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- Apr 18
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Agastya Muni - The greatest of the seven sages of South India

Updated: Apr 19

Agastya Muni was a legendary Vedic sage or Rishi. He was the one who first popularized the Vedic religion in southern India. He and his clan were the authors of many mantras of the Rig Veda, the oldest and most relevant Hindu scripture. He is considered one of the great Saptarshis or the seven sages.

Brahman, the supreme spirit, is believed to have revealed these mantras. In Indian tradition, he is a notable recluse and an influential scholar in several languages of the Indian subcontinent.

Agastya Muni appears in several Itihasas (collections of written descriptions of notable events) and Puranas (stories), including the main ones: Ramayana and Mahabharata. He is revered as one of the Tamil Siddhas. Widely used in Indian religions and cultures, the term “siddha” derives from the Sanskrit root sidh, which means “to be realized or accomplished” and refers to perfected heads who have achieved a high degree of perfection of intellect as well as liberation or enlightenment.

Tamil siddha is an unorthodox religious philosophy in Indian traditions associated with mysticism. Based in southern India, Tamil siddha is part of a larger siddha movement across South Asia and tantric yoga.

In the Shaivite tradition (worshipers of Lord Shiva), Agastya Muni invented one of the first grammars of the Tamil language and pioneered the development of Tampraparniyan (medicine and spirituality), originating on the banks of the Tamraparani river. He is also revered in the Puranic literature of Shaktism and Vaishnavism.

Lakeside Initiation

Lake Kanti Sarovar was named “Lake of Grace” because the first transmission of Yoga took place on its banks fifteen thousand years ago when Adiyogi appeared in the upper regions of the Himalayas. Adiyogi refers to Lord Shiva, the Supreme Being who was the divine source of Yoga and the first yogi. He is the creator of all yogic wisdom, the origin of that source of knowledge that was first shared more than 15,000 years ago.

Thousands of people came to the lake to listen to him, but he said nothing, he simply remained motionless for months on end, he went beyond his physical nature. Only the Sapta Rishis (seven celestial sages) identified this. One day, Adiyogi told them, “Get ready, let's see” and they became shining receptacles.

Sitting on the banks of the Kanti Sarovar lake, they began to hear the science of Yoga. They spent extended periods in a state of Samadhi (complete meditation) to assimilate this science and knowledge and thus integrate themselves into the human form. In Yoga, it is the last stage of the system, when suspension and understanding of existence and communion with the universe are achieved. In Buddhism it is used as a synonym for concentration or stillness of the mind. Agastya Muni was the most prominent of the seven sages.

The one hundred and twelve paths

Adiyogi expounded one hundred and twelve ways in which a human being can attain his ultimate nature. He divided these one hundred and twelve paths into seven parts with sixteen paths. Each of the seven Sapta Rishis learned sixteen ways to achieve fulfillment. Tradition says it took them eighty four years to learn. Slowly, Adiyogi became everything to them.

When they understood and began to enjoy these sixteen paths, Adiyogi told them, “It is time to go” and they were completely overwhelmed, they could not think of a life without him, but he told them, “It is time to go. You must share this with the rest of the world.”

Legend has it that Agastya Muni entered his Sadhana (spiritual practice) in an underground space and remained there in hibernation mode for a prolonged period. When he left, he had completely integrated the knowledge as part of himself, carrying it not as intellectual property, but as an echo process of his own human system. He said:

“The most precious things I have, something that is more precious to me than my own life, are these sixteen dimensions that I received from my heart and here, I offer them to you.”

Everything he learned during these long years was returned to Adiyogi. The others did the same. Adiyogi said it was time for them to leave and they left with nothing in their hands. That was the most important aspect of his teachings because they became empty, they became like Lord Shiva. “Shiva” means “that which is not.” They have become that which does not exist.

All one hundred and twelve paths found expression through them. Things they could never understand, things they did not have the capacity for, things they did not have the intelligence for – all of these became part of them because they simply offered everything they had gathered, the most precious aspects of their lives, back. to Adiyog and retired empty-handed.

The father of South Indian mysticism

Jaggi Vasudev, commonly called Sadhguru is an Indian yogi, mystic and writer and creator of the Isha Foundation, a non-profit organization that offers Yoga programs around the world. He is actively involved in outreach, education and initiatives for the environment and the yogic philosophy of life. He states that Yoga arrived in a particular format in southern India brought by Agastya Muni. It can be said that in many ways Agastya Muni is the father of South Indian mysticism.

All the Siddhars of South India very much follow the tradition of Agastya Muni. There mysticism has a different flavor because of him. He ensured that some element of spirituality is in everyone's life. It may be fading, but if we just look at the last generation, it is still there. Even a simple South Indian peasant contains some element of spirituality, thanks to Agastya Muni.

In the southern part of India, anywhere south of the Vindhyachal mountains, in every village, people say, “Agastya Muni meditated here, Agastya Muni lived in this cave, Agastya Muni planted this tree.” There are an infinite number of stories like these because he touched every human habitation south of the Himalayas with a spiritual process – not as a teaching, religion or some kind of philosophy, but as a part of life. Just as your mother taught you how to get up in the morning and brush your teeth, the spiritual process was taught in this way.

The way you sit, stand, and do things all have a spiritual basis. Despite eight to ten generations of absolute poverty, we will still see that there is a certain sense of balance, joy and contentment in people that is rarely seen anywhere else on the planet.

Creator of the oldest martial art

Kalaripayattu is the oldest martial art form on the planet and was taught by Agastya Muni. Martial arts are not just about kicking, punching, or stabbing, it is about learning to use your body in every way possible. It not only involves exercise and other aspects of agility, but also understanding the energy system.

Kalari chikitsa is an ancient system of muscular and skeletal treatments. Originating from Kerala in southern India, it was developed to benefit the Kalaripayattu warriors. The techniques used to treat former combatants are also highly effective in treating modern pain and injuries.

Kalari Marma is the treatment of the vulnerable part of the human body. Since ancient times, kalaripayattu gurukkals have faced problems of injuries during fighting or training and had to find a way to solve these problems. It means knowing the body's secrets and healing it quickly to keep it in regenerative mode.

There may still be few Kalari practitioners who dedicate time, energy, and focus, but those who delve deeper will naturally move towards Yoga, because anything that comes from Agastya Muni cannot be anything other than spiritual.

Unlike other martial arts, which consist of training the body and mind to defend oneself and defeat an opponent, Kalaripayattu is taught as a complete science with instructions on human anatomy, physiology and how to treat them. It is also unique in the way it is taught and practiced.

Unlike other forms of martial art, Kalari teaches how to incapacitate an opponent through Praogam and how to revive the incapacitated person through Upasamanam. Some of the Kalari techniques are so subtle and so close to spiritual processes that spiritual experts consider the practice of Kalari to be a good preparation of the body and mind to experience higher states of consciousness.

Agastya Muni in Vedic literature

Agastya Muni is mentioned in all four Vedas and is a character in the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads, epics, and many Puranas. He is the author of hymns 1165 to 1191 of the Rigveda (~1200 B.C.). He ran a Vedic school (gurukul), as evidenced by hymn 1179 of the Rigveda, which credits his wife Lopamudra and his students as its author.

He was a respected sage in the Vedic era, as many other hymns of the Rigveda composed by other sages refer to him. The hymns composed by Agastya Muni are known for their verbal jokes and similes, puzzles, puns, and striking images embedded in their spiritual message.

There are unexplored dimensions of the human body. Some martial arts masters can kill a person with just one touch. Killing someone with one touch is no big deal. If you can make them, come to life with a touch, that is an important thing. With a simple touch, the entire system can wake up. If you explore this human system, you will see that it is a cosmos. He can do tremendous things just by sitting here. This is the path of Yoga and Kalari is just a more active form of it.

In a set of hymns, Agastya Muni describes a conflict between two armies led by the gods Indra and Maruts. which scholars have interpreted as an allegory of a war between Arya (Indra) and Dasa (Rudra). Agastya Muni successfully reconciles the conflict, makes an offering in which he prays for understanding and kindness between the two gods. Twenty-one of the twenty-seven hymns he composed in Mandala 1 of the Rigveda have his characteristic ending: “May every community know refreshment (food) and living waters.”

He came to be considered protector of both Arya and Dasa. However, some scholars interpret the same hymns as allegories for conflicting ideologies or lifestyles because Agastya Muni never uses the words Arya or Dasa, only the phrase ubhau varnav (both colors). The theme and idea of “mutual understanding” to lasting reconciliation, along with the name of Agastya Muni, reappear in section 1.2.2 of the Aitareya Aranyaka of Hinduism.

Another theme is a discussion between him and his wife Lopamudra about the human tension between the solitary monastic pursuit of spirituality versus the responsibility of a householder's life. He argues that there are many paths to happiness and liberation, while Lopamudra presents her arguments about the nature of life, time, and the possibility of both. She successfully seduces Agastya Muni in Rigvedic hymn 1179.

Agastya Muni in Ramayana

Agastya Muni is mentioned in the Hindu epic Ramayana in several chapters, with his hermitage (place where hermits live) described as being on the banks of the Godavari river. In the Ramayana, Agastya Muni and Lopamudra are described as living in the Dandaka forest on the southern slope of the Vindhya mountains.

According to the Ramayana, Agastya Muni is a unique sage with a short and heavy build, but because he lives in the south, he balances the powers of Shiva and the weight of Kailasa and Mount Meru. Agastya Muni and his wife meet Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana. Agastya Muni grants Shri Ram the divine bow made by Vishwakarma.

According to the Ramayana, Agastya Muni is a unique sage with a short and heavy build, but because he lives in the south, he balances the powers of Shiva and the weight of Kailasa and Mount Meru. Agastya Muni and his wife meet Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. Agastya Muni grants Shri Ram the divine bow made by Vishwakarma. He also gives two inexhaustible quivers of arrows to Shri Ram and Lakshman, a powerful arrow called Vaishnavastra to Shri Ram, and a divine sword to Lakshman.

He also gives two inexhaustible quivers of arrows to Shri Ram and Lakshman, a powerful arrow called Vaishnavastra to Shri Ram, and a divine sword to Lakshman.

Rama praises Agastya Muni as one who can do what the gods consider impossible. Rama describes him as the sage who asked the Vindhya mountains to lower themselves so that the Sun, Moon and living beings could easily pass over them. He is also described as the sage who used his dharmic powers to kill the demons Vatapi and Ilwala after they deceived and destroyed 9,000 men.

Agastya Muni in Mahabharata

The story of Agastya Muni is reflected in the second great Hindu epic, Mahabharata. However, instead of Rama, the story is told as a conversation between Vaisampayana and Lomasa in section 33 of Book 3, the Vana Parva (the Book of the Forest).

He is described in the epic as a sage with enormous powers of ingestion and digestion. Agastya Muni once again stops the growth of the Vindhya mountains and lowers them, and he kills the demons Vatapi and Ilvala in the same mythical manner as in the Ramayana.

The Vana Parva also describes the story of Lopamudra and Agastya Muni getting engaged and married. It also contains the mythical story of a war between Indra and Vritra, where all the demons hide in the sea, gods asking for help from Agastya Muni, who then goes and swallows the ocean, thus revealing all the demons to the gods.

Agastya Muni in the Puranas

The Puranic literature of Hinduism has numerous stories about Agastya Muni, more elaborate, more fantastic, and consistent than the mythologies found in the Vedic and epic literature of India. For example, chapter 61 of the Matsya Purana, chapter 22 of the Padma Purana and seven other Maha Puranas tell the entire biography of Agastya Muni.

Some list him as one of the Saptarishi (seven great Rishis), while in others he is one of the eight or twelve extraordinary sages of Hindu traditions. The names and details are not consistent in the different Puranas, nor in their different manuscript versions. He is variously listed along with Angiras, Atri, Bhrigu, Bhargava, Bharadvaja, Visvamitra, Vasistha, Kashyapa, Gautama, Jamadagni, and others.

Lopamudra, the perfect woman

It was mandatory for Agastya Muni to get married to have a child, to fulfill the duties of the Manus. He resolved to follow the laws, but to do so he used an unusual way: by his yogic powers he created a female child who possessed all the special qualities of character and personality that should be attributed to a wife of a renunciate.

The noble and virtuous king of Vidarbha (a region in south central India, just south of the Vindhya mountains), had no children and was doing penance and prayers to conceive a child. Agastya Muni caused the child who had been raised to be born as the daughter of the noble king of Vidarbha. The child was named Lopamudra.

When Lopamudra came of age, Agastya Muni revisited the king and asked him to give him her hand in marriage. The king had every respect for the sage, but was worried whether his daughter, a princess, would agree to leave her comfortable palace life to become the wife of an ascetic. But the wise and noble princess agreed and so they got married.

Another version says that Agastya Muni grew up to become a famous ascetic, dedicating his life to penance and austerities. He learned the scriptures and the art of using a bow and arrow. Once he was walking in a cave and saw his ancestors hanging upside down and asked why they were hanging like that. “We are trapped here, and we will only be freed and go to heaven if you have children,” Agastya Muni’s ancestors responded.

Lopamudra was a chaste wife and duly always took care of all her husband’s needs. However, Agastya Muni became absorbed in his austerities and completely forgot about it. Dejected, Lopamudra composed a hymn demanding his love and attention.

Agastya Muni realized that he had forgotten his duty towards himself and his ancestors and changed his ways. Soon, a son named Dhirdyasu was born, and thus Agastya Muni's ancestors were freed and ascended to heaven. Dhirdyasu is described in the Mahabharata as a boy who learned the Vedas by listening to his parents in the womb and who was born reciting the hymns.

Rishi Agastya Muni and Lopamudra are worshiped as one of the holy Rishi couples of Sanatana Dharma. Like Rishi Agastya Muni, Lopamudra was also a great Vedic scholar, and there are many Rig Veda hymns composed by her. Both are worshiped at Durbashtami Vrata, a festival for women.

Legends about Agastya Muni

Agastya Muni drinks the ocean – after Indra killed the Asura Vritra, he wanted to renounce his kingship because of guilt over killing a brahmin, but the devas convinced him to stay. Meanwhile, all the Kalakeyas (followers of Vritra) entered the ocean and hid there and planned the destruction of the universe.

To be successful, they decided that they would have to kill the rishis. Every night, they emerged from the ocean and stealthily killed hundreds of rishis in the hermitages of Vashishta, Chyavana and Bharadwaja. Every morning, the Earth was littered with the corpses, bones and remains of the rishis. No one knew who was killing these Brahmins. Everyone on Earth began to fear for their lives and hid in caves to protect themselves. Others were so scared that they lost their lives out of fear.

Indra and the Devas asked Lord Vishnu for advice and he replied:

“I know what is going on. There is a group of Asuras called Kalakeyas. They were followers of Vritra, so when he was killed, they hid in the ocean. They are killing the Brahmins with the intention of destroying the universe. But we cannot kill them because they are taking refuge in the ocean. The only way to get rid of them is to destroy the ocean. Look for Agastya Muni, he is the only one capable of drinking the ocean.”

After listening to the gods, the sage drank the entire ocean and kept it inside until all the demons had been destroyed.

The two demon brothers – two demon brothers decided to kill Agastya Muni. One of them was adept at shape-shifting and the other knew the Sanjivani mantra and could resurrect the dead. Their plan was that one would take the form of a goat and be killed to feed Agastya Muni. When Agastya Muni ate the goat, the other would invoke the Sanjivani mantra to bring the goat back to life, thus breaking Agastya Muni's stomach.

As planned, one turned into a goat and the other disguised himself as a Brahmachari who had invited Agastya Muni for dinner. But Agastya Muni already knew about the plan and with his immense powers, he decided to teach the two brothers a lesson.

After dinner, Agastya Muni moved his stomach saying Jeernam jeernam vathaapi jeernam ("food, food, be well digested"). When he said this, the dinner was instantly digested and did not do him any harm and all the attempts to bring the goat brother to life were in vain.

Rebalancing the Earth – The Tirumantiram describes Agastya Muni as a wise ascetic who came from the north and settled in the southern Pothigai mountains because Shiva asked him to. He is described as one who perfected and loved both Sanskrit and Tamil languages, accumulating knowledge in both, thus becoming a symbol of integration, harmony and learning, rather than opposing either of them.

According to the Skanda Purana, the entire world visited the Himalayas when Shiva was about to marry Parvati. This caused the earth to tilt to one side. Shiva then asked Agastya Muni to go to the southern region to restore balance and he did so.

Teachings

The great sage Agastya Muni wrote several ancient texts and scriptures, including Agastya Muni Gita mentioned in Varaha Purana, Agastya Muni Samhita, a treatise on traditional medicine mentioned in Skanda Purana, Dvaidha-Nirnaya Tantra text. He has also written on Astrology and Nadi Jyotisyam (Predictions using thumb impression).

He is considered the author of the Agastimata, a pre-10th-century treatise on gems and diamonds, with chapters on the origins, qualities, testing, and manufacture of jewelry. Several other Sanskrit texts on gems and lapidaries are also credited to him in Indian traditions.

He invented the first grammar of the Tamil language, Agattiyam, playing a pioneering role in the development of Tampraparniyan (meaning created on the banks of the Tamraparani River) medicine and spirituality.

Human civilization should be grateful for Agastya Muni's theory of electricity generation. His theory to generate electricity requires an earthenware jar, copper plate, copper sulfate, wet sawdust and zinc foil amalgamated with mercury. These same principles scientists used to produce current.

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