Sage Agasthiyar


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About Agasthiyar (the name of the blogspot):

Agasthiyar was a sage who existed in mythology as well as reality. The timeframe of Agasthiyar runs into the purANic (antiquity) ages and hence cannot be ascertained for sure. Agasthiyar created a treatise in Thamizh (a language with rich literature in the Indian subcontinent) which described the division of the language into its three main segments: iyal (prose), isai (music) and nATakam (drama), collectively known as mutthamizh. It is thus fair to say that Agasthiyar is the father of Thamizh language.

Agasthiyar had 12 disciples of whom tolkAppiyar was a prime disciple. TolkAppiyar wrote tolkAppiyam, the primal Thamizh grammar treatise on which all subsequent Thamizh works were based. TolkAppiyar is believed to have lived around 3rd century BCE. TolkAppiyam is still very much a standard text that is referred to in grammatical discussions of the Thamizh language.

Biographical information about Agasthiyar is scarce except what is gathered from religious literature. Agastihyar went south (according to religious lore) when Lord Siva's wedding with goddess Parvati took place in the Himalayas and the resulting geo-physical imbalance made Lord Siva to instruct Agasthiyar to go south in order to equalise the load. This is how, it is thought, the Aryan culture was carried to the south.