Palani Temple situated on the sacred Palani mountain in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu.
The Vindhya mountain range is still waiting for the return of Sage Agastya. But this will not happen, because if they return then the Vindhya Mountains will again proudly raise their heads and block the sunrays. Interestingly, there is another reason for Sage Agastya to go south.
It is said that once Shiva was distributing the knowledge of Vedas and Tantra. Therefore all the sages gathered on Mount Kailash to listen to him. Due to this the earth tilted to one side. Then Shiva requested Agastya to go south and maintain the balance of the earth. This is because the spiritual weight of Agastya was equal to the weight of all the other sages.
Agastya had two fathers (Vedic gods Mitra and Varuna) and one mother, an Apsara named Urvashi. Agastya never wanted to become a father through marriage. Then he saw a terrible dream – Agastya's ancestors, hanging over a bottomless abyss, were screaming and telling him that unless Agastya married and became a father himself, his ancestors would not be reborn and they would remain trapped in the ancestral world.
Therefore, after crossing the Vindhya Mountains, Agastya expressed his desire to marry a king's daughter. This king of Vidarbha region was childless. He said to Agastya, 'I am handing over to you the daughter who is not yet born.' Agastya replied to him, 'You will soon get this daughter and you will hand her over to me.'
Then Agastya magically created a woman from the most beautiful parts of the animals and birds of the forest. Since it was created by omitting the most beautiful postures of female creatures, it was called Lopamudra. She was handed over to the king, who got her married to Agastya.
Lopamudra performed her duty by going everywhere with her short and strong husband. But she also begged them to treat her as befits a princess. He told them to come to him dressed in beautiful clothes on a comfortable bed in a rich house. But Agastya was a sannyasi and hence he neither had beautiful clothes, nor a comfortable bed nor a rich house. As a result, he went to other kings to get these things as gifts, so that he could please his wife.
On his southern journey, Agastya took a kamandal of Ganges water with him. When he went to South India and placed this Kamandal on the earth, Ganesha took the form of a crow or a mouse and tilted the Kamandal to one side. Water started flowing from Kamandal and Kaveri river was formed.
To remind himself of the Himalayas, Agastya took two mountains with him from the north. A demon named Hidimba tied these mountains in a Kavad and went with Agastya. As soon as they reached the south, a mountain became very heavy and Hidimba could not lift it. Then Agastya found that a child was sitting on it. The boy said, 'These mountains remind me of my home in the north.' Agastya understood that this child was none other than Shiva's son Kartikeya, who had left home in anger with Shiva. Agastya asked Hidimba to place the mountain down at the place where Kartikeya wanted. This mountain is now Palani Hill of Tamil Nadu and is the pilgrimage site of Kartikeya i.e. Murugan of South India.
Agastya and Lopamudra have composed some hymns of Rigveda. It is said that both of them preached Lalita Sahasranama, which mentions 1000 names of the goddess. Agastya is famous as the father of 'Siddha', the southern form of Ayurveda. He is also associated with the mystical arts of prophecy and architecture and the creation of the Tamil language. Rare herbs are found on a mountain between Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Even today it is called Agastyamalai i.e. the mountain of Agastya. This reminds us what a great contribution Agastya had to the civilization of South India.
Graphics Source: NavJivanIndia | VaskarAssets
