A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c9.10

c9.10

Even the slightest consideration shows that it is this large movement of the aryanization and civilization of the South that provides the historical basis for the Agastya legends which figure prominently in the epics and the Purānas as well as in Tamil literature. In the Rig Veda there occurs a brief reference to his miraculous birth from a pitcher (kumbha), but otherwise he is a real historical person who composes hymns, has a wife and sister and perhaps also a son; and he is applauded for combining domesticity with a life of austerity. In the *Mahābhārata* the story is more fully developed, and Agastya's connexion with the South comes into prominence. His marriage with Lopāmudrā, a princess of Vidarbha, is mentioned together with her demand that, before claiming the exercise of his marital rights, he should provide her with costly jewellery and all the luxuries she was used to in her father's house, without in any manner impairing his asceticism. The only way in which Agastya could meet his wife's wish was by seeking a large gift of wealth. He approached three Aryan kings one after another, but in vain, so they all went to Ilvala, the *daitya* king of Manimati. Ilvala, however, was no friend of the Brahmins, because one of them had refused to grant him a son equal to Indra. His vengeance took a queer form. He used to transform his younger brother Vātāpi ‘into a ram and offer his flesh to Brahmins as food, and then to recall him to life (whomsoever Ilvala summoned with his voice would come back even from the abode of Yama), and Vātāpi, ripping the flanks of the Brahmins, would come out laughing’. The two brothers thus killed many Brahmins and, on the occasion of the visit of Agastya and the three kings, Ilvala wanted to play the same game. ‘He prepared the flesh of Vātāpi in order to entertain them, at which the kings became sad, but Agastya ate it all, and when Ilvala summoned Vātāpi there came only air out of Agastya's stomach, Vātāpi having already been digested. Then Ilvala, becoming sad, promised to give him wealth, if Agastya could tell him what he intended to give.’ Agastya was able to give the right answer and he and the kings returned with the wealth they needed. Vātāpi, as is well known, is the name of the fortified city in the western Deccan which was the capital of the early Chālukyas; it is now called Bādāmi. And if, as seems probable, the abode of the two *daitya* kings is to be sought in this region, this story may be taken to mark the beginning of Agastya's connexion with the South.