In Search of Śiva

The southern tradition is less myth based; it seems to have some historical context. The earliest reference in Tamil literature to the Agastya legend is found in verse 201 of Puṟanāṉūṟu, a poetic compilation believed to have been composed in the early centuries of the Common Era, but containing much older traditions. In it, the poet Kabilar addresses Irunkōvēl, a tāmiḷa vēlir chieftain/king, and describes him as descended through forty nine generations from the vēlir who arose ‘from the pitcher of a Northern sage’ and ruled over Tuvarai (Dvāravatī or Dvārakā). The ‘northern sage’ is not named in the poem, but can be easily identified with Agastya from the reference to the pitcher. He is supposed to have led a migration of vēlir from Dvārakā to the south; the tāmiḷa sources have no clue about the reason, except the myth recounted by Naccinarkkiniyar in his commentary on Tolkappiyam; according to this myth Agastya was sent to the south by Śiva to balance the weight of the gods congregating on mount Meru for his wedding. [Mahadevan, 1986 : 27] According to Naccinarkkiniyar, he is supposed to have taken along from Dvārakā the descendants of Netu-Muti-Annal (Kṛṣṇa ?) – eighteen kings and eighteen families - and led them to the south. [Allen, 2017: Coromandel: A Personal History of South India, 201]