Roles of Sages Agastya and Vasistha
The Sage Agastya was very popular in the South Indian Kingdoms including the Kerala Kingdom. Agastya was described as a brother of Sage Vasistha. Sage Vasistha is also linked with the story of the Kerala tribe as per the epic Mahabharata. (See Mbh 1.177 and the section named The Myth regarding the birth of Kerala Tribe) This epic also says that Agastya and Vasistha were the sons of the ancient Devas Mitra and Varuna. Both were Gods common to the Deva and Asura groups of pre-ancient beings. But the Deva group demoted Varuna, who was one of the important deities of both the groups, to the status of the Sea-God while Indra took over the role of Varuna as the main God for them. But the Asura group maintained their reverence to both Varuna and Mitra.
Most conventional historians believe that Agastya and his kinsmen arrived in South India including Kerala by migration through land. Agastya is said to have opened a path across the Vindhya ranges in Central India into South India. It is believed, that there was a hermitage of Agastya near Panchavati or Nasik, where Raghava Rama made his temporary abode. There are numerous places in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, believed to be related to Agastya, like Agastyavata, Agasteswara, etc. The attribution of Sage Agastya, as a son of the Sea-God Varuna, could be due to his being good at sea-navigation and probably sea warfare as well. Indra and other Devas sought the help of Agastya, in defeating a clan of Asuras called Kalakeyas, who were ferocious sea-warriors. Thus Agastya's arrival in Kerala and South India could have been by sea as well.
Agastya was mentioned in Tamil Literature as Akattiyar. He is said to have developed a grammar for the Tamil language and probably introduced writing in Tamil using Tamil Brahmi script. Malayalam, the language spoken in Kerala is derived from this Middle Tamil and Sanskrit.
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