Communities and Traditions
The main spiritual traditions of South India include both Shaivite and Vaishnavite branches of Hinduism, although Buddhist and Jain philosophies had been influential several centuries earlier. Shravanabelagola in Karnataka is a popular pilgrimage center for Jains. Ayyavazhi is spread significantly across South India. Its followers are more densely populated in South Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Christianity has flourished in coastal South India from the times of St. Thomas the Apostle who came to Kerala in 52 AD and established the Syrian Christian tradition today called as Saint Thomas Christians or Nasranis. There is a large Muslim community in South India, particularly in the Malabar Coast, which can trace its roots to the ancient maritime trade between Kerala and Omanis and other Arabs. Kerala is also home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world who are supposed to have arrived in the Malabar coast during the time of King Solomon. The oldest surviving Jewish synagogue in the Commonwealth of Nations is the Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi, Kerala.
Read more about this topic: South Indian Culture
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