the South · Part 2

of Sambandar. According to a Saivite legend, after his re-conversion, he ordered a massacre of Jains in Samantham, a village in Madurai district. The philosophical treatises such as the Saiva Siddhanta texts contain elaborate disputations of Buddhist and Jain philosophies. Some of the Saiva Siddhanta texts, such as Sivagnana Sithiyar, contain a separate section called ‘parapakkam’ which essentially refute Buddhist and Jain theological arguments. Bhakti literature and hagiography narrate instances of conflict and the defeat of heterodoxy. Inscriptions indicate that such conflict was accompanied by violence with the impaling of many monks. Despite the sophisticated philosophical disputation, it was the nature of the Bhakti movement and the royal patronage that it received that ultimately led to the downfall of Buddhism and Jainism. By the eleventh century, both these religions were effectively defeated. While Buddhism was wiped out in the Tamil country as in much of India Tamil-speaking Jain communities have survived in pockets in XI History - Lesson - - Cultural Syncretism: Bhakti Movement in India of protest against rites and ceremonies, superstitions, and unwanted formalisms. A popular monotheistic movement along with Vaishnava Bhakti movement came to be launched. The monotheists followed a path which was independent of dominant religions of the time, Hinduism and Islam. They denied their allegiance to either of them and criticized superstitious and orthodox elements of both the religions. The advent of Islam with the Turkish conquest posed a challenge to Vedic scholars and priests. By the end of the fourteenth century Islam had spread to large parts of India. A considerable section of the Indian population had taken to Islam. Combined with state power, the universal message of Islam with emphasis on equality attracted the lower sections of society. The new political and social situation created conditions for the growth of non- conformist movements with anti-caste, anti-vedic and anti-puranic traditions. The resultant changes in the cultural sphere were development of regional languages, the evolution of Hindustani, and of Indo-Muslim music and architecture. The Hindu response to Muslim political power was complex. While there was considerable hostility to the new religion there