Pothigai

Pothigai Hills
File:Pothigai Hills Range.jpg
Highest point
Elevation
Coordinates
Geography
Location	Thiruvananthapuram district, Tirunelveli district, Kanyakumari district, India
Parent range	Anaimalai Hills

The Pothigai Hills, also known as the Agasthiyar Malai are in the Ashambu Hills, part of the Anaimalai Hills in the southern part of the Western Ghats of South India. Legend says that the sage Agastya (also written as Agasthiyar or Agathiyar) is said to have provided the grammar for the Tamil language. This grammar was further fine tuned by one of his disciples in the Tolkāppiyam.

Geography

The western slope is located in the Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala state, eastern slope of Pothigai hills is in the Tirunelveli District, southern slope is located in Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu. At 1,866 meters, it is the highest peak in the rugged Ashambu hills, which have one of the richest concentrations of biodiversity in the Western Ghats. The area is known for its spectacular views, beautiful forests and waterfalls, ancient temples, and the river Tamirabarani, the lifeline of the region.

Legend

According to the Mahābhārata, Lord Shiva sent the two saints (or sages) Vyasa and Agastya, down to Earth, to create the divine languages, Sanskrit and Tamil. Agathiyar came to Pothigai and established the Tamil culture.

After establishing the Sidhar Gnana Koodam, and later traveling throughout the world, spreading the knowledge gained, Agathiyar returned to a spot in the Pothigai hills, where he merged into the cosmos. A temple has been built for him at this spot, close to the Papanasam Falls on the banks of the Thamirabarani River. It is said that Sage Agathiyar occasionally gives appearances to sincere aspirants and devotees.

The Japanese scholar Shu Hikosaka on the basis of his study of Buddhist scriptures, ancient Tamil literary sources, as well as field survey, proposes the hypothesis that, the ancient mount Potalaka, the residence of Avalokiteśvara described in the Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra and Xuanzang’s Records, is the real mountain Pothigai (or Potiyil) situated at Ambasamudram in Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu. Shu also says that mount Potiyil/Potalaka has been a sacred place for the people of South India from time immemorial. With the spread of Buddhism in the region beginning at the time of the great king Aśoka in the third century B.C.E., it became a holy place also for Buddhists who gradually became dominant as a number of their hermits settled there. The local people, though, mainly remained followers of the Hindu religion. The mixed Hindu-Buddhist cult culminated in the formation of the figure of Avalokiteśvara.