SAGE AGASTIAR

… it is beyond question that Agastiyar was a godfather, rather foster-father, of Tamil, though not its parent…          –   M. S. Purnalingam Pillai

All ancient cultures stand on two legs: One relies on relics, tangible vestiges, and extant writings of distant times. The more ancient a culture, the hazier and less reliable these sources are. The other leg is sacred history with fascinating narratives about semi-historical figures whose names evoke reverence in the hearts of the people. Sacred history is without verifiable episodes, but with culturally meaningful  stories.

No scientific theory explains the origin of any particular language. From a Puranic legend about a tree reaching into the heavens whose branches were chopped off by Brahmā to splinter the world into multilingualism to the Tower of Babel for confusing arrogant humankind, humanity’s sacred history provides a variety of narratives on the subject. In this context, it is accepted that Tamil was created by a sage called Agastiyar.

Scholarship and analysis reduce the sublime stories of sacred history to the realm of rational reality, transforming inspiring poetry to prosaic facts, somewhat as the sweetness of sugar is reduced by chemistry to formulas with carbon and oxygen.

Agastiyar was a sage poet of dwarfish dimensions, it is said. According to the lore, he once had an argument with Sanskrit scholars in Varanasi. In this context, he prayed to a deity to initiate him into a language that was sweeter than Sanskrit. In answer, he was directed to a spot where he uncovered a heap of manuscripts. He opened them and exclaimed “Tamizh! Tamizh!” which means “Sweet! Sweet!” Another legend is that some Sanskrit scholars, upon seeing a rival language called Tamil, tried to exterminate it, not unlike what the Anglo-Saxons did to the Celtic language.

The Vindhya Mountains in the middle of the India are not as tall as the Himalayan range in the north. It is said that on his way to the south from his northern abode, Agastiyar commanded these mountains to prostrate before him so he could cross over with ease. So their height was reduced. He instructed them to remain thus until his return. Since the rishi did not return, the Vindhyas were left shorter forever: an instance of mythopoeic geology.

What seems probable is that the great Sanskrit scholar Agastiyar visited the South of India, and mastered the language of the Tamils to the point that he became the first to write a learned grammar of the language. This was not unlike the Anglo-Saxon Aelfric of Eynsham of the tenth century who authored the first book on Latin grammar.

Agastiyar’s original work, like many other works of antiquity, are lost. However, we have the first Tamil grammar from a scholar by the name of Tolkáppiyar, a disciple of Agastiyar. 

Another fascinating legend about this Vedic sage-poet is that he learned Tamil grammar from the divine (Lord Shiva) and brought it to the people of the South. Yet another says that he once pleaded with the Tamil deity Kandan to teach him a language sweeter than Sanskrit.

The story of Agastiyar bringing Tamil from the North is an example of Indic  boreo-centrism: the conviction that everything of significance in Indic culture has its roots in the North.

Most probably, a Sanskrit scholar came to the Tamil country to disseminate that language — not unlike what Thomas B.  Macaulay did centuries later with English. Charmed by the local language, he mastered its subtleties. Agastiyar began to systematize its structure and syntax and composed its first grammar. He taught it in a systematic way to some Tamil students: not unlike an Indian professor teaching English to American students in the United States. He traveled widely in the South. To this day, scores of temples in the South are dedicated to him.

It is said that Agastiyar created from his mystic powers a beautiful little girl whom he presented to a king. She is said to have been formed by imprinting the charming aspects of plants, birds, and animals, like “the eyes of a doe, the grace of a panther, the slenderness of palm-trees, the fragrance of the champak flower, and the softness of the feather in a swan’s neck.” He named her Lopamudra. When she came of age, Agastiyar married her.

Agastiyar symbolizes a scholar in the classical tradition who was deeply learned in both Sanskrit and Tamil, not unlike some scholars in ancient Rome who were versed in both Latin and Greek. Many important books on subjects ranging from astronomy to alchemy are attributed to the name of Agastiyar. He could well be regarded as a symbol for Pan-Indic cultural heritage. His name represents the forces that were instrumental in bringing about the harmonious synthesis of Tamil and Sanskrit traditions: which led to the cultural unification of the subcontinent, not unlike Christendom in Europe.

Many historians believe that there were probably several scholars bearing the name Agastiyar. But that is another story.

We may note in passing that Agastiyar occupies a position of eminence in the pantheon of Cambodia and Java. Hindu astronomers named the star Canopus in the constellation Argo Navis in the Southern Skies after him as Agastya.