>From the himalayas to Kanyakumari this demarcation of India"s boundaris is ascribed to Agasthya, a saint missionary and author of several hymns in the Rigveda . Sudas has pioneered national integration in the east. Agasthya led the Aryan movement to the south . Surmounting the difficulties posed by thick forests , aborginals inhabiting the region , and the vilized Dravidians retrating from the North on encroachment of their lands by an alien culture , Agasthya brought together the Arya varta and the Dakshinapatha the north and the south . He secured the right of way for his successors to the south.
geographically, the Vindhya mountain ranges divide the indian subcontinent and seperate the North from the South, and this separation should, ordinarily , have led to different evolutions/ If the Vindhyas do not now seperate the country , and the unity and culture of the land is indivisable , or the Hindu view of India is unalterably defined as Himavath Sethu Paryantham , from the himalayas to Rameswaram, then this is Agasthyas Legasy, . ExpreSSING Surprise over it , an INdian Historian , K M Panikkar compared the influence of the Vindhyas with the lesser ranges of the cheviots which led to seperate developement of Scotland feom england . The vindya ranges are more formidable than the cheviots. There is an interestic Puranic story about Agastya that he drank up the water of the oceans. It so happened that the coastal people of south india complained of attacks by the Rakshasas the inhabitants of lands under th sea, and of their laying waste coastal villages Agasthya prepared the people to war against these mighty pirates and drankup the waters Such allegories about Agastha abound. It may be that he forded some turbulent waters which with the passage of time , exxaggerated ti the size of an ocean. This Puranic version about Agasthya taken with the worship of the sage in various colonies suggests that the earliest Indian voyages to the islands were taken tochase the pirates. To infuse confidence amongst the people , Agasthya brought his wife ,deciples and a band of peasants to form the nucleus of the Aryan colony in the south and , to keep therakshasas under control he made podhihai hill on the Madurai _ tirunelveli border his head quarters. THIS FATHER FIGURE of agasthya was held in esteem and he was made the regent of the star Canopus later namrd after him. Another legend associates Agasthya with Rama , the prince of ayodhya who called on the sage in his hermitage on MOUNT kUNJARA who was on his way to the south in search of Sita. Agasthya blessed Rama and gave him Vishnus Bow. After Ramas triumph, Agasthya accompanied the prince to Ayodhya, Agasthya holds a venerable place in the formation of Tamil Language and literature and is thought of as the first teacher of literature and science in the south. He is the patron -sainy of South India . Agasthya and Vasishta, according to the Rig veda , are the offsprings of Mitra and VAruna . and that accounts for Agaisthyas being called Maitra varuna. He is also called Kalasi_ Suta. and Maan . The puranas represent him as the son of Pulasthya from whom the RAkshasas also sprang . Agasthya married the famous Lopamudra , daughter of the king of Vidarbha, and showed his superhuman power by turning Nahusha into a serpent . Later the sage took pity and restored Nahusha to his original form About Agasthyas time Caldwell writes we shall not howevrgreatly err on placing an era of Agasthya in the seventh century bC or atleast in the sixth century BC reading KMPanikkar asummary of Indian history. taken from the book 100 great indians through the ages.
