A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c9.16

c9.16

One of the latest accretions to the cycle is the following story which, in some versions of the *Rāmāyaṇa*, Agastya himself narrates to Rāma. The great forest of Dandaka had become unfit for human habitation because Bhārgava had cursed it. From the foot of the Vindhyas to the far South, the land remained a howling wilderness for a thousand *yojanas*. Agastya, however, happening to go there from the white peaks of the Himalayas, caused rain to fall, restoring fertility to the soil, and making it a fit dwelling-place for several groups of Aryan sages (*rishis*).