Origins & Early Life

Agastya (or Agathiyar) was a revered Indian sage of Hinduism. In the Indian tradition, he is a noted recluse and an influential scholar in diverse languages of the Indian subcontinent. He is regarded in some traditions to be a chiranjivi. The 8th-century Tamil commentary Iraiyanar Akapporul names Agathiyar as the head of the First Tamil Sangam in Then Madurai, which was submerged by the sea in ancient times.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

It also states that his work, Agattiyam, served as the Tamil grammatical authority for that entire era. He and his wife Lopamudra are the celebrated authors of hymns 1.165 to 1.191 in the Sanskrit text Rigveda and other Vedic literature. Agathiyar is considered to be the father of Siddha medicine. Agathiyar appears in numerous itihasas and Puranas including the major Ramayana and Mahabharata. He is one of the seven most revered rishis (the Saptarishi) in the Vedic texts, and is revered as one of the Tamil Siddhar in the Shaivism tradition, who invented an early grammar of the Old Tamil language, Agattiyam, playing a pioneering role in the development of Tampraparniyan medicine and spirituality at Saiva centres in proto-era Sri Lanka and South India.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

He is also revered in the Puranic...

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