Progenitors of their cultures and famous personalities of Aryan epic mythology of the South, Parasurama is deemed by the Keralites as the father of their national identity and Agastya is deemed by the Tamils as the maker of their culture and creator of their language as well as literature. Agastya the legend has assumed interminable ramifications. There is no doubt Agastya a Vedic rishi is called a star in the firmament bears his name. The Tamils however claim Agastya to be their patron saint.

Agastya is well-known for his wisdom, determination, scholarship and courage. There was no limit to his inventiveness. He was a great musician and the author of the first great Tamil grammar, which was written in three parts dealing with literature, music and drama. There is another story, which makes him defeat the great Ravana himself in a musical contest. The Manimekalai credits him with the supply of Kaveri water. A later story makes him balance the earth by going to the Podiyil hills all alone to restore equilibrium to the earth upset by the great concentration of celestials and mortals on the Himalayan hilltop where Siva wed Parvati. There is another legend, which speaks of Agastya humbling the Vindhyas whose wings had already been broken by Indra.

One of the dangers he encountered on his way to cross Dandakaranya. Agastya was perhaps one of the first to cross the Dandakaranya into South India, which held great terrors for any newcomer. The Daityas were related to the Dasyus whom the Puranas know as Visvamitra`s unpopular sons, roamed about the forests around the Western Ghats. Agastya under strange circumstances accosted two such Daityas who had planned to eat him up but the valiant sage from the North destroyed the destroyers.

According to a written commentary, Agastya was jealous of his own pupil and cursed him only to be cursed back by his equally sacred pupil. In spite of what has been said above, the personality of Agastya is still a puzzle. As we have seen above he is found in the Aryan tradition as well as in the receiving of worship and being gratefully remembered. In epigraphy and iconography as well as in mythological literature Agastya is enshrined. It looks as if Agastya instead of being a historical personality was but a progenitor of a movement, which can be called a cultural wave, which spread from Aryavarta to Indonesia via South India. It is note worthy, however that he is not found in Sangam literature though a few sutras here and there are quoted by medieval grammarians. These latter could well have been fathered on Agastya as a respectable progenitor.