Postscript to post 35 above.
The tamilandvedas.com site repeatedly states that the Silappadikaaram is an "encyclopaedia of Hinduism". While there are naturally references to Jainism and Buddhism (and the Ajeevika religion) in this compendium of Hindoo-ism - since by that time, Ajeevikas, then Jains and eventually Buddhists had presumably** already come down to south India* - one of the pages of the tamilandvedas blog further mentions that only 4% of the Hindoo text features Jainism and only 1% features Buddhism (and may include Ajeevikas in that same 1%), while the remaining 95% of the Silappadikaaram is simply about Hindoo religion. But then, it is -after all- a Hindoo text authored by a Hindoo yati.
* In contrast, note how there is Absolutely No Mention of even a whiff of christianism in Silappadikaaram either, or even in Manimekhalai etc. This means christianism will need to forge in evidence of itself into these texts - backprojection. Christianism made a mistake in shifting Silappadikaaram further down in time: this has introduced a greater problem to christianism in that even in the 5th century CE, as Silappadikaaram is now dated to, there is no mention of christianism anywhere in TN/Kerala. But there is documented evidence of Tamil Nadu being prodigiously Hindu in Silappadikaaram's era (not to mention of all the references to Bharata Natyam being exclusively Hindoo still).
** Others have argued that there is some indication that the Buddhist religious contents of Manimekhalai were directly transposed from a Buddhist religious work in another southern language (one which was a purely religious text and had no story backdrop), and that Buddhism merely used older Tamizh elements as a framing story/narrative device/setting for "Manimekhalai". If this turns out to be true, it would point to a case of forgery too. All sorts of further pesky questions would then arise.
The tamilandvedas.com site repeatedly states that the Silappadikaaram is an "encyclopaedia of Hinduism". While there are naturally references to Jainism and Buddhism (and the Ajeevika religion) in this compendium of Hindoo-ism - since by that time, Ajeevikas, then Jains and eventually Buddhists had presumably** already come down to south India* - one of the pages of the tamilandvedas blog further mentions that only 4% of the Hindoo text features Jainism and only 1% features Buddhism (and may include Ajeevikas in that same 1%), while the remaining 95% of the Silappadikaaram is simply about Hindoo religion. But then, it is -after all- a Hindoo text authored by a Hindoo yati.
* In contrast, note how there is Absolutely No Mention of even a whiff of christianism in Silappadikaaram either, or even in Manimekhalai etc. This means christianism will need to forge in evidence of itself into these texts - backprojection. Christianism made a mistake in shifting Silappadikaaram further down in time: this has introduced a greater problem to christianism in that even in the 5th century CE, as Silappadikaaram is now dated to, there is no mention of christianism anywhere in TN/Kerala. But there is documented evidence of Tamil Nadu being prodigiously Hindu in Silappadikaaram's era (not to mention of all the references to Bharata Natyam being exclusively Hindoo still).
** Others have argued that there is some indication that the Buddhist religious contents of Manimekhalai were directly transposed from a Buddhist religious work in another southern language (one which was a purely religious text and had no story backdrop), and that Buddhism merely used older Tamizh elements as a framing story/narrative device/setting for "Manimekhalai". If this turns out to be true, it would point to a case of forgery too. All sorts of further pesky questions would then arise.