Where was PANini inspired? (Part III)

[N. Ganesan]

What started my trail to locate Potalaka is the following
mail from Dr. S. Palaniappan. Please bear in mind that
the following was written taking that Potalaka is
identified to be in the Northwest India.

Subsequent research has revealed that NO old author
locates it in the Northwest. All place Potalaka
in the deep South as Potiyil/Potikai mountain.

Regards,
N. Ganesan

-------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: S. Palaniappan
Subj:   potalaka, potiyil, pANini, avalokitezvara, agastya, and
tolkAppiyar
Date:   11/08/97

Yesterday, I read M.M. Deshpande’s recent JAOS article on Buddhist
claims
on
pANini. It evoked some questions regarding possible linguistic
one-upmanship
regarding Tamil which seems to have some connection with Deshpande’s
research
through the name "potalaka", the mountain which was the abode of
avalokitezvara. I do not know if an identity of "potalaka" is
established
with
certainty. Shu Hikosaka identifies potalaka as potiyil or potikai
mountain
in
Tirunelveli District in Tamilnadu based on the following. A mahAyAna
text,
"gaNDavyUha says, "In the southern direction, there is a mountain named
potalaka, where lives a bodhisattva of the name avalokitezvara." The
travelogue of Yuan Chwang says, "In the south of the mo-lo-kuta
(malakUTa)
country near the sea  was mo-lo-ya (malaya) mountain, lofty cliffs and
ridges
and deep valleys and gullies, on which were sandal, camphor and other
trees.
To the east of this was the pu-ta-lo-ka (potalaka) mountain with steep
narrow
paths over its cliffs and gorges in irregular confusion; on the top was
a
lake
of clear water, whence issues a river which on its wayto the sea, flowed
twenty times round the mountain. By the side of the lake was a deva
place
frequented by kuan-tzu-tsai-p’usa (avalokitezvara). Devotees, risking
life,
brave water and mountain to see the p’usa, but only a few succeed in
reaching
the shrine. To the people at the foot of the mountain who pray for a
sight
of
the P’usa, he appears sometimes as a pazupata tIrthika, or mahezvara,
and
consoles the suppliant with his answer." Chin-sheng (ChishO 688-740
A.D.)
of
T’ang dynasty has also mentioned that malaya country is near the
potalaka
mountain which is the place of avalokitezvara.

While Hikosaka’s etymology of potiyil as deriving from "bodhi" has been
rightly criticized as flawed, I have not seen any criticism of his
identification of potiyil with potalaka. "potiyil" refers to "a public
place
(for religious gathering)" Of course, I would like to know the views of
Buddhist scholars on this identification.

Even if potiyil is not potalaka, potiyil is interesting in its own
right.
The
earliest Tamil texts do not associate potiyil with RSi agastya. A late
classical text with considerable Sanskrit influence mentions "potiyil
munivan2", meaning "the muni of potiyil". Even here agastya is not
mentioned
by name. Perhaps the earliest association of potiyil with agastya occurs
in
mahAbhArata.

In Vanaparvan we find, "..in the land of the pANDyas the
Fords-of-agastya
and
varuNa: there too are the Holy-Maidens said to be, bull among men. I
shall
now
mention the tAmraparNI, listen, kaunteya, where the Gods, longing for a
great
reward, did austerities. GokarNa is celebrated in the three worlds,
bhArata,
holy and auspicious, my son, and the water is cool and abundant there.
There
is a lake of extremely difficult access to people who have not perfected
their
souls.
      There too is the holy hermitage of agastya’s pupil tRNasomAgni on
Mount
devasabhA, with plenty of fruit and roots. There is the propitious and
illustrious Mount vaiDUrya, which is made of precious stones, and
agastya’s-
hermitage with abundant roots, fruit, and water."

Here, devasabhA seems to be translation of potiyil. The temple at
kuRRAlam
at
the base of potiyil is one of the primary sabhAs (like Chidambaram,
Madurai,
etc.) where ziva is supposed to dance.

The post-classical Tamil tradition says agastya authored the first Tamil
grammar  and tolkAppiyar, the author of the earliest extant Tamil
grammar,
was
a disciple of agastya. A medieval commentator says tolkAppiyar’s real
name
was
tiraNatumAkkin2i. The similarity to mahAbhArata is obvious. When we
consider
the fact that in the preface to tolkAppiyam, he is praised as
well-versed
in
"aintiram" or "aindra". Aindra was supposedly a grammatical text with
Jain
influence. Also, it seems that there are indications that tolkAppiyar
might
have been a Jain. Given this, the attempt to give a Vedic origin for the
Tamil
grammatical tradition seems to be the opposite of what Buddhists were
doing
with respect to pANini. Is it possible to say who was copying whom?

There is an interesting episode in cilappatikAram, the Tamil epic,
regarding
the grammar, aindra. When kOvalan2, kaNNaki, and the Jain nun kavunti
are
travelling to Madurai, on the way they meet a brahmin who talks to them
about
a pond called holy zaravaNa in tirumAlkunRam (present azakar kOyil). He
says
that if the travelers take a bath in that pond, they will attain
proficiency
in the text of the chief of the devas, i.e., aindra. The Jain nun
replies
that
there is no need to do what the brahmin suggests and that the text by
Indra
of
kalpas is included in a Jain text. (The Tamil word for the Jain text is
"meyppATTiyaRkai" and the commentators call it "paramAgama".)

While the Veda-philes might have one-upped the Jains by creating a Vedic
agastya  as teacher for a Jain tolkAppiyar, a medieval (11th /12th
century)
Buddhist Tamil grammarian, puttamittiran, one-upped them in turn by
saying
that avalokitezvara was the teacher of agastya. Incidentally,
puttamittiran’s
reliance on Sanskrit grammatical models has been noted by Rajam
Ramamurti.

Hikosaka suggests that the association of agastya with avalokitezvara
might
have been due to akittajAtaka (akitta-being an altered form of
akattiya).
It
should be noted, the location of potiyil is close to the probable home
of
tolkAppiyar in southern Kerala. TolkAppiyam was presented first in the
court
of a Pandya king and was reviewed to be without faults by a teacher of
ataGkOTu (present Trivandrum area). In any case, the choice of a
pot-born
RSi
is also interesting because of other "potter" resonances.

If indeed potalaka is identified with a place in the northwestern
region,
the
similarity in myths suggest some connection between southern Tamilakam
and
the
north/northwest. Is this another possible indication of linkage between
tolkAppiyar and the kApyas of the northwest of the upaniSads?

Finally, Deshpande quotes Ashok Aklujkar’s discussion on the
identification
of
"Parvata" the place in the southern india from where the mahAbHSya
tradition
was received. "Last in terms of acceptability is the equation of
‘parvata =
tri-kUTa (as mountain or region)’." I do not have access to Aklujkar’s
paper.
But, I thought it is interesting that tirikUTamalai (tri-kUTa mountain)
or
kuRRAlam is the potiyil mountain.

Regards

S. Palaniappan






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