Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/231

Rh Vyakarana which is not now extant, was then studied by the Brahmins, and proficiency in the Indra Vyakarana was considered as evidence of superior scholarship. The Tamils were familiar with the stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. They knew the Buddhist Pitakas, the Nigrantha Agamas, and the sacred books of Markali, the founder of the Ajivaka sect. They knew too the six schools of philosophy. It is remarkable that there is no allusion to Pânini’s Vyakarana or Patanjali’s Yoga philosophy, which were evidently unknown in Southern India, and had not become popular in Northern India.