South India

Up until now, the accounts of historical developments in religion have been focused on the northern part of the subcontinent, and especially in the Gangetic basin. We turn our attention now to South India which provides us many windows into the development of religion in the post-classical period.

The southern story begins in the third or fourth century bce. A literature appeared in the Tamil language by at least the first century ce, much of it associated with an “academy” (caii&am) of poets headquartered near the capital of the Pamiya chieftains in Maturai. In this literature one finds descriptions of a culture and landscape that largely pre-dated the coming of northern influences. This culture, generally called Dravidian, had its roots in several sources including neolithic settlements of the south and a megalithic culture that had penetrated South India by at least the eighth century bce - this culture was characterized by its use of urns for burial and the erection of huge stones over their buried dead.

The culture described in this cankam literature was relatively “democratic” inasmuch as hierarchialization appears not yet to have taken place. The poets divided their space into five landscapes (tinais): agricultural tracts, pastoral areas, hilly spaces, coastal zones, and barren tracts. Each landscape had its own character and ethos reflected in its lifestyle and deities. certain flowers, for example, were associated with the “moods” of the people, and the differing kinds of love relationships in each area.² Each tract had its own deity. Murukan, for example, was the god of the hills who was thought to be a hunter present in nature and the foliage of the hills. He could dispel negative power (ananku) from both nature and person and could possess the devotee. He was represented by his lance and the shaman who carried a lance (velan). Similarly, the goddess Korravai roamed in the barren spaces embodying the hostility of this landscape. These deities were terrestrial in nature, and, in some cases, were seen as mythical ancestors to the peoples of that tract.

The worldview of this early poetry was chthonic - rooted in the earth. Little, if any, metaphysical speculation occurred. Elephants, peacocks, and flowers were symbols of the richness and fertility of life. While the land was seen as feminine, it could be dangerous if left uncontrolled.

As early as the third century bce, at least three groups from the north had begun to migrate into the south: Jain monks had settled in caves outside the cities and along the coast; Buddhists, some of whom may have come from Sri Lanka, had begun to settle; and brahmans and their practices were mentioned in the carikam poems. By the third century ce a certain degree of “Prakritization” had occurred. Buddhists and Jains were writing texts in Tamil and had gained influence in certain of the courts (for example, some of the Pantiyans had Jains as advisers in their courts, and the Iksvakas patronized Buddhists in what is now southern Andhra Pradesh). By the fourth or fifth century ce, Buddhism and Jainism enjoyed a certain hegemony in the south. Lifestyles, literature, and ethics took on a Jain or Buddhist cast.

It was in the seventh century that an explicitly “Hindu” culture developed. One of the purveyors of this culture was the Pallava dynasty, a royal family who established a capital at Kancipuram and a seaport at Mahabalipuram. The Pallavas brought architectural styles and other influences from the Gupta era by way of the Calukyas. The Pallavas formed an alliance with local landowners (velalas) and imported brahmans to whom they donated land for villages, known as brahmadeyas, centers from which brahmanic culture radiated outward. Brahmans became the “kingmakers” and together with veelaelas legitimated kingship and participated in the construction and conduct of temples.³