Rishi Agastya is also known as Asura Samhara Moorthy, since he cleverly killed the two ferocious demons out of his spiritual powers. Ilvala and Vatapi both of them were demon brothers, and they were born to Demoness Ajamukhi and Rishi Durvasa, but both of them began to grow up as wicked demons.
They ruled the kingdom of Badami, which is situated in the present day Karnataka, and they were very much interested in eating meat items, especially human meat, and due to that, they killed lot of innocent people and ate them.
Ilvala has got the habit of killing his brother Vatapi, who was in the form of a goat, and he used to cut him into pieces with his sword, and he would offer the meat to the sages. After the consumption of the meat by the sages, Ilvala would chant a mantra, and immediately, his brother Vatapi would tear the stomach of the sage, and would come out from his body, and after that, both of them would eagerly eat the flesh of the innocent sages.
Likewise, once they approached Rishi Agastya and asked him to have food in their place. Rishi Agastya agreed, and as usual, Ilvala had cut his brother with a sword, cooked the meat and offered it to Agastya, since Agastya was aware about the tricks of the demon brothers, after finishing his food, he immediately rubbed his stomach, and said to Ilvala, that he was satisfied with the food offered by him. When Ilvala called his brother Vatapi, he didn’t respond to his words, since he has already died on the stomach of Rishi Agastiya. On knowing about this, when Ilvala tried to kill Rishi Agastiya, the great Rishi had burnt him into ashes out of his spiritual powers.
Since Agastya had killed the two demons, in order to get relieved from his sins, he built a nice temple for Lord Shiva in the present day Villivakkam, Chennai, and the name of the temple is, Sri Agasteeswarar Temple.I have also visited the temple for a few times, and the temple is a popular one, and during Shiva Ratri and Navaratri festival days, large number of devotees would visit this ancient temple, in order to get the grace of Lord Shiva and Rishi Agastya.
Since Rishi Agastya had removed the ego of Vindya Mountain, he is also called as “VINDYA ANUGRAHA MOORTHY”, since Agastya looks short, he is called as “KURUMUNI”, since Agastya is very fond of worshipping Shiva, he is known as “SHIVANESAN”, Agastya is also known as Mana, Kalasaja, Kumbhaja, Kumbhayoni and Maitravaruni.
“OM RISHI AGASTYA NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR