anti-sacerdotalism

Updated: May 5, 2025

And though the most rigid Brahmanism still flourishes in the Madras Presidency there is audible in the Dravidian hymns a distinct note of anti-sacerdotalism and of belief that every man by his own efforts can come into immediate contact with the Great Being whom he worships. The Vishnuism and Śivaism of the south go back to the early centuries of our era, but the chronology is difficult.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1