head-quarters are at Udipi, and who are most numerous in the southern part of the district, but the Kōta, Kōtēshwar, and Haiga or Havīka Brahmins are all branches of the same, the differences between them having arisen since their settlement in Canara; and, though they now talk Canarese in common with the people of other parts to the north of the Sītanadi river, their religious works are still written in the old Tulu-Malayālam character. Tulu Brahmins, who have settled in Malabar in comparatively late years, are known as Embrāntris, and treated as closely allied to the Nambūtiris, whose traditions go back to Mayūr Varma. Some families of Shivalli and Havīka Brahmins in the southern or Malayālam portion of the district talk Malayālam, and follow many of the customs of the Malabar or Nambūtiri Brahmins. Many of the thirty-two villages in which the Brahmins are said to have been settled by Mayūr Varma are still the most important centres of Brahminism. Notably may be mentioned Shivalli or Udipi, Kōta and Kōtēshwar, which have given names to the divisions of Tulu Brahmins of which these villages are respectively the head-quarters. When the Brahmins were introduced by Mayūr Varma they are said to have been followers of Bhattāchārya, but they soon adopted the tenets of the great Malayālam Vēdāntic teacher Sankarāchārya, who is ordinarily believed to have been born at Cranganore in Malabar in the last quarter of the eighth century, that is, soon after the arrival of the Brahmins on the west coast. Sankarāchārya is known as the preacher of the Advaita (non-dual) philosophy, which, stated briefly, is that all living beings are one with the supreme spirit, and absorption may finally be obtained by the constant renunciation of material in favour of spiritual pleasure. This philosophy, however, was not sufficient for the
