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CHAKRAVARTI :
who are accustomed to keep accounts in the traditional form get their early training by studying this mathematical work called Encuvadi and Tamil astrologers similarly get their grounding in Jinëndramālai which forms the mainstay for their predictions popularly known as ārūờha.
This completes our cursory survey of Tamil literature with special reference to Jaina contributions thereto. The prevalence of Jainism in ancient Tamil land and its usefulness to the Tamil people are not merely vouchsafed for by Tamil literature but are also evidenced by the customs and manners prevalent among the upper classes of the Tamil society. Even after the Saivaite revival, when several Jainas were made, under penalty, to embrace Hinduism for political reasons, these converts to Hinduism, who went back to their own respective castes in the Hindu fold, zealously preserved their customs and manners acquired while they were Jainas. Though they changed their religion, still they did not change their ācāras. It is curious that the Tamil term saivam, which primarily means the follower of the Saiva faith, means in popular parlance a strict vegetarian. A strict vegetarian among the Hindu vēļāļas is said to observe saivam in the matter of food. Similarly the brāhmaṇas in the Tamil land are saivam, i.e., strict vegetarians. In this respect the Tamil brāhmaṇa is distinguished as the Drāviờa-brāhmaṇa from the Brahmins in other parts of India who are brought under the category of Gauda-brāhmaṇas. The Drāvida-brāhmaṇas, wherever they be, are strict
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