pictures of ancient life and thought which may be
arranged in a plausible order.

It may be said that where everything is so vague, it would be better
to dismiss the whole subject of southern India and its religion,
pending the acquisition of more certain information, and this is what
many writers have done. But such wide regions, so many centuries, such
important phases of literature and thought are involved, that it is
better to run the risk of presenting them in false sequence than to
ignore them. Briefly it may be regarded as certain that in the early
centuries of our era Buddhism, Jainism and Brahmanism all flourished
in Dravidian lands. The first two gradually decayed and made way for
the last, although Jainism remained powerful until the tenth century.
At a fairly early date there were influential Sivaite and Vishnuite
sects, each with a devotional literature in the vernacular. Somewhat
later this literature takes a more philosophic and ecclesiastical
tinge and both sects produce a succession of teachers. Tamil Sivaism,
though important for the south, has not spread much beyond its own
province, but the Vishnuism associated with such eminent names as
Ramanuja and Ramanand has influenced all India, and the latter teacher
is the spiritual ancestor of the Kabirpanthis, Sikhs and various
unorthodox sects. Political circumstances too tended to increase the
importance of the south in religion, for when nearly all the north was
in Moslim hands the kingdom of Vijayanagar was for more than two
centuries (_c._ 1330-1565) the bulwark of Hinduism. But in filling up
this outline the possibilities of error must be remembered. The poems
of Manikka-Vacagar have such individuality of thought and style that
one would suppose them to mark a conspicuous religious movement. Yet
some authorities refer them to the third century and others to the
eleventh, nor has any standard been formulated for distinguishing
earlier and later varieties of Tamil.

I have already mentioned the view that the worship of Siva and the
Linga is Dravidian in origin and borrowed by the Aryans. There is no
proof that this worship had its first home in the south and spread
northwards, for the Vedic and epic literature provides a sufficient
pedigree for Siva. But this deity always collected round himself
attributes and epithets which are not those of the Vedic gods but
correspond with what we know of non-Aryan Indian mythology. It is
possible that these un-Ar