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186 their spirit of independence and adventure are patent in every song of the above collections. All these, however, grew weaker under the influence of the Buddhist and Jaina teachings, and were eventually stamped out by the peace-loving Brahmans, who in those days wielded such a mighty influence on the Tamil nation as to leave an indelible mark of Aryanism on everything non-Aryan.

Yet in every department of Tamil literature we can still perceive a slender vein of Dravidian thought running through. Its ground-work is purely non-Aryan and its super-structure necessarily Aryan; because, it was not as conquerors that the Aryan Brahmans entered the Tamil country, but as teachers of Vedic religion and philosophy. Unlike Islamism which carried fire and sword with it, wherever it went, the Indo-Aryans established their spiritual supremacy by gentleness, refinement and persuasive manners. Musalmans were dreaded by the conquered, whereas the Aryans were honoured and respected as the 'andanar' or the possessors of tender qualities, and 'parpar' or the seers of the Vedas. The early Musalman could not find a place for anything foreign to his less cultivated taste and intolerant militant religion, while the Aryan assimilated and absorbed whatever was good outside his racial culture and exalted it by associating it with his higher civilization. It is the characteristic of a conquering and victorious army which is not held in check by elevated national traditional culture and refined sense of