________________
OUTOBER, 1912.) BRAHMAN IMMIGRATION INTO SOUTHERN INDIA
231
the geography of southern India seems to be very meagre ; for he makes no mention of Pandya, Chola, etc., which names however are added by Katyâyana in his Vârtikas and are distinctly described by Patañjali. Asoka's edicts, the Mahabharata and the Ramdyan all show their full acquaintance with the south. Hence we have to conclude that the complete Årganisation of the south must have taken place after the 6th and before the Srd century B. O. In fact those were the times when Buddhism had grown into a powerful prosy letising religion, sending missionaries to all parts of the world. Certainly south India must have very early enough become subject to the influence of the new religion. Jainism, which there is reason to believe was even anterior to Buddhism, seems to have first made the southward march and brought down more Aryans of the north into the Carnatic and Tamil lands, having been pressed out of its home by the spread of the Buddbist sect. For we find from the Sravana Belgoļa inscriptions that Bhadrabahu, who was the reputed spiritual guru of Chandragupta, came and settled here in 297 B. C. Perhaps some of the Brahmanas also who were disturbed in their old homes in the north pressed towards the south and settled in various placos all along their route in those days. For we find that Tamil works which are known to belong to the 1st century A. D. at the latest and which may be referred to the 1st century B. O., speak distinctl of Brahmaņas and Brahmaņa institutions of sacrifice, and even refer to the heroes of the Ramdyana and the Mahabharata. Thus in Tirumurugappadai, one of the ten idylls, we find the terms bys i and Bacir al meaning brahmana' and 'sacrifice,' which distinctly refer to the presence of Brahmaņas in the district of Madura (the native place of the author of the work மதுரைக்கணக் காயனார் மகனார் நக்கீரனார்) and their uninterrupted performance of sacrifices. In another place be refers to them as 9 puun , a Tamil translation of the word dvija ( :). In another work mut muual, clear reference is made to Bhima, brother of Arjuna, who barnt the forest of Khâņdavana. Sillappadhikdram, which from clear internal evidence of the poem, belongs to the 1st century B. O., has pudis awers Our like Ayodhyâ bereft of the great Rama.'
It appears there occurred twelve years' famine in Hindustan in the 3rd century B. C., and a large number of people emigrated from the north in consequence of it. It is said that Bhadrabahu foretold the occurrence of the famine and led out the emigrants from Ujjain. This tradition is attested by the Jaina inscriptions at Sravana Belgola. Perhaps he brought with him numerous Bråbmaņa families also. There is nothing unreasonable in such a supposition, because in those daye there seems to have been very little difference between the Jains and the Hindus in point of belief or ritual. Only the Jina-diksha of the ascetics was a distinguishing feature of the religion at all repugnant to the Hindus. For even so late as A.D. 1868, in the time of Vira-Bukka-raja, the king is said to have brought about a union between the Jainas and the Srivaishnavas by making the leader of the latter faith living in Kanchi (Koil), Srirangam, and Tiranarayanapuram (Molkote) sign a document stating that the Jainas must not be looked upon as in a single respect different from them
point of doctrine or ritual. If each could be said of two extreme forms of Hinda religion at such a late period as A. D. 1868, we may understand how many Brábmagas in the 3rd century B. C. could have easily called Bhadrabaha their guru. Evidence for such a large immigration is found tom an unexpected quarter. Among the Dravida (Tamil) Brahmaņas we have a section of people called
, the Great Immigration, who themselves are subdivided into Mazhanadu ( @) and Molaga, probably from the names of the provinces where they made their first settlements. Brihat and Charanam mean the great migration, and must refer to a large sonthward movement caused by some such disaster as famine. 1 6 @=DGET is the archaic form of wou ; perhaps QWERT is the same as the Telaga Muriki nadu. The Mazhanadu section is itself sa bdivided into Kandra-manikkam, Mangudi and Sathiamangalam, etc., all villages along the Western Ghats; for, following the examples of all colonists in tropical lands, they must have
