Bhakti movement
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The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation. Originating in Tamilakam during 6th century CE, it gained prominence through the poems and teachings of the Vaishnava Alvars and Shaiva Nayanars before spreading northwards. It swept over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE.
The Vaishnavite Saint Nammalvar. He is one of the most prominent of the 12 Alvars of the Vaishnavism Bhakti movement.
A copper alloy sculpture of a Shiva Bhakti practitioner from Tamil Nadu (11th Century or later).
Nammalvar (c. 798 CE), one of the Tamil Alvars and author of the Tiruvaymoli and the Tiruviruttam
Nayanars gallery at the Thiruthalinathar Shiva temple, Tiruppathur, a Shaiva Siddhanta temple. One important foundation of the Shaiva Siddhantha tradition is the Shaiva bhakti of the Nayanars.
Tamils
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The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar, Tamilians, or simply Tamils, are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, to the union territory of Puducherry, and to Sri Lanka. The Tamil language is one of the world's longest-surviving classical languages, with over 2000 years of Tamil literature, including the Sangam poems, which were composed between 300 BCE and 300 CE. People who speak Tamil as their mother tongue and are born in Tamil clans are considered Tamils.
Grey pottery with engravings, Arikamedu, 1st century CE
Megalithic sarcophagus burial from Tamil Nadu
Virampatnam jewelry from funerary burial, 2nd century BCE, Tamil Nadu