"अगस्त्य ऋषी - भाग ३"

"अगस्त्य ऋषी - भाग ३"

1.Agastya is traditionally attributed to be the author of many Sanskrit texts such as the Agastya Gita found in Varaha Purana, Agastya Samhita found embedded in Skanda Purana, and the Dvaidha-Nirnaya Tantra text.

2.He is also referred to as Mana, Kalasaja,Kumbhaja,Kumbhayoni and Maitravaruni after his mythical origins.

3.Several different etymologies have been suggested for "Agastya".

4.One theory states that the root is Aj or Anj, which connotes "brighten, effulgent one" and links Agastya to "one who brightens" in darkness, and Agastya is traditionally the Indian name for Canopus, the second most brilliantly shining star found in South Asian skies, next to Sirius.

4.A third theory links it to Indo - European origins, through the Iranian word gasta which means "sin, foul", and a-gasta would mean "not sin, not foul".

5.The fourth theory, based on folk etymology in verse 2.11 of the  Ramayana states that Agastya is from aga (unmoving or mountain) and gam (move), and together these roots connote "one who is mover-of-mountains", or "mover-of-the-unmoving".

6.The word is also written as  Agasti  and Agathiyar.

7.Agastya is the named author of several hymns of the Rigveda.These hymns do not provide his biography.

8.The origins of Agastya - Pulastya, one of the Rig Vedic Saptarishis is his father.His miraculous rebirth follows a yajna being done by gods Varuna  and Mitra, where the celestial apsara Urvashi appears.They are overwhelmed by her extraordinary sexuality, and ejaculate.Their semen falls into a mud pitcher,which is the womb in which the fetus of Agastya grows.He is born from this jar, along with his twin sage Vashistha in some mythologies.This mythology gives him the name kumbhayoni,which literally means "he whose womb was a mud pot".