Page:Biographical Sketches of Dekkan Poets.djvu/163

138 AGASTYAR. This was a celebrated Tamul poet. The learned Hindus in the South of India are in doubt whether he is to be identified with the celebrated Agastya Mahamuni, or is some other person sprung from the Sudra cast. He wrote a Tamol grammar, the first on that language that was ever written, and called it Agastya.—Vyakaranam, which consists of five modes of Yalakanum, vrz. Yalutta, Chollu, Parulu, Appu, and Alankaru, he also composed several other works. On Hindu mythology, philosophy, medicine, alchemy and on religious rites, and formula of prayers. The remote age in which Agastyar lived has caused the materials to compile his biography to be very scanty, unless we give more heed, than due to the legendery accounts handed down respecting him.  AVAYAR. This poetess was the daughter of a bramin named Bhagavan, by a woman named Adi, of a low tribe; according to some legends she and her brother and sisters (namely, three males and four 