Vedic Brahmin practices in ancient South India

[Venkatraman Iyer]

>The second puRam poem in original tamil is clear: brahmins,
>experts of 4 vedas, cut asunder the dead men. I do not think
>this cutting was done for a common man by Brahmins. The poem
>mentions kings. However, the common populace would have had
>its regular cremation rites specialists.

This shows how the indigenous customs spread into Indo-Aryan culture:
before a group was assimilated, Brahmins would come into it and adopt
those values most admired by that group in order to gain respect. Thus
the custom would have gained a foothold in the Brahminic religion and
would be perpetuated when descendants of the Brahmins wrote
lawbooks or copied texts with the appropriate insertions.
(Hart, The poems of ancient Tamil, OUP, 1999, paperback edition).

A similar view on brahminical adaptation was expressed by
Professors M. Witzel and M. Deshpande in this list,
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9605&L=indology&P=R576




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