animists or demonolators when they first came in contact with the Aryans. Till about the third or fourth century A. D. Brahmanism of the Vedic type, buddhism and Jainism were professed in the Tamil districts. Or, as Dr. Pope has 'said the prevailing religion of this period was a most remarkable mixture of Saivism, Jainism, Buddhism and the ancient demonolatry'. I must add to these Indraism and Vishnuism. During the puranic period when Brahmanism came out triumphant, that is between the fifth and eighth centuries, the cults of Siva and Vishnu alone survived. Siva is said to have nipped the head of Brahmna, given a kick to Yama, knocked out the teeth of the Sun, and so on ! Such was the fate of the Vedic deities.
All the extant Tamil works on religion and ethics hear clear marks of Aryan influence, and it would be obviously untenable to hold with Dr. Pope that the Tamils have developed a religion of their own independent of Brahmanism from the earliest period and that 'Saivism is the old pre-historic religion of South India essentially existing from pre-Aryan times.' It is urged by the same scholar that evil spirits and blood-thirsty gods were worshipped by the early war. like Naga-Dravidians with rude and cruel ceremonies; and before the time of Sankaracharya even human sacrifices seem to have been offered to them. But this shamanism or demonolatry was surely no Saivism, any more than hydrogen is water, though it had some of its essential elements similar to those of the Vedic
