| abstract | - In the Neolithic period, the Tamils were a herding, nature-oriented culture with a nature-based mythology of deities of the land. For example, Murugan(Skanda) was a major god of the hunt who battled evil forces (like Vaishnava Kṛṣṇa, he was often accompanied by a following of beautiful young women) and Ventan (Indra) was God responsible for rain and general well-being. A tradition of Bhakthi apparently existed among the early Tamils (Agama). In sacred places a liṇga-like pillar called a kantu represented the deity. With the arrival in South India of the Jains, and Buddhists in the third century BCE, the myths and religious practices of the Tamils became somewhat codified for the next thousand years.
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