09. ASIVAKA RELIGIN IN TAMIL NADU : MARKALI KOSALAR BIO – DATA IN HISTORICAL HINTS

‘Ajeevika’ (pali) means those who follow a disciplined life. It also means the living principles of laity and religious people. ‘Asivagam’ refers to a flawlers place or a place where you get the best remedy. The Tamil Asivagam religion is a five fold tradition. It was found throughout ancient India. Remnants of Asivagam religion are found in many places in the distict of Trichy, Madurai and Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. The principles of Asivakam were formulated and compiled by religious scholars to suit the needs of the time and the environment. The founder of Asivagam is MarkaliKosalar who created the philosophy of ‘Natural law’, ‘theory of uzh’ (Tamil). A separate book on the Asivaga religion is not available. Anspicious page references canbe found through many page references. Many scholars have argued that primary evidence, including field studies and archaeological excavation data from keeladi, Adhichanallur, Arikkamedu, Porunai,Vembakkottai confirms Asivaga religious identity. It can be seen that Jainism, Buddhism and Asivagam were the anti – Vedic religious which were opposed to the Vedic religion, sacrifice and rejection of the Sanskrit language. They had the principle of denial of God as their opposing ideology. TherefourAsivakaSithars were hanged. The versatile gifts of the Asivars, religious symbols, relics of the Asivagas, the Asivagam information reference list, a Histirical analysis of the principles given by the philosophers to the above study and the reference books are as follows.