Maharshi Agastya Muni the holy sage, who brought Kaveri River to earth!

Agastya Maharshi

Maharshi Agastya muni and Maharshi Vashishta muni  are brothers. Born from the God’s, Mitra and Varuna, with Apsara (Angel) Urvashi. It’s believed that once Varuna and Mitra discharged their semen by seeing Urvashi and kept those semen’s in a Kumbha (water pot). Later the 2 sages born from those pots. Thus, they both called as Kumbhaja’s. Vashishta Maharshee is one of the Sapta rishis and also a teacher of Lord Rama and his brothers.

Agastya Muni married a royal princess of Vidharba named Lopamudra, who was well qualified and intelligent woman. Earlier he lived in Kashi with his family. 

He is more popular with his works 'Agastya Samhita' and 'Naadi Shastra', both the works respectively based on medicines and astronomy as he was very strong in them. Agastya muni is often considered as the father of traditional Indian medicine among many other streams of knowledge. In his book of medicine, 'Agastya Samhita' he is believed to have given the description of and instructions for, the creation of medicines for many types of fevers, cancer, treatments for impotence, abdominal problems, brain and eye problems, bone problems, etc. thousands of years ago!

Naadi Shastra

Naadi Shastra is science of astronomy, in which he presumed the lives and re-births of people who are dead, living and to be born in the universe. There are more than 1000s of presumptions in the book, which is saved by generations from 1000s of years. It is still believed to be the best way of predicting the future and knowing past, such a great invention!

Among the various stories,  Agastya muni saved the Bharatavarsha from imbalance. Mount Vindhyachala (Madhyapradesh) was continually growing in size due to taunting comments by the Sage Narada. So as to temper the vanity of the mountains, Sage Agastya and his family traveled to South India, via the mount Vindhyachal. On their way, when the Vindhya saw Sage Agastya, he bowed with respect and reverence, upon which Sage Agastya, jokingly asked, if he would stay bowed and subdued with respect until the sage returned? The Vindhyas were truly benevolent and promised to not grow until the Sages return from the South. After passing through the mountain, sage Agastya told his wife that they would never again cross over to the North side of mount Vindhyas (Its still balancing the Bharatvarsha).

Rishi drinking cosmic Ocean

Another story about Agastya muni goes that once the Kalakeyas (a clan of Asuras) had hidden in the Cosmic Ocean, so that it was difficult for the Devas to conquer them, due to which they went to Sage Agastya for help. After hearing the Devas, the sage drank the entire ocean water and held it within him, until the demons were destroyed.

BIRTH OF KAVERI RIVER- There is a story which describes how the river Kaveri (also spelled Cauvery) arrived on earth by  Agastya muni. Once due to hot whether in south his wife Lopamudra fainted. There were no rains and people suffered intensely. The lands became parched and cracks appeared. Animals and birds could not get food or water, their suffering was beyond words. All over the land there was sheer misery lack of food and water made life unbearable. Agastya felt sad and approached lord Shiva for help. God Shiva gave him small amount of Ganga river in his Kamandala (small pot which he was carrying) and said wherever you spill this water the river will flow from there. Since a demon named Surapaduman wanted to destroy the south with no water and food, planned to take the kamandala from Agastya, Lord Ganesha took a form of crow and disturbed Agastya, perched on the Kamadala and thrown the kamandala on earth.

Ganesh drifting water from Kamandala

After touching earth, the water drifted out of kamandala and took a form a river Kaveri, this place is

now called as Talakaveri (Karnataka), located in the Brahmagiri hill near Bhagamandala, which is one of the 7 sacred rivers of Sapta Sindhus of the Hindu scriptures. It is around 1,276 m above sea level. Talakaveri is about 8 km away from Bhagamandala and 48 km from Madikeri (Karnataka). As Kaveri River originates as a spring feeding the tank called the holy Kundike of Talakaveri, which is considered to be a holy place to bath on special days. The waters are then said to flow underground to emerge as the River some distance away. However, there is not a permanent visible flow from this place to the main river course except during the rainy season.

This place has temple dedicated to Lord Agastheeswara, which denotes the link between Kaveri and Sage Agasthya. There are 2 temples, a Shiva temple (who gave Ganga to Agasthya) and with a rare and ancient Shiva Linga, and another temple dedicated to Lord Ganesha (who drifted the river Kaveri). This temple has a holy Ashwantha tree where, according to legend, the Trimurtis - Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh gave darshan to  Agasthya muni. 

Talakaveri (Karnatak)

From then the river Kaveri flows through three states of south, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and some parts of Kerala. Mother Kaveri is a part of Ganga, thus, also called Dakshina Ganga (Southern Ganga). However, due to dirty politics and wrong management people two states are fighting for this holy river but the sacred Kaveri flows and gives electricity, so that towns and villages of Karnataka and neighboring states have light and industries have power. Food for the body, light to the eyes, wealth to the states, and joy to the mind with pure water to drink, mother Kaveri grants all these. 

However, coming back to the story of Agasthya muni, it’s also believed that he got the knowledge of Tamil language from lord Shiva and thus, he is a creator of Grammar of Tamil. He also created important stotras like Lalita sahasra nama (1000 names of goddess Parvati) along with his wife Lopamudra, he was first revealed to the world when Hayagriva, a manifestation of Vishnu, taught the same to Agastya. Agastya also composed Saraswati Stotram. Agastya is progenitor of the Aditya Hrdayam, a hymn to Surya taught to Rama just before Ram’s battle against Ravana. many people argue on possibilities of such situations and powers of sages. But we must not forget that India is a country of miracles and these miracles happening in India from thousands of years. The sages attain so much power with their devotion towards Gods and meditation. India is a land of such a great sages and wonderful resources. We should be really be thankful to almighty to be born in such a land and stop fighting internally influenced by dirty politics.

From ancient time Bharat has given many things to this modern world. To read more such historic stories go through- Itihaas-Saga of India. The history book of India is a destination collecting true historical stories of many Indian legends at one place. By composing this rare book of such legends from the time of mythology till 18th century, I salutes those ancient heroes of India who made our country famous and attracted the entire world to come and see the glory of India, which was once called Sone ki chidiya (golden bird). Bharat or India was popular in every way, whether its cultivation, production of metals, the ancient medicines and meditation, technology, bravery and resource management of the leaders, art and architecture and most importantly it was rich with its treasury of gold, silver, diamonds and many more gems. All these information has been composed in this book after lots of research and hard work. So don’t forget to grab your copy today to grasp more knowledge about many ancient heroes.

Note- Some parts of the article taken from the book itself.

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