Indian Antiquary Vol 42

SR No.: 032534
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 400
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1913.
BRAHMAN IMMIGRATION INTO SOUTHERN INDIA. BY A, GOVINDACHARYA SVAMIN, O.E., M.B.A.S., M.M.S; MYSORE.
(Continued from Vol. XLI, p. 232.) From this the conclusion is irresistible that there was indeed an ancient Brahman leader of that name, who led a colony of Brahmans into the South. What the motives were that led to the emigration, we cannot definitely ascertain. The Purâņic account is that the Vindhyas began to grow higher and higher and obstruct the path of the Sun, that the Devas sought the help of the sage and requested him to humble the pride of the mountain; that while accordingly the sage approached, the mountain, being its sishya or disciple, made its obeisance by prostrating itself before him, and then the sage crossed it and enjoined it to remain in that posture until be returned-which event has not yet taken place and therefore the mountain has remained low until to-day. Certainly there must be some meaning in this otherwise palpably impossible myth. Agastya himself was one of the Rig Vedic sages, but he was not included among the Saptarishis or the seven sages, though he as the latter bas become one of the gotrakdras, i.e., heads of the Brahman families. The Rigveda plainly describes him as trying to introduce a cult somewhat opposed to the cult of Indra, which was the prevalent one, and, therefore, as meeting with some opposition. Tamil tradition also points to this split as the real cause of his southward march with all his following. Probably it was not Agastya bimself of the Rigveda that made this southward march: & sort of quasi-eternity is given to the Vedic sages by the habit of calling the successive heads of the families or gotras by the names of the founders. Perhaps a descendant of the sage might have in later times led the southward march, when perhaps on account of the split in the camp, their continuance in the north had become intolerable. Perhaps, synchronous with that march, a depression of the Vindhyas took place due to seismio causes, which gave rise to the myths we have referred to. Geology owns the possibility of each subsidence and teaches that such subsidence may occur, due to undue volcanic activity, especially at the opposite side of the earth, A glance at the map shows us that about-20° lat.-70° long., the opposite point of the earth with respect to the Vindhyas, we have the Bolivian Andes with the powerful volcanoes of Sahama, Acancagua and so forth, and if in prehistoric times there was a terrible eruption of these volcanoes and this disturbance caused the subsidence of the mountain in India, we have precisely the state of things which the myth has obscurely represented as the prostration of the Vindbyas before Agastya, Somo such extraordinary or apparently miraculous intervention is needed to make a dissenter like Agastya find favour with the Aryans of the porth, who have not only included his name among the gotrakdras, but have also accepted his hymns in the Rigveda and thereby practically adopted his cult. When this event took place, it is not possible to determine. Tamil literature refers it to a remote age, i.e., earlier than 5000 B. O. Considering the magnitude of the geologic changes with which the emigration was synchronous, there is indeed mach to be said in favour of this tradition. The Ramayana also makes the southward march of Agastya long anterior to the events it narrates. Even before Sri-Rama's time, Agastya bad been dwelling in a hermitage to the south of the Vindhyas about two yojanas from Panchavati, where he had made his temporary home; and he always seems to have acted as the pioneer in the southward march; for we find him go down further south at the time of the close of the Lanka war. The Tamils locate his ásrama in Podiyam, a peak of the Tinnevelly Gbats, from which the Tamraparņi takes its source ; and he is still thought to be living there. Moreover, Râpaņa, Vali, Sugriva and other great epic heroes of the south are represented as children of Non-Aryan mothers by Aryan fathers. Perhaps before complete Aryanisation was effected, these hybrids, with the energy natural to the offspring of mixed union, and also with the atavism of barbarian nature, which is seen to follow such unions