A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c12.71

c12.71

That Vedic religion had struck root in the South must have become clear from the references to the costly sacrifices performed by the monarchs of the age. Brahmins devoted to their studies and religious duties held a high position in society, and a song of Āvūr Mūlam Kiḷār portrays in much detail the life of Viṇṇandāyan, a brahmin of the Kaundinya-gōtra who lived in Pūnjārrūr in the Chola country. The followers of the Veda had often to engage in disputations with rival sectaries, and many are the references to such disputations proclaimed by the flying of flags and carried on with much gesticulation of the hands. The rival sects are not named, but they were doubtless Jainism and Buddhism which became more prominent in the succeeding age. From all accounts Hinduism was the dominant creed in this age. The worship of Subramanya (Murugan) and the legendary achievements of that deity are often alluded to. Other members of the pantheon were Śiva, Balarāma, Vishnu, Krishna, Ardhanārīśvara, and Anantaśāyi. The details of Vishnu worship with tulasi (basil) and bell are set forth in the Padirruppattu, and the custom is mentioned of people starving in the temple to invoke the grace of the god. Women went with their children to offer worship in the temples in the evenings. Asceticism was honoured and tridaṇḍi (triple staff) ascetics are particularly mentioned. The worship of Murugan was of ancient origin and embodied some indigenous features like the vēlaṇāḍal, an ecstatic dance in his honour. Indra also came in for special worship on the occasion of his annual festival held in Puhār. The epic poems of the post-Śangam period show that music and dancing were intertwined with religious rites from early times, the worship of Korravai by the hunters, of Krishna by the shepherdesses and of Murugan by the kuravas being the most striking instances of this. A temple of Sarasvati is mentioned in the Maṇimēkalai which also alludes to the kāpālikas, an austere class of Śaiva ascetics. Belief in reincarnation, the effects of karma in successive births and the power of fate was the common basis of all religion in India, and this was generally accepted in the Tamil country also. The joyous faith in good living that generally animates the poems of the Śangam age gradually gives place to the pessimistic outlook on life that is, in the last resort, traceable to the emphasis laid by Buddhism on the sorrows of life and its doctrine that the only way of escape was the repression of the will to live. This note of sadness, already noticeable in some poems towards the close of the Śangam age, becomes more pronounced in the setting of the Maṇimēkalai which contains a round denunciation of the fools who, not meditating upon the ruthlessness of death, spend their time in the blind enjoyment of carnal pleasures.