darams and such Tamil castes as the Kammalas and Lingayats, who claimed equality with the priestly class, some of the non-Brahmans began openly to question the superiority of the Brahmans and their authority in all social and religious matters. And the advent of Musalmans and the appearance of European Missionaries in the Tamil land during the 16th and 17th centuries, whose habits and social opinions were opposed to the social ideal and organisation of the Brahmans, only tended to aggravate this animosity. Such was the spirit and tendency of the people in South India during the early years of the latter half of this eventful epoch.
The Anti-Brahmanical School: The Brahman supremacy and vigorous exercise of the powers, which their aggressive culture had won for them in earlier years had their reaction; and the circumstances described above led to the rise of an anti-Brahmanical or the Siddhar school of philosophical rhymists. They were Yogis as well as medical men. The number of Siddhas or men who attained siddhi or the 'conquest of nature' is ordinarily reckoned as eighteen. Most of them were plagiarists and impostors, while some assumed the names of the great men of antiquity like Agastyar, Kapilar, and Tiruvalluvar. Being eaters of opium and dwellers in the land of dreams, their conceit knew no bounds. On the supernatural powers of the Siddhas one of them writes thus: —
எட்டுமலைகளைப் பந்தாயெடுத்தெறிவோம், எழு கடலையுங்
