and, மருதம் ; Murugan of the hills, குறிஞ்சி ; Durga of the desert, பாலை ; Vasudeva of pasture land, முல்லை ; and Varuna of the sea-coast, நெய்தல். It must be remembered that all these deities belong to the Aryan pantheon, nay, the first and the last were purely Vedic gods. The only god who might be called Dravidian was Muruga, as he was almost unknown under that appellation to the people of North India. Traces of this traditional classification might still be found in some caste names like Devendra Pallan, Varunakulam (fishermen) and Vasudevakulam (shepherds). Such was in brief the condition of religion among the Dravidians when the early bands of Aryan immigrants settled in the Tamil country.
Having said something about the state of religion among the Tamilians in the remote period, we shall now proceed to notice the changes that were brought about by their contact with the Aryans. The materials for this section will be drawn chiefly from the Tamil works of the Sangam period, (A. D. 150—550) and from the inscriptions published up to date.
The earliest Tamil author whose date could be ascertained approximately was Tiruvalluvar. He flourished probably about the end of the first century A. D. and in his Kural we find no traces of his predilection to any particular sector religion. He was no doubt a monotheist and he is now claimed both by the Jains and the Saivas as their savant. He is even worshipped by the Saivas of today as one of their saints or Nayanars. We shall
