Truth appeared as the God of Wrath and Destruction. Mayon, the blue-complexioned, was the embodiment of Fame,¹ His brother, Valiyon, whose complexion was as white as a conch-shell, was the personification of undisputed Strenght.² Indra and Varuna ranked only as demi-gods.

Paripadal, one of the Sangam anthologies, makes mention of the Vdic pantheon³ of gods, such as the twelve Adityas, the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras and the twin Asvini-devas; but the worship of these deities had not yet taken root among the mass of the people. Some of the kings were persuaded to perform Vedic sacrifices, which they did more for the purpose of winning earthly renown than for the achieving of heavenly rewards. One of the Pandya kings, Muthu-kudumi Peru Vazhuthi, who lived before the time of the submergence of the Pahruli river, had the distinguishing epithet of Pal-yaga salai, which means the possessor of many sacrificial halls and another Chola king is known as Peru-killi who performed the Rajasuya scrifice. Early Aryan thought appears to have been introduced into Tamilakam with Vedic ritualism.

The Tholkappiyam and the Paripadal make incidental mention of the early speculations concerning the Universe, man’s place in it and the ultimate destiny of humanity. The Sankhya system of philosophy was in vogue from very early times; atttention, however, does not appear to have been centred rount the study of philosophy, until the coming of the Jains and Buddhists. Within a century or two after the time of their illustrious founders, these great religions appear to have been introduced into Tamilakam. Somewhere about this time, there appeared on the firmament of Tamilakam a star of the first magnitude which continues to shed its lustre even to this day. Tiruvalluvar, whose name is known to all parts of the civilized world, and whose teachings have lent a unique grandeur to the language in which they were uttered, lived in an age of great intellectual activity. The ferment, introduced by the great heresies of Jainisam and Buddhism, made the exponents of Vaidika Dharma revalue the trational teachings and to formulate a course of conduct which, while remaining within the established tenets of the ancient Dharma, whould also appeal to those who whould not accept the authority of the Vedas. The Universal gospel of Tiruvalluvar met this demand and has ever since been acclaimed as the Uttara veda.

When Buddhisam and Jainisam were first introduced, they were considered merely as systems of thought and were received with open arms. The disciplined life of the monk and the self-sacrifice

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¹Puram, LVI, 13.

² Puram, LVI, 12.

³Paripadal III, 6-8; VIII, 4-8.