The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

66 - How Far Historical in Character?
into the Vīrasvarga, the heaven of the heroes, which would have been
their reward if they had fallen in battle. The occurrence of the kuśa
grass and the officiating of the Brahman on the occasion would
justify the inference that it was perhaps an imported ceremony.
These instances selected from among a large number give us an idea
of the result of the contact of culture between that which may be
regarded as South Indian and Tamil, and North Indian and Sanskrit.
The work is a professedly Buddhist work as was said, and [32]
Buddhism being a northern cult must have brought along with it much
that was northern though not necessarily Sanskritic. It is an open
question whether the earliest Buddhist teaching was embodied in
Sanskrit or one of the Prakrits including Pāḷi. But the details of
culture collected have no reference to Buddhism and are perhaps all
of them Brahmanical in point of character. The choice has been made
advisedly so that what is attempted to be illustrated is the degree of
contact between the two cultures and their consequent intermingling.
The fact that the author and the work are professedly Buddhist,
makes these all the more valuable as an indication that the infusion of
Sanskrit culture was not of the partially religious kind. The inference
therefore seems clear that the contact has been of considerable
standing, and the result, one of friendly borrowing without
narrowness or jealousy. There is no evidence of hostility in it,
notwithstanding that several of these Brahmanical traditions are
brought in such a way as to indicate disapproval.
The religious and philosophical tenets that are incorporated do
undoubtedly show Sanskrit influence as it is inevitable in that
connection. But what is to the purpose here is the flow of Northern
culture seems to have been free, and the incorporation of the elements