* தமிழர் மதம்
15 sacrificial cult of the Vedas and the Brahmanas under the cloak of securing the Heavenly favour for the prosperity of kings; and in this they succeeded so well that the kings became in fact mere puppets in their hands and sacrifices lasting even hundreds of years came to be performed with the wealth of the monarchs. In these sacrifices hundreds and even thousands of innocent creatures such as goats, sheep, oxen, buffaloes, horses, and others had been slaughtered and intoxicating drinks prepared from Soma plants were freely indulged in. Such inhuman deeds and inebriant revels done in the name of religion cannot but seem revolting and barbaric to the Tamilian mind nurtured in the teaching of its saints and sages who inculcated the virtue and duty of showing love and mercy towards all living beings, of respecting the sanctity of their life brought into existence not by the hand of man but by the hand of God, and of striving one's utmost to relieve their sufferings, and help them to live their life with ease and peace to the limit of time decreed by Providence.
Eventually strong protests came to be raised against animal sacrifices perfomed by the Brahmins, and of those who thus protested two Tamilian sages named Kapila and Patanjali stood foremost to set free the people and the ruling chiefs from the trammels of specious Brahminic teachings and their expensive and inhuman rituals. They showed how the sin of killing and drinking brought on insensibility to tender feelings and made this earth a jungle of wild beasts, and how whereas the virtue of love and mercy and wisdom lead the fit souls to obtain redemption and enjoy heavelny bliss even while they live here. These teachings of love and mercy touched the hearts of all and spread so rapidly everywhere that the ritualistic cult of the Brahmins had begun to fall into disrepute; and the kings also who were wise and learned came forward to take an active part in propagating humanitarian principles and in laying bare the futility of Vedic learning and the evil of animal sacrifice, as is manifest from such Upanishads as Chandogya, Kaushitaki, Mundaka and others. These high spiritual teachings of some noble kings gave such a strong stimulus to an
