பண்டைத் தமிழரின் சமய மரபு / Religious Tradition of Ancient Tamil Society

Abstract

Among the languages of the world, Tamil is considered to be an archaic language in many aspects such as literature, art, culture, politics and trade. The way of life of Tamils provides research fields for carrying out various studies. Thus, it becomes necessary to know what kind of worship or religious tradition was followed by the ancient Tamils. Each of the institutionalized religions tries to establish its religion as the Tamil religion. In the Tamil context, we know that the non-Vedic religions like Jainism, and Buddhism and Vedic religions like Saivism and Vaishnavism have influenced literature, grammar, inscriptions, copper plates, tombstones, historical records etc. Sangam literary texts play a major role in identifying the cultural status of Tamils. Usually, the researchers decide the conclusion of the study by referring to the association of literature. Anthropologists, ethnographers, folklorists, sociologists, etc. use various data that reveal the life of the ancient Tamils and show that the worship of Tamils is not institutionalized by religious methods and is independent always. In this case, the article sets out to find out what religious tradition was practised in the ancient Tamil community.

Keywords

• religious
• tradition
• sangam literature
• ancient tamil society.