01-20-2006, 02:44 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->One thing to consider is that from ~ 200BC to 800AD the South was mainly Buddhist and Jain. It was the perseverance of the Alwars that revived the Sanathan Dharma and that survived the onslaught of Islam and Missionaries. The resistance to mainstream Hinduism could be due to this 'recent' non Hindu memory? And this was exploited by the others?
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Are you sure that majority of South India became Buddhist or Jain?
Vast of majority of people would have been illiterate and would have been loathe to give up their Jati traditions.
The only people literate enough to read the Jain/Buddhist doctrines would have been the Brahmanas and the Rulers. So the Jain/Buddhist conversion would have been limited to these two groups.
The average man on the street probably continued to worship his own family Devatas.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Are you sure that majority of South India became Buddhist or Jain?
Vast of majority of people would have been illiterate and would have been loathe to give up their Jati traditions.
The only people literate enough to read the Jain/Buddhist doctrines would have been the Brahmanas and the Rulers. So the Jain/Buddhist conversion would have been limited to these two groups.
The average man on the street probably continued to worship his own family Devatas.