The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c7.22

c7.22

The period of these ‘numerous kings’ with their ‘clumsy names and titles’, as Smith found it, is well portrayed in the literature of the age. A careful study of this literature does not however support the view that ‘the Tamils had developed an advanced civilization of their own, wholly independent of Northern India’.¹ Already the three northern religions of Brahminism, Buddhism and Jainism have made their influence felt, and the general conditions of cultured life appear perceptibly Aryanized. Brahmins like Buddhist and Jaina ascetics have come to occupy a distinct place in the social and religious life of the country and the pre-Aryan elements forced into the background.² We have already noticed the early performance of vedic sacrifices by Pāṇdyan kings. On the other hand it is possible that un-Aryan cults attained in Dravidian lands fuller and more independent development or survived in greater force than in the other parts of India more thoroughly colonized by the Aryans. And the line of this development can only be guessed by its survival in some parts, if not the whole, of what is known as Poruḷilakkaṇam, and in references like the Vēlan Āḍal in the Tirumurukārruppaḍai of Nakkīrar and the worship of the Veṭṭuvar described so graphically in canto 12 of the Śilappadikāram. It is remarkable how even in these references to manifestly pre-Aryan deities we are able to trace their progress towards securing good places for themselves in the pantheon of Hinduism. Thus in the Veṭṭuva-vari we see Korravai described as consort of Śiva and the incarnation of Lakṣmi. And Murugan the son of Korravai, is described as the son of six mothers, the captain of the forces of the gods, and the wealth of the Brahmins.¹ Again a poem ( No. 55 ) in the *Puranānūru* contains a beautiful reference to the story of the burning of the Tripura by Śiva and to the shrine of Subrahmanya in Śendil (Tiruccendūr); and the *Āycciyarkuravai* in the *Śilappadikāram* contains songs which embody the whole cycles of Rāma and Kṛṣṇa legends in terms which leave no room for doubt about the general prevalence of the mythology of Brahminical Hinduism in the Tamil land in those days. It has been suggested that stories like those of Kaṇṇappar, Caṇḍēsvarar and Kāraikkāl Ammai may be considered to contain traces of pre-Aryan religious customs. It may be so. And the *Śilappadikāram* and the *Maṇimēkalai* prove unmistakably the prevalence of Jainism and Buddhism side by side with the other cults and this indication receives confirmation, as has already been pointed out, from the early monuments of the Tamil land.