Page 182 - Hinduism

conception which was functional in character and elastic in scope.
A typical South Indian village almost invariably has a temple dedicated to Ayyanar or Hariharaputra or Hanuman or Anjaneya, or Ganesa. On many hill- tops there are shrines dedicated to the Devi (Chandi) or Kartikeya also named Subrahmanya. These exemplify the tolerant and assimilative outlook of the Aryans. In the context mention has already been made of the Vratyastoma (a particular sacrifice or ritual) by means of which masses of non- Aryans (Vratyas) were admitted into the Aryan society.
According to South Indian tradition, Tamil was first developed by the sage Agastya, to whom a grammar, a treatise on philosophy and many other works are ascribed. The oldest Tamil grammar now extant, the Tolkappiyam, is said to have been the work of one of his disciples. The Saivite and Vaishnavite revival due to the Brahmins in Southern India, since the 8th century, brought about a counter movement among the Jains. Early Buddhism in Northern India adopted the Prakrit or vernacular speech for its religious treatises. On the same analogy, Buddhism and Jainism in the South created works in the dialects of the people. The Dravidian Buddhists and Jains created a Tamil literature which was anti-Brahminical in sentiment and covered the period between the 9th and 13th centuries.
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