Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c27.s1.25

c27.s1.25

There is nothing to show when or how the Agastyas arose. The fable noticed above connects ‘Agastya’ with ‘Vasiṣṭha’, but that seems merely a fabrication from the fact that a Vasiṣṭha and an Agastya both had the same patronymic Maitrāvaruṇa. Tradition generally connects ‘Agastya’ with the southern region⁶ and even with Ceylon.⁷ Thus ‘Agastya’ met Lopāmudrā at the great tīrtha on the river Sindhu,⁸ that is the Sindh, a southern tributary of the Jumna. ‘Agastya’ is called ‘lord of the southern region’,⁹ and is sometimes said to dwell on Mt. Malaya¹⁰ at the extreme south. Canopus, the brightest star in the southern hemisphere, bears his name. Fables also connect ‘Agastya’ with the south, such as his altering the height of the Vindhya Mts.,¹¹ the story of Ilvala and Vātāpi,¹² and others.¹³ He had a hermitage apparently near Mt. Vaidūrya¹⁴ (the western part of the Satpura range), another called Saubhadra on the southern ocean,¹⁵ and another among the Pāṇḍyas.¹⁶ But the Agastyas spread elsewhere, and so mention is made of ‘Agastya’ in connexion with the Jumna, Prayāga and other places,¹⁷ and Gayā appropriated some of the fame of Agastya and Lopāmudrā.¹⁸