''Agastya Samhita'' (; ) is the title of several works in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

text attributed to the ancient sage (''

rishi ''Rishi'' () is a term for an accomplished and enlightened person. They find mentions in various Vedic texts. Rishis are believed to have composed hymns of the Vedas. The Post-Vedic tradition of Hinduism regards the rishis as "great yogis" or ...

'')

Agastya Agastya ( kn, ಅಗಸ್ತ್ಯ, ta, அகத்தியர், sa, अगस्त्य, te, అగస్త్యుడు, ml, അഗസ്ത്യൻ, hi, अगस्त्य) was a revered Indian sage of Hinduism. In the I ...

Pancharatra

One of the ''samhitas'' of the '' Pāñcarātrāgama'' is the ''Agastya Saṁhitā'', which is about the worshipping of

Rāma Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular ''avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Being ...

, Sītā'','' Lakṣmaṇa, and

Hanumān Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine '' vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and on ...

, as laid down by Agastya. It is also known as ''Agastya-Sutīkṣṇa-Samvāda'', as it is in the form of a conversation between the sages Sutīkṣṇa and Agastya. There are also other works titled ''Agastya Samhita'' among the

Pancharatra ''Pancharatra'' (IAST: ''Pāñcarātra'') was a religious movement in Hinduism that originated in late 3rd-century BCE around the ideas of Narayana and the various avatars of Vishnu as their central deities.Puranas Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...

believed to have been written by Agastya are called ''Agastya Samhita'' as well.

Skanda Purana

A section embedded in ''

Skanda Purana The ''Skanda Purana'' (IAST: Skanda Purāṇa) is the largest ''Puranas#Mahapuranas, Mukyapurana'', a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text contains over 81,000 verses, and is of Kaumaram, Kaumara literature, titled after Kartikeya ...

'' is known as ''Agastya Samhita'', and sometimes called the ''Sankara Samhita''. It was probably composed in late medieval era, but before the 12th-century. It exists in many versions, and is structured as a dialogue between Skanda and Agastya. Scholars such as

Moriz Winternitz Moriz Winternitz (Horn, Austria, Horn, December 23, 1863 – Prague, January 9, 1937) was a scholar from Austria who began his Indology contributions working with Max Müller at the Oxford University. An eminent Sanskrit scholar, he worked as ...

state that the authenticity of the surviving version of this document is doubtful because

Shaiva Shaivism (; sa, शैवसम्प्रदायः, Śaivasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Supreme Being. One of the largest Hindu denominations, it incorporates many sub-traditions rangin ...

celebrities such as Skanda and Agastya teach

Vaishnavism Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

ideas and the bhakti (devotional worship) of Rama, mixed in with a tourist guide about Shiva temples in

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

and other parts of India.

Garuda Purana

''Agastya Samhita'' is the name of one of the three sections of ''

Garuda Purana The ''Garuda Purana'' is one of 18 ''Mahāpurāṇa'' texts in Hinduism. It is a part of Vaishnavism literature corpus, primarily centering around Hindu god Vishnu. Composed in Sanskrit and also available in various languages like Gujarati an ...

'' which deals with the study of gems; the other two being the ''Brihaspati Samhita (Nitisara)'' and the ''Dhanvantari Samhita'' which is a study on material science, jurisprudence and medicine.Hindu Encyclopedia, ''Meaning of "Garuda Purana"''
/ref>

Notes

References

Sources

;Printed sources *Printed edition of a
Agastya Samhita
from the Internet archive, in Bengali script. * Manuscript titled "''Agastyasaṃhitā''" from the Raghunatha Temple Library, Jammu, India, now scanned and at the Internet Archive. There are several texts of this name. This is the conversation between Sutīkṣṇa and Agastya, in the Pārvatī-Śiva conversation, described as a Pāñcarātra text. See V. Raghavan, ''New Catalogus Catalogorum'' (1968--), v.1, pp. 20--21. * * ;Web sources {{reflist, group=web

External links

Agastya Samhita in Garuda Purana
(Wisdom Library)
Places where words ''Agastya Saṁhitā'' are used
(vedabase.net)
''Did an Ancient Indian Sage Record a Recipe for Making a Battery? A Forgotten Chapter in Fringe History''
Jason Colavito Vaishnavism Hindu texts