As Bharat celebrates its civilisational showcase with divinity, hosting a monumental gathering of over 50 crore devotees visiting the Maha Kumbh, Varanasi cerebrates through Kashi-Tamil Sangamam (KTS), an enduring strain of national unity. As devotees gather to take a dip in the spiritual Triveni-Sangamam of the Ganges at Prayagraj, Tamilians gather to take a cultural dip that begins at Varanasi today in the form of the KTS. This spiritual-cultural convergence establishes the connect between the holy trio of Varanasi, Ayodhya and Prayagraj with Tamil Nadu and Tamil sage Agasthyar, forming the bridge that makes KTS 3.0 a tall tribute to this short polymath-saint.
Bharat is home to many scholarly Tamil poets, but very few wrote in Tamil and Sanskrit. Not many know that great Tamil poets like Kambar and Villiputhur Azhwar were proficient in Sanskrit also. The great Saiva saint Arunagirinathar’s compositions had many Sanskrit words. Just as Bharat cannot be conceived without Tamil and Sanskrit, as it is the ‘world’s pooja room’ (Swami Vivekananda), Tamil and Sanskrit cannot be seen independently without appreciating their mutual harmony. Puranic history traces how Agasthyar drank the entire ocean to help King Indra destroy the demon Taraka. However, his oceanic gulp of the Tamil language that manifested as Agattiyam, the first known book for Tamil grammar, makes him a Tamil poet non pareil. Mahakavi Subramania Bharati, in one of his poems, shares Tamizh Thai’s portrayal of Agasthiyar as the epitome of Tamil language.
PM Narendra Modi’s love for the Tamil language needs no emphasis. As someone who took Thirukkural with him wherever he went, it is a common man’s ecstasy to realise the connect between the saintly duo of Thiruvalluvar and Agasthiyar. Just as the opening vowel and closing consonant of the Tamil language begins and ends the epic Thirukkural, so do they in the name of Sage ‘Agattiyan’. As the torch-bearer for the Tamil language, sage Agasthiyar is also the torch-bearer for Bharat’s unity. In this context, KTS’s thematic hero needs to be seen as a unifier of sorts through language, medicine, history and voyage.
Sage Agasthiyar loved all languages, and all languages loved him. Hymns from the Rig Veda and Aditya Hridhayam in Ramayana (prayer to the Sun god) in Sanskrit are sage Agasthiyar’s gift to Sanathana Dharma that has endured time to make him contemporaneously relevant. Lord Rama’s prayers to the sun god gave him the strength and courage to win against King Ravana. Even today, many chant it to establish the supremacy of good over evil.
Sage Agasthyar was sent from North to South to restore the Himalayan tilt during the Siva-Parvathi celestial wedding, and this little saint found his home in Podhigai Hills. From these hills germinated the Siddha sprouts of medicinal value that Agasthiyar seeded for posterity. Today, Agasthiya’s Siddha medicine is a potent form of healthcare intervention that enriches human lives.
Turning to history, Agasthyar is one amongst the very few (like Hanuman and Jambaavan) who figure in both Ramayana and Mahabharata. These two are the most translated into many languages. Ramayana, translated into 47 languages, makes Agasthyar a saint loved by other languages. Agasthiyar figures in Kamba Ramayanam through a specific chapter—Agasthiyar Padalam. In Mahabharata, King Yudhishtira is told about Agasthiyar’s gastronomical digestion of the demon Vataapi. Just as Ramayana and Mahabharata unite Bharat, Agasthiyar, who finds a role in these epics, is also a Bharat unifier.
The last dimension of unity that sage Agasthiyar personifies is his Bharat yatra. When all the 33 crore gods attended the celestial wedding, the short saint Agasthiyar was transported from North to South to restore the tilting imbalance. This signifies the saintly mysticism of Agasthiyar, who undertook various yatras reaching different places that even today are visible in temples for him, along with his wife Lopamudra and through other forms of reverence. Such voyage pathways form the quintessence of Bharat’s unity. The Kashi-Rameshwaram voyage is a standing example that reminisces the past yatras of towering saints like Adi Sankara and his parampara disciple, the Kanchi Mahaswamigal. Sage Agasthiyar also spent considerable time at Thoranai Hills in Tamil Nadu’s Tenkasi district where ‘grandmother Tamil poet’ Avvayyar entrusted one of her students with Agasthiyar, who later became known as Theraiyyar, a great Siddha Rishi.
As the bells for KTS 3.0 start ringing today at Varanasi, the encyclopedic saint Agasthyar shall be celebrated by thousands. This five-day spirituo-cultural trail covering Varanasi-Ayodhya-Prayagraj for all the diverse participants not only reverberates the unity of Bharat but also reimagines sage Agasthiyar during modern times. This ancient-modern connect is a cognitive trigger to many who marvel at the civilisational continuum of Bharat, which no other country has. At a time when the idea of India is distorted by many, initiatives like KTS embark on a cultural trajectory to unite Kashi and Tamil Nadu—Bharat’s civilisational twin towers. That the foundational bedrock for this twin tower is sage Agasthiyar makes him a Bharat unifier. In short, KTS 3.0 celebrates a sage-unifier.
(Views are personal)
(vaidhya@sastra.edu)
S Vaidhyasubramaniam | Vice-Chancellor and Tata Sons Chair, Professor of Management, SASTRA (Deemed) University