinnevel ly and Madura . But subsequen th i stori ca l v i ci ss itudes have brought about a shr i nkage i n

the i r dom i n ions and l ed to a correspondi ng rest ri ct ion in

the sign ificat ion of th e term ‘Poth iyil’ a lso. In later t imes

,

the western l i ttoral of the ancient Chéra dom i n ion became

Malayalam- speaki ng and fel l under the ru le of numerousloca l Ch i efta ins , who wrested from the Pandyas by far th egreater por t ion of the Poth iyi l mounta ins and the ir ad

joi n ing regions . The Tam i l n ame ‘Poth iyi l’ consequent

ly fe l l i n to di suse amongst them. The Pandyas, the solesurviving member of th e anc i ent Tam i l monarchs

,then

had to content themselves with the possession of the

southernmost peak of the chain , which accordi ngly came

to be known as the Poth iga i . Thus Ptol emy ’ s map and

the Ch ino-j apanese maps have made i t c l ear that th e

Poth iyil of the anc ient Tam i l poets about the ear ly

centur i es of th e Christ ian era i s qu i te d ifferent from th e

Poth igai h i l l of the present day.

The fol lowing three l i nes from stanza 2 of Pam

ndnt’

t ru ,

cg/réfi tux-Beam egg/£75 ; affim/é g

GOQQ aflmé fi rb Ing ramG umbG

’s /nl . Lawtugou

'

i QL MQIU GOLZ) G u nairQQ

to confi rm th e inte rpretat ion I haVe here ingive to the te rm -Poth iyil . In o these l i nes th ?

68 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

Poet inst itutes a compa r i son between th e H imalayas and

t he Poth iyi l mounta i n . The H ima layas , here , sure ly does

not refer to a peak. It refers to th e whol e of a con

tinuous cha in ofmountai ns . N atu ral ly, a poet , who wants

to b ring i n another mounta i n for compar ison wi th th i s ,i s not l ikely to pitch upon a sol i ta ry peak or promontory

i n a cha in of hi l l s i n Southern I nd ia , however sac red or

otherwise important i t may be . H e must be taken to have

had before h i s min d another range of mountai ns i n the

south wh ich would stand compar ison with the northern

range . Thus ear ly l itera ry usage also makes i t pla i n

that Poth iyi l refers to a cha in of mounta i ns and not to

a part i cula r peak i n i t, as it came to s ign i fy i n later t imes .

I may also advert i n th is connect ion to the gram

matical di ffi cu lty i n interp ret i ng Poth iyi l’ as a common

bel t of moun tai nous count ry unapprop r i ated by the

t h ree Tami l ki ngs of those days . Though the te rmQu rrfi ufléy l ike so many other terms i n Tam i l end ing in

Qe

‘v s ign ifies a p lace name, th e phonet i c ru les of la te r

g rammar ians state that Qu rrg-l @ e

’

v could become on ly

G u ng aSls'

v and not Qu efi uflé}. T o escape th i s d i l emma

D r . Caldwel l sp l i t up the word i nto Qumfi - l—Qév andinterpreted the name as referring to a p lace of concea l

m ent . Apart from the fanc i ed n ece ss ity of concealment- from whom or what D r. Caldwe l l h imsel f does not say- it i s very un l ikely that a metaphor shoul d have been re

sorted to for nami ng a mounta in where such terms as waspuSlé) or M afia) would have answered the purpose even more

sui tab ly and with absolute direc tness . The d ifficu l ty

wh ich seems to have driven D r . Ca ldwel l to thi s fanc i fu l

d erivat ion , however, cou ld be got over by the suppos it ionthat the term i tsel f arose at a very anci ent period when

the Tam i l speech was i n an amorphous cond it ion as

every spoken dialect should be expected to be an d when

the T ami l phonet i c ru l es themse lves had not acquired

A PPENDI ! I 69

that regu la r i ty and rigid i ty wh ich late r on they came to

assume i n set grammat ica l treati ses . E ven these later

grammar i ans had to show deference to such usage as i s

seen i n G‘u zr gi—fuiléi , G

’s rmfle

‘v, e tc. ,

and take it under the wing

of what they are pleased to cal l @wé a sm i i @u rra9 coveri ng

forms of words wh ich i n t he i r op i n ion though not strict ly

g rammat i ca l are yet sanctioned by usage.

APPE ND I! II .

TE ST IMON Y OF SCHOL ARS RE D RAV ID IAN

C IV IL ISATION .

After giv i ng an accoun t of the Aryan colon ization of

th e M arath a country , D r . B h andarkar wr ites as fol

lows

B ut farthe r south and on the ea stern coast , though

they penetrated there and commun icated thei r own c iv i l iz ation to the aborigi na l races

,i nh ab i t ing those parts, they

were not ab le to i ncorporate them thoroughly into thei r

own soc i ety and to root ou t the i r l anguages and the i r

c iv i l i zat ion . On the contrary, the A ryas had to l earn the

l anguages pecu l iar of those races and to adopt a port ion

at l east of the i r c iv i l i zat ion . Thus the Kanarese,th e

Telugu, and the Tam i l and the other languages now

spoken i n Southern I ndi a are not derived from the Sans

krit but belong altogether to a diffe rent stock , and hence i t

i s a l so th at Southern Art i s so d i fferent from the Northern .

The reason why the result of the A ryan irrupt ion was

so d ifferen t i n Southern I ndi a from what i t was i n theN orth, appears to be that when the A ryans penetrated to

the South there exi sted a l ready wel l -organ ised commun i

t i es and kingdoms.”— H istory ofD ecca n, p . 10.

james F ergusson'

s S tudy of Ind ia n A r ch i tecture

conta in s the fol lowing reference about th e D ravid ian

Arch i tecture

H ere is a rep resentat ion of a templ e, at Badam i, on

the l imi ts between the northern and southern arch itectu

ra l prov i nces. Any one at al l fami l i a r with the subj ect

wi l l at once recogn i se the difference between the two.

A PPENDI ! I I 7 1

That ou the l eft is a stra ight- l i ned low pyram id , d ivi ded

i nto storeys,and adorned wi th p i last ers, that on th e r ight

i s curvi l i near,with no t race of storeys or p i lasters and

i nstead of th e dom i cal form that crown s the one i t term i

n ates i n a convent iona l f ru i t- l ike ornamen t . I know t he

peopl e wh o erected the first must have been speaki ng

Tam i l or some of the a l l i ed languages when work ing

upon i t and that those wh o erected the ot her were speak

ing B engalee or some tongue with a strong infus ion of

S anskrit i n i ts compos it ion” (pp . 1 1

From a study of the South I ndi a n alphabets and

l anguages D r . Burne l l comes to th i s conc lusion

The deve lopment of the ear ly stages of the G rantha

c haracter i s very d ifficul t to t race, for the reason that theN or th I nd i an c iv i l izat ion

,when it got far down in the

Pen insu la as the Tam i l country , found there a peopl e

a l ready in possess ion of the ar t of wri t ing and apparent ly

a cu lt ivated language . Thus Sansk r i t does not regu late

the Tami l Phonet ic system nor did i t become more to th e

peopl e than a foreign l e arned l anguage .“— E lemen ts ofS outh Ind ia n Pa la eogr aphy.

Prof. E . J. Rapson wri tes thus“This exten s ion i s everywhere ma rked by the spread

of Sanskri t and i t s d ia lects . I t rece ived a check in

Southern Ind ia,where the ol der c ivi l izat ion and Ian

guages rema in predomi nant even to th e present day .

A ncient I t d z'

a , p . 9.

Apropos of the D rav i d ian race i nhab i t i ng South

I ndi a, D r . A . C . Haddon wr i tes as fol lows :

Apar t from l anguage,there i s a gene ra l cultu re

wh ich i s character i st i c of those peoples and after t he

e l im i nat ion of t he pre-D ravid ians a rac ia l type emerges

with finer features than those of th e abor igines and th e

conc lusion seems ev i dent that th is was due to an imm i

72 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

grant people who reached I ndia before 2000 B. C .

The Races ofMan .

In h is E ar ly H istory of Ind ia , D r . V incent A . Sm i th

wr ites as fol lows :“The anci en t ki ngdoms of th e far south, a l though

r i ch and populous, i nhabi ted by D ravid ian nat ions not

i nfer ior i n cu l ture to t he ir A ryan r iva l s i n the north were

ord i nar i ly so secluded from the rest of the c ivi l ized

worl d i nc ludi ng N orthern Indi a,that the i r affai rs re

ma in ed h i dden from th e eyes ofother nat ions ; and nat ive

annal i sts be i ng lacking, the ir hi story, prev ious to th e

year 800 of the Chr i st ian E ra , ha s a lmost whol l y

perished (p .

S ir Wal ter E l l iot adds t he fol lowing test imony

But al though the D ravi d ians were not the ear l i e st

sett l ers,and although they h ave not bee n exempt and

that i n no smal l degree,from externa l i nfluences , i t i s

from them that the c iv i l ized part of th e D akka h derives

its character i st ic features in language and i nst itut ions .

Among the l atter may espec ia l ly b e not i ced its monetary

system and the coins i n whic h i t is expressed .

"— Cotns of

Souther n Ind ia (p .

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7 4 A GA ST YA I N T H E T A M IL LA ND

anteceden ts . So far as these ch aracters of anc ient Indian

h istory are concerned, chronology and geography, which

form together the i ron frame-work of h i story, have some

t imes been twi sted out of a l l recogn it ion, i f not whol ly

sp l intered and thrown together in to an indist i ngu i shable

dust-heap. T wo facts, to begin with , must give us food

for serious refl ection . Few wi l l d i spute that, i n the fi rst

p lace, the phenomenon of plu ral pe rsonal it ies appearing

under one i dent ical name seems to occur f requently more

in the h istory of I ndia than in that of any other country

in the wor l d and,i n the second place , more in the h istory

of anci ent I ndia than of modern Indi a. Why shou l d th i s

be so T he explanation,I th ink

,l i es not somuch in the

pecu l i ar h istor i ca l accidents of I ndia as i n certai n psycho

logica l character ist ics of its people, wh o react on the

trad it ional mater ia ls of ant i qu ity i n a manner pecul i ar to

th emselves . I t is very necessary to bear th is i n m i nd .

As a basi s for my observat ions, I subjo in here a few

extracts from H . H . Wilson ’ s E ssays on S anskr i t L i tera

ture, Vol . I I I and M r. P . T. Sri n ivasa A iyangar’

s H is

tory of the Tami ls.

E ssays on Sa nskr i t L i tera ture, Vol . I II .

P. 1 75 . Re more than one Vararuch i

T hat th e name of Vararuch i has in like manner been app l ied to

different individuals migh t fai rly be inferred from the pract ice thus described ;but we have in this case a remarkable confi rmat ion of our conjecture an d

find from the varying statements of se veral writers , that two , if not th reepersons of this denominat ion are celebrated in the l i terary history of the

H indus.

”

P . 189. Re more than one Sankaracharya

T he followers of M adhwacharya in T uluva seem to have at temptedto reconci le these cont radictory accounts by supposing h im to have been bornt hree t imes first at S ivu l i in T uluva about years ago, aga in in Malaba rsome centuries later and final ly at Padukach aytra in T uluva no more than600 years since ; th e latter assert ion be ing intended evident ly to do honour tot hei r own founder , W hose date that was , by enabl ing h im to t r iumph over

Sankara in a supposit ious cont roversy .

”

A PPENDI ! I I I 75

H istory of the Tami ls.

P . 30. Re more than one Ravana

Among othe rs h e (Kértavirya) defeated a R i vana , k ing of Lankaand imprisoned h im in M ah ismat i . T his R i vana was certainly not th e

e nemy of Ramachandra who l ived at least five hundre d years later . Hence ,th e R i vana who was impr isoned by Kart av irya must have been an ear lierR aja of that name or perhaps th e guess of D r . Sten Know is t rue that then ame R i vana was but the resul t of t h e Sansk r i t i z at ion of T am il I raivan

and merely meant a T ami l King.

”

Take along with th i s the foot-note

T here was a‘st i ll earlier R i vana who fought with A né'

ranya , k ingof A y6 dhya .

”

P . 46 Re more than one ValmikiProbably this V i lmiki of the VI I Century B .C . rev ised t he Rami

yana of Valmik i Pracétasa in class ical Sansk ri t and worked into i t the conc ept of Rama

’s be ing an incarnat ion of V isnu .

”

P . 5 1 Re more than one HanumanH anumfi n himse lf is said to have been th e e ighth great Sanskrit

grammar ian but th is pe rhaps refers to a much late r H anumén .

”

P . 54. Re more than one AgastyaT he first A gastya , husband of L opémudra , a pr incess of Vidarba ,

was a contemporary of A larka , k ing of Kas i , who l ived a l it tle more than20 genera t ions before Rama . T hus the ear l i est A gastya l ived in the regionimmediate south of the V indhyas .

”

a:

But t h e A gast ya whom Rama met two y6janas fi om Panchavati

could not have been t he first A gastya , who l ived about four centuries beforeRama

’s t ime , but must have been one of the later A gastyas for this A gastya

of Rama’s day l ived near the G édévari , near which in h is asrama , Rama

s tayed on h is way south>l<

After referri ng to Agastya ’ s res idence on t he top of

the M a laya H i l l (Coorg) the author wr itesHence this must have been inse rted by a later poet who l ived aft er

t he A gastyas h ad proceeded further south than th e A gastya of Rama’s

t ime and set tled in the T ami l country.

”

>l< >l<

I n the Epic as in the Pur i nas , al l th e A gastyas are spoken of as one

A gastya R ai , though di fferent A gastyas resi ded in different p laces at differentt imes .

"

76 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

These extracts a re enough to conv i nce the reader of

the exi sten ce of pecul i ar difficul t i es besett i ng the path of

a h istor i an of anci ent I nd ian L i terature and trad it ions . I f,from the shores of such l i te rature and tradit ions, spectra l

forms of numerous Valmi ki s,Hanumans , Ravanas an d

Agastyas are thus found to accost the hi stor i an,sure ly he

is apt to lose h is bear i ngs in the wide expanse of anc i en t

Ind ian h istory un less he takes spec ia l care to keep a st ri ctcri t i cal watch over th is brood and ban ish such of them

from h isk en as are mere wi l l -o- the-wi sps.

Maki ng th e fu l lest a l lowance for th e poss i b i l i ty and

even probab i l i ty of two or more h i stor i cal personages

goi ng under one proper name, the question before the

h istori an , espec ia l ly anci ent h istor ian , i s to see whether,

even after a rigorous cri t i ca l exam i nat ion , th ere ex is t facts

wh ich would warrant h is assumi ng for the explanation a

different personal i ty wi th an i dent i cal prope r name , andnot to rush at once to th is handy exped ient of mult ip ly ingpersonal i t ies . Vt

’

e have seenhow Agastya h as come to

figure i n the ancient h istory ofmany countr i es i n southern

Asia and i n many d ifferent centu r ies . Are we then to

assume the exi stence of a sepa rate Agastya for each count ry

an d also for each century in each country? Th is procedure

does not seem to take i nto account the wel l-known fac t

that many characters have been created by poet ic imagina

t ion or by myth ic fancy or by rel igious megaloman i a .

Are we to give to these spurious b irth s a loca l hab itation

and a name ’ by adm i tt i ng them i nto the gal l ery of his

tor ic personages Turni ng to histori cal cha racte rs them

se lves,i s i t not a fact that l ater trad it ional ists have sh i fted

some of these from the i r str ict h i stori ca l sett ing and made

them play many di fferent parts, i n d i fferen t pl aces, and at

diffe rent t imes An impulse to bl i nd hero-worsh ip i t is

that furn ishes the ground for so w renching a character

f rom i ts proper h istorical mi l ieu and introduc i ng i t am idst

A PPEND I ! I I I 77

new surroundings and condi t ions . Are we , he re al so, to

r esort to mu l t iplyi ng the original character as occas ion

requi res ? Then aga i n,those who resort to th is dev ice

exhib it an amaz i ng credu l i ty i n the acceptance of even

fict ions as facts . N o doubt, the common man i s credu

lous by nature and acts on the pr i n ciple that un less a

statement is p roved false it must be accepted as true . But

that can hard ly be t he sci ent ific frame ofm i nd . Un less and

unti l a propos i t ion is p roved true i t has no credent ials for

acceptance . If the strength of h istory l i es i n its crit i cal lytested and carefu l ly-ascerta ined facts , i s not the h i stori an

under the necess i ty of rigorous ly test i ng h is facts before

he tr i es to ra ise any theoret ic st ructure on them or seeks

to expla i n them. F or i nstance,wh i l e the ex istence of

Ravana h imself as a h istor ica l character is not above

doubt, what conce ivab l e purpose can it serve to create twoor three Ravanas Wh i le a l l the recens ions of the ex ist ing

Ramayana text i s i n c lass ical Sanskr i t,why should a

Ramayana i n Vedi c Sanskr i t be hypostas ized and anothervalmiki created to become the author of that hypotheti ca l

Ramayana ? A long with th i s exh ib it ion of primi t ive cre

dul ity’

on the part of some i nvest igators there i s a lso a

tendency to exh ib i t undue veneration towards ancient

trad it ion and l iterature and to expect from them more than

what the l i fe and character i st i cs of the possessors of such

tradi t ion and l i teratu re would warrant us to expec t. I f i n

actua l l i fe we come across impostors and oth cr unscrupulous

characters, why could they not i nt rude now an d then i nto

the wor l d of l etters a l so A re there not i nstances of de l i

berate forgeries comm i tted i n the name ofwel l-known

authors i n the l i terary h istory of every'

country and at al l

t imes ? Simp ly because a statement gets embodi ed in al i terary work, does i t become sacrosanct on that accountS hou ld the crit i ca l method relax its r igour and go to s leepwhen that s tatement ha i l s us from ant iqu ity ? On the otherhand, the more an invest igator recedes i n to the past th e

78 A GA ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA NE

greater shou ld be h is care and c ircumspect ion in

sati sfy i ng h imse lf whether every fact r i ngs true or not. I f

once that att i tude is relaxed , h istory is l i ke ly to become

more a fa iry ta le than a str i ct ly sc i ent ific record of

carefu l ly- tested facts . S t i l l , i t may be urged that there are

cases where the assumption of more than one h istori c

character goi ng under one i dent i cal name seems to benecessary . Such an assump t ion , however, can be resort

ed to only in cases where str i ct h istori cal conditions

vouch for i t . The creation of a dozen Agastyas to answer

a l l the differences brought about by h istor i c cond it ion s

and then to formulate the existence of a fami ly of Agast

yas to which al l of them are to be traced is scarce ly

a j ust ifiab l e procedure . I n fact , t h i s delectab l e method of

creat ing a number of Agastyas , Ravanas and Hanumans

and of an equa l number of fami l i es to go under such

gene r i c proper names is too vague and indefin it e for

pract ica l app l i cat ion . What does th i s fam i ly name connote

in I ndi a D oes i t cover on ly a s imp le fami ly (gens), or

a group (phratry) composed of many fam i l i es , or a

whol e t ribe composed of such groups ? I f gotra names,

such as Atr i,B haradvaja, be cons i dered as fam i l y names,

mi l l ions of th e present - day A ryans cou ld be dist r i buted

under a few gotras and be cons idered as th e Atr is and

B haradvajas of th i s century . But th is would hardly se rve

the purpose of any clear i dent ificat ion of the indivi dua l s

concerned . Thus the gotra name wi l l i n no way serv e our

purpose and need not be resorted to as s ign ifying a defin ite

i ndividual i n any per iod of our history except the first

founder of a part i cu lar gotra . I s i t not a l it t le d isconcert

i ng that proper names i ntended to ident i fy definite i ndi

v iduals should thus be conver ted i nto i ndefin i te generi c

names for uncontrol led and even whims i cal app l i cat ion

In th is connect ion, the attent ion -

of these scholars may

be drawn to a very whol esome pr inciple of sc i ent ific

A PPENDI ! I I I 79

procedure cal led t he Occam’ s R azor . Where one

hypothes is i s suffici ent to explai n adequately a number of

observed facts , i t i s a vi cious sc i ent ific procedure to for

mu late more than one hypothesi s for the same purpose .Applyi ng th is pr i nc ip le to the phenomenon of many

Agastyas appeari ng i n the h istory of different countr i es

and at d i fferent t imes, are we to go on assumi ng the

exi stence of separate Agastyas for each country and for

each century ? Or are we to ascr ibe th e whole pheno

menon to a common psychologi cal character i st i c of

t he races concerned— the strong tendency to hero

worsh i p i ngra ined in them ? I t is very l i kely that th e

first Agastya was a h istor i c character but the sub

sequent Agastyas were a l l the resu lt of popular imagina

t ion catch ing hold of an anci ent hero and spi nn ing

round h im al l sorts of stor i es . W here such a sol i tary

hypothes i s as th i s i s suffic ient to account for al l th e

facts of the case,i s i t not a violat ion of legi t imate sci ent ific

p rocedure to go on creat ing Agastyas ad l ibi /um to sui t

the multi p l i c i ty of h istor i ca l c ircums tances turn ing up

l f anywhere,here i t i s that the necessary prun ing, i ns isted

upon by the old Logici an,shou l d be effected .

The fol lowing observat ions of M r . B h agabat Kumar

G oswam i made i n the introduct ion (pp . xxxi i -xxxi i i)of h is work

,the B h akti Cu l t in A ncien t Ind ia , wi l l , I

think,be of i nterest as bear ing upon the prun ing h e

attempts to do i n the case of Vyasa

W henever a new system of though t arose in H industan , i t. was not

on ly sough t to be base d upon some teaching of the Vedas but th e name of

Vyasa was generally sought to be connected wi th the department of thoughtsome way or other whi le the names of the Ved ic see rs themselves were uti

lised for simi lar purposes wherever necessary and possible . T his was special lyth e case after th e Buddh istic onslaught on Vedicism . Vyasa then figured as

a wr iter of ph i losophical commentary Y ogabhasya , an author of a ph i loso

ph ical system, Brahma S fitra , an author of a Smrti system , Vyasa Smrt i , a

wr iter on pol ity , a writer on A st rology. H e was again claimed as the authorof a ll t he Purénas and to crown al l , the author of the whole of the greatest:

80 A G A ST YA IN T H E T A M IL LA ND

Epic M ahabhar ata . W hen not th e original author , he was often t radit ional lyclaimed as connected some way or other wi th the authors of the other syst ems , who themse lves in most cases bore the sacred names of or claimedsome affi ni ties wi th the old Vedic seers. T o seek therefore to fix a histor icage from some a lleged connection of the name of Vyasa or a Vedic seer i s to

court disaster . W e must leave Veda Vyi sa at about B C . and al lowo ther Vyasas to take care of themse lves .

T o the Vasi sth as,who figure as numerously as the

Vyasas, M r . F . E . Pargiter feel s j ust ified i n giv i ng a

d ifferent treatment . Being comm i tted to the pos i t ion of

finding greater authent i ci ty i n the Ksatria t radit ion than i n

th e Brahman, he is forced to conclude that the later Vas i st haswere as h i stor i ca l as the kings with whom they l ived .

H e i s not di sposed to app ly the prun ing kn i fe to the

r equ is i te extent and grapp les with the Pur i n ic trad i t ions

to ext ract from them some gen ea logi cal fact s for the

c onst ru ct ion of h istory. H ow i n th is hero i c attempt he

gets hopel ess ly entangled i n the l egendary quagm i re wi l l

be seen i f one tr i es to fol low the ident ificat ions and

d i scr imi nat ions of the many Vasisth as he makes i n

pp. 203-2 1 1 of h is work A ncient Ind ia n H istor ica l Tr a

d i tion . H e d ism i sses the fi rst two Vasisthas (the m ind

born son of Brahma and one,the contempora ry of

lkshuwaku) as myth i cal , and consi ders the later Vasisthas

as h istor ical . But when we find these later Vasi sthas

descr i bed as hav i ng most of the character i st i cs attendant

on the ir myth i ca l prototype , we have to doubt the val id ity

of the procedure, adopted by M r . F . E . Pargiter i n the

va l uat ion of the test imony of th e Purani c annal i sts

accept ing it as trustwort hy i n one port ion and rej ect ing

it as enti rely worth l ess i n anoth e r. H ow,for instance

,

coul d each one of the fourth , the fi fth and th e seventh

Vasisthas possess A rundh at i as h i s wife, the A rundh ati,t h e compan ion of the ir myth ical progen itor Much the

saf e r rul e i n such cases would have been to accept al l or

none . Noth i ng i n these regions wi l l enab le us to

d i st i ngu ish between Tweedledum and Tweed l edee . I t i s

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82‘

AG A ST YA IN TH E TAMIL LA ND

L iteratufe . T o e what gotra d id the or igi nal Auvai, th eTami l Po

'

etess, be long ? Or shoul d‘

we resort to some

other method to save t h e h istor ic ity of a l l th e Auvais

figuring i n Tami l l i te rary h i story ? T h e‘truth of the

matter is that M r. Pargiter’

s tenderness towards trad it ions

as a whol e h as, I'

fear , made h im a l itt le too prone to

ascr ibe obj ect ive real i ty even to subj ect ive c reat ions . H e

seems to have whol ly 'expunged the,subj ect iv e factor a s

an agent i n the creat ion of pe rsonal i t i es and perhaps may.

have thought that novel ists are al l of modern growth , the

old‘worl d hav i ng none to show. However, the more we

push our way into ant i qu i ty, th e more are we brough t

i nto contact with an imaginat ion of an unbridled

type . Reason seems to have been a s low growth ofmi l

lenniums of tard i ly accumu lated experience’

and painful

labour. A s against th is , i t was al l easy for imaginat ion to

go to work . Hence i t is that imagination got a start

over s low-developi ng Reason, the resul ts Of which

are v is ib l e even to th is day. Few wi ll doubt th e abstract

probab i l i ty of trad itions conta in ing truth s,but

,when a

l arge masses of them are thrown i nto the me lti ng-pot of a

poet's imaginat ion or overwrought re l igious . fee l i ng or

sectari an pre judice, to expect rea l ity or truth to emerge

therefromunscath ed is to expect th e imposs ib le.

APPEN D I ! IV .

WORKS CON SULTE D .

E NG L ISH .

1 . Prof. M axM ul ler’

s H istory of Ancient Sanscr i tL i tera ture.

-2 . D r . Washburn Hopki ns’

. The G r ea t Epic of Ind ia .

3. D r . B handarkar’

s E a r ly H istory ofD eccan.

4. T he Per iplus of the E ryth razan Sea (M cCrindle’

s

t ranslat ion).

5 . Prof . A . A . M acdone l l’

s H istory ofS anskr it L i tera tur e.

6 . Prof . l he ring’

s Th e E volu tion of the A ryans.7. Ptolemy ’ s G eography ofInd ia a nd Sou thern A sia

(M cCrind le’

s transl at ion).8. Travan core State Manual .‘9. Mr. F . E . Pargiter

’

s Ancient Ind ia n H istor ica l

Trad ition .

10. D r . Ca l dwe l l’ s Compara tive G rammar

’

of theD ra vidian Languages.

1 1 . Prof . S eshagiri Sastri’

s E ssay on Tamil L i terah

" 12 . D r . Bur nett’ s E lements ofSonth Indian Pa laeo

> 13. Prof . E . Rapson’

s Ancient Ind ia . i

14. M r . L . W . King’ s B abylon ian Rel igion and

Mythology.

1 5. D r . V incent A . Sm it h ’ s Ea r ly H istory of Ind ia .

16 . Prof . Wi l l i am M cD ougal l’

s G roup M ind .

1 7 . G oethe ’ s ‘L i terary ,

E ssays'

(Spingarn’ s transla

is. D r. A . c . Haddon ’

s The Races aj Man .

19. The Epigraph ia Ca rna tica , Vol . I I .

20. The j ourna l of the M yth ic Society, Vol . ! V I I I .2 1 . The Cata logue of th e Ori ental Manuscripts L ib

ary, E gmore , Madras.

84 AGA ST YA IN TH E T A M IL L AND

22 . D r . S . K . Aiyangar’

s B eginnings of South Ind ianH istory.

TAM IL.Par ipdtal .

Pa ttuppdttu .

Purandnur u .

Tolktippiyam.

I lakkanakkottu .

Vi rasotiyam.

Tiruvdymoli .

Teva'

ram.

Agandnuru .

J ivakach in tc'

imani .

Ch i lappa t ikdram.

Pa nn irupa ta lam.

Purapporulvenbdmd la i .

Agapporul Vi lakkam.

D ivd lza ram.

Tirnvilayd ta l Purdnam.

‘

Kdnch i Pa ranam.

S ikdla ttipur dnam.

Tdndava r dyaswdmi’

s Works.

Pe’

raka l tiya ttira ttu (Rao S aheb B havanandam

P il la i’

s E d i tion) .

Ka ntapfur dnam .

Kdci tdntam.

Tirukur r d la tta lappur dnam.

Tir uvénka ta tta lappur dnam.

Tirunelvél i tta lappur dnam.

Kudan ta ippur dna ri z.

M ayi la ippura‘

nam .

Ve‘

tci r a nyapur ci nam.

The Chen tami l, Vol . ! I ! .

I N D E ! .

A

A ny i (A ioi) , 66 , 6 7

Academy (F irst Tami l) , 6 , 30

Agandnfifu , 30, 6 5 , 84

Agappor utoi la/eham, 47 , 84

Agast i svaram, 50, 5 1

Agast iyam (Akat t iyam) , 3 , 45Agastyarkfitam, 6 5

Agastyas , 73 , 75 , 76 , 78, 79

Agastyr'

i srama , 5

A hat t iyar , 38

A indh ra School of Sanskr i tG rammar ians , 35

A i tar’

éya B r dhmana , 10, l l

A kat t i , 4

Alarka , 75Alchemy , 38

Alexander th e G reat , 57A lat t ii rkil i r , 31A lvars , 26Amir thaveluttu , 4 1

A nfiranya , 75

Anc ient India , 44, 7 1 , 83Ancient I nd ian H istor ica l

T r ad i t ion , 30, 43, 80, 83

A ndhras , 10, l l , 28, 30

A ngada, 33

Anthmpologists , 9A ranyaka , 1 1

Archaeologists , 9A ruvalars , 28, 30

A rundhat i , 80

Aryan , 1 2 , 14, 18, 19, 28, 29,

58, 70, 72 , 78

A ryanisat ion , 7A ryavarta, 2 , 10

Astrology, 79A t iyfirkkunallfir , 46

A tr i , 78A tankfittfisfin , 35 , 36

A uvais , 81 . 82

A vinayan, 35

Avant i , 1 1Avii r M fi lamiki

‘

lfir , 22Ayikkud i , 6 7

A yfidhya ,75

B

B abyl onian R el ig ion

M ythol ogy, 36 , 83

Badami , 3 , 5 , 55 , 60, 70

Bh ad rabahu , 22

Bhad resvara, 53

Barh inadvipa, 6

B eg innings of S outh

H istory, 6 5 , 84

Benares , 3Bengalee , 7 1

B erars, 1 2

Bergaine , 5 3 , 55B ett igo,

15 , 65 , 83

Bhagabat Kumar G oswami , 79B /zah t i Cul l in A ncient Ind ia ,

79

Bh andarkar , D r . R . G 1 1 , 70,83

B haradwaja , 1 , 78

Bh atth’

raka , 53

Bh avanandam P i llai , Rao Bahadur , 41

Bh rgu , l

Borneo,6

86 IND E !

Brahma , 1 1Brahmans , 23Brahman Culture , 1 5 , 6 5 , 83Brahman Tradit ion ,

80

Brahma Sutra , 79Buddhist , 22, 23, 24, 26 , 79

Burnel l , D r . , 43 , 7 1 , 83

C

Caldwell , D r . 34, 6 5 , 68,83

Cfilukya , 55

Cambodia , 6 , 5 3, 55 , 5 6 , 59, 63

Canopus , l , 1 7Cape Comor in , 50, 59

Carnat ic W ars , 5 4Catalogue of th e Or ientalM anuscr ipts L ibrary ,

Chandra G upta , 22Ch empfit ch éy, 35

C hentamil , 1 5 , 84

Chara , 23, 6 6 , 67Ch i l appaa

’ihar am. 46 , 84

Chinese Trave l lers , 1 3Chino-Japanese map , 6 6 , 6 7

Chfil a, 14, 22 , 23, 6 6

Coins of S outh Ind ia, 72

Compar at ive G r amma r of t/1c

D raoia’ian L anguages , 83

Coorg, 75

Cunningham, 6 6

D

Daksha , 1D aksh inakasi , 3 , 5

D aksh infipa th a, 7 , 5 7

D andaké ranya , 1 3 , 57 , 59, 60

Dasyus , 10D ekkhan , 72

D imyr ike , 6 5

D iodhar am, 47 , 84

Dravidas , 1 1Dravidians , 18, 19, 20, 70, 72D wi rasamudram, 29, 30

E

E ar l y H i story of D eccan ,1 2

,

83

E ar l y H i story of I nd ia , 45 ,72 , 83

E l ements of S outh I nd ian

P a l aeogr aphy, 44, 83

E ll iot , S ir W alter , 72E lut tu , 40

Enisser i M udamosiyar , 18

E n i ri p/21a Carnat zea ,

E ssay on S anshr zt L i ter at i/1 e,

74

E ssay on T ami l L i ter a tur e, 83E ttutoka i , 1 6

E vol ut ion of th e Ar yans , T h e,20, 83

G angs, 1 3G anges , 3, 10, 13, 14G angoly , 5 2, 5 5 , 57 , 83

G eogr aphy of Ant ient Ind ia ,6 6

G eogr aphy of Ind ia and

S outhern A s ia , 83

G eologists , 53G hatodbh ava , 2

G h rat ii ci , 5

G fid i var i , l l , 29,30, 75

G oethe’

s L i ter ary"E ssays , 58,

83

G 6 tama,1

G fitra, 78, 81

G rammar (Tami l , First), 6 , 42

G rantha character , 7 1G r ea t E pic

‘of I nd i a ,

1 1 , 34,

83

G reek W r i ters , 43G r oup M ind , 50, 58, 83

G uz arat , 5 6

H

H addon , A .C 7 1

H ai-ah -men , 6 6

H anuman , 33 , 75 , 76 ,78

H imalaya, 3, 1 4, 54, 68H industan ,H i story of A nci ent S anshrt ’

L i teratur e,

IND E !

H istoryof D eeean’

,

H istory of S ansh r i t L i ter a

tnr e, 14, 83

H istory of the T ami l s, 73 , 74

H opk ins , D r . W ashburn , 34

I cai , 45

I h ering, Prof . , 20, 83

I ksh uvaku , 80

I l ahhanahot tn , 41 , 84

I lvala, 6

Indones ian Is lands , 6 ,59, 6 2

Indra , 5Indus , 13, 1 4IyaL 45

J

Jain , 22 , 23, 24, 26 , 43 , 44, 45

Jai S ingh , 53Jamadagni , 1 , 43James Fergusson , 70, 83Java, 5 2l ivahaeh intdma igi , 46 , 84

J ourna l of th e M yth ic S ociety,

5 2 , 5 5 , 56 , 5 7 , 83

K

Kacca , 1Kékkaipéitiniyan, 35Kal inga , 1 1Kalarambhan , 35

Kalasaja, 2Kalasisuta , 2

K antapnr dnam, 48

Kar ikilar , 3 1Kar tavirya , 75

d i [( dndam, 3 , 48

Kasyapa , 1Katha , 1 1Katta Bommu, 54

Kav’

éra (K ing), 3Kavér i , 3, 29, 33

Karala ,'

29, 30

Khan Saheb ,’

53

Kilé rs , 24_M ax M uller . Profi ,

M egasth enes, 4, 13

87

K ing, L . W 36 , 83

Kir tir‘a’

ja, 56Kish kindha, 33

Kosala, 1 1

Kfittayam, 66Krauncha , 5

Kr ishna, 29, 30

Kr ishnaswamy A iyangar .

S . , 6 5 , 66

Kr ta Age , 43

Ksatr iya , 80

L anka , 75L i ta , 50L exicography, 42L ogan , 29Lopamudra , 3, 5 , 1 2 , 75

M

M acdonne l l , Prof . 14, 58, 83M adhwacharya, 74

M adiyanandai , 5

M adura , 29, 65 , 6 7

M ad n r a z’

h dne i , 16

M aduraiveeran,53

M agour , 66

M ahabharata , 1 2 , 80M ahamalaya H i lls , 6 , 5 6M aharashtra , 1 3, 28, 29, 30M ahendra H i l ls , 30M ah ismati , 75

M alabar , 29, 74

M alakii ta, 5 , 30, 55 , 60M alaya , 3 , 6 , 35 , 55 , 5 6 , 75M alayadv ipa, 6 , 55

M alayakfita, 66M alayalam,

'

6 7

M alayam, 5 5 , 6 5 , 66 , 67

M alay Is lands , 5 2M cD ougall , W . , 50,M amii lanar , 6 5 , 66M animanda , 5

M arfith a, '70

88 INDE !

M e lkynda, 66 .

M eykandatévar , 52M itra, 2M ékfir , 66

M onier W i lliams , S ir ,M uruga, 5 , 1 6

M uthu Bhattan , 5 3Mut ibfis , 10

M utukadavul ,’

16

M ysore , 22 , 29

N ach inarkkiniyar , 16 , 17 , 34,46

Nahusa , 5N anch eluttu , 41

N finmarai , 32

Narayanaswamy Aiyar , R . SB .A . , B L 1 5

Narmada , 1 1 , 29N ag

‘f ina i , 1 6 , 84

Nasik , 5 , 6 ,

N ayanmars , 26 ,5 1

N e lkynda, 66

N ettimaiyfir , 3 1N iranam, 6 6

N irkunram, 66

Noach ian De luge , 30O

Occam’s Razor , 79Or issa , 10, 30Ourvasiya, 2

P

PEdukach aytra , 74

Panamparanar , 35 , 36

Pancavati , 5 , 13 , 33 , 75Pfindya, 14, 1 6 , 22, 23 , 29,5 6 , 59, 6 6 , 6 7

Pandya country ,6

Panini , 1 1 , 42 Saharas , 10P annir npada l a /n , 47 , 84 Saivism ,

5 1 , 5 2

Parasurfima, 29, 30 43 Sakhas , 1 1Pargiter , F . E . , 30, 43, 80, Sangam, 1 5 , 1 7 , 18, 37 , 65

83 Sankarachfirya, 74

P ar ipt'

ida l , 15 , 1 6 , 1 7 , 84Par iyfitra, 10

Pfitalé , 13Pataliputra , 1 3

Patanjali , 14P a t tnppdttn , 15 , 30, 84

P‘ér aka t t iyat t ir a tgn , 4 1

P er i pl us of the E r yth r fiean

S ea , 13 , 6 6 , 84

Podalaga , 2 1

Poth igai , 15 , 65 , 6 7

Pothuvar , 66 , 6 7

Poth iyi l , 3 , 18,

2 1 , 22 , 30, 33 , 5 5 , 60, 6 1 ,65 , 6 6 , 6 7 , 68

Prace tasa , 75

Prajapat is , 1P tolemy , 15 , 6 5 , 66 , 6 7 , 84

Pulindas , 10

Pund ras , 10

Punjab, 10, 14

P n fandniifn , 47 , 84

Puranas , 1 1 , 25 , 29, 43, 48,

50, 75 , 79, 81

P arappor nloenod indl a i , 47 , 84

R

Races of M an , 72 , 83

Rama , 5 , 33 , 75

Ramayana , 1 2 , 13, 33, 6 1 , 6 2,75 , 77

Rapson , E . J . , 7 1 , 83

Ravana , 1 6 ,75 , 76 , 7 7,

78

Egg Véda, 1 , 3 , 1 1 , 19

Romans , 20Rome , 1 6Romulus , 6 1Rsi , 43 , 75

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90 INDE !

Varfih advipa, 6

Vararuch i , 74

Varkala, 29Vé r t ika , 1 4

Varuna , 2Vasishta , 1 , 2 , 80Vasish tas, 80, 81

Vfitfip i , 6W

Vatap ipura. 5 W est Coast , 3035

W estern G hats , 6 , 1 7 , 6 50

a W i ll iam M cD ougall , 83Vedi c Age , 14 W i lson , H . H 75Vedic Brahmanas , 29Vél irs, 24, 28, 30

Venkayya, 2 1

Vidarbha, 3 , 5 , 12 , 1 3 , 7 5 Y ama , 16Vi lvala, 6 Y asBmat i , 6

Vincent A . Smi th , D r . , 44, Y as6varma , 6

78, 83 Y fi t ra, 10

Vindhya , M t 4, 1 1 , 1 2 , Yb‘

gahhasya , 79

55 , 59, 75 Y 6gam, 38

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V i r asfil iyam, 21 , 84

Visfikéi carya , 22

Vishnu, 75Vzsnu P ur dzza , l

Vogel , D r . , 5 2

Vyasa, 79