Agastya

• Origin: Sanskrit, Hinduism
• Meaning: uncertain
• Gender: Male
• Transcriptions अगस्त्य (Sanskrit)
• Pron: UH-gust-yuh

Agastya is the name of one of the seven great sages, or Saptarishis, in Hindu tradition. The name is also traditionally applied in India to the star Canopus, the second-brightest star in the night sky after Sirius.

Agastya is an ancient Vedic sage associated with several hymns of the Rigveda and appears in numerous later Hindu texts, including the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas. He is the husband of the female philosopher Lopamudra, who is likewise associated with hymns of the Rigveda.

Numerous legends surround Agastya. According to one account, he was miraculously born from a water jar after the gods Mitra and Varuna encountered the celestial nymph Urvashi. He is also famous for commanding the Vindhya Mountains to lower themselves, allowing passage between northern and southern India, and in another legend, he swallowed the ocean. Agastya became particularly important in South India, where he is traditionally associated with the spread of Vedic culture to the south and is revered as one of the Siddhars in Tamil tradition.

The origin and meaning of the name itself are uncertain, and several different etymologies have been proposed. A traditional folk etymology found in connection with the Ramayana interprets it as a compound involving aga “unmoving; mountain” and a verbal element meaning “to move,” hence “mover of mountains,” a reference to the legend in which Agastya causes the Vindhya Mountains to bow before him.

Another theory connects the name with the Sanskrit root अञ्ज् (añj), “to shine; to make clear.” This interpretation may also be connected with Agastya being the traditional Indian name for Canopus.

Another proposed etymology connects the name with an Indo-Iranian element gasta, interpreted as “sin; foul,” with the negative prefix a-, hence “sinless” or “undefiled.” Other scholars have proposed a Dravidian origin, possibly connecting the name with the Tamil akatti, the name of the flowering tree Sesbania grandiflora. None of these explanations is universally accepted, and the original meaning of Agastya remains uncertain.

The name also occurs in several regional forms, including Agasti and the Tamil Agathiyar.

Agastya is currently a popular male name in India among Hindus as well as in the diaspora. It currently appears in the U.S. Top 1000 and ranks at #929 (2025), and in England & Wales it ranks in at #728 (2025).

Sources

• Monier-Williams, Monier. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899, s.v. “agasti” and “agastya.”
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agastya