AGASTYA IN THE TAMIL LAND
Introduction.
No tradition is so widespread throughout the length and breadth of the Tamil country as that concerning sage Agastya and his numerous exploits. Of all the mythic, semi-historic and historic personages of the Aryan annals, who have figured in South Indian History, Agastya has occupied the foremost place and secured the largest homage of the cultured and the masses alike. He meets us from the very start of Aryan History, being a composer of certain hymns of the earliest of the Vēdas, the Ṛg Vēda. Still he seems to have been not included amongst the seven holy sages, the Prajāpatis, or the progenitors of the human race. These were Gōtama, Bharadwāja, Viśwāmitra, Jamadagni, Vasiṣṭha, Kāśyapa and Atri. Even later Purāṇas, like the Vāyu and the Viṣṇu, which have amplified the list of the primitive sages by including Bhṛgu and Dakṣa, have only quietly passed Agastya over. This circumstance may lend some colour of support to the doubt whether Agastya is not after all the sage of a later day. However that be, posterity has made ample amends for this omission by raising him to a still higher position and assigning him a place among the Stars. The Star Canopus, which sheds its brilliance in the Southern heavens, is believed to be none other than the austere Sage Agastya, the semi-divine benefactor of the human race, who has been thus honoured by a grateful posterity.
