Early settlement
vaiShNavas -
After Malik Kafur sacked Srirangam, many priests resettled in Jaffna. (A bit of migration around 1310 is mentioned in pages 125-6 of The Tamil in Early Ceylon by C.Sivaratnam). King of Jaffna, Varothayan assisted the Pandyan king during the sacking and helped settle adherents in his Kingdom. The Alvar Temple, one of Jaffna’s oldest, reflects this influence.
Arya-chakravartin
As for Ilam, it was ruled by siva dvijas. The arya cakravartins belonged to sivacharya community, associated with the Rameswaram temple in India.
They held military ranks under the Pandyans and later established an independent Tamil kingdom in Jaffna. The rulers claimed the title Sethukavalar, meaning “Guardian of Sethu” (Rameswaram), reinforcing their religious and cultural ties.
By the time SV became strong in India, seas had become infested with sullas. And travelling abroad had also become fully nishiddha (whereas we find that originally there were pancaratrins in south east asia). Despite that there were some SV communities which entered elam and built perumal temples during vnagar era.
But post that most of the vaishnavas left elam (No support system. And to escape portuguese rule.).
Portuguese period
Their reign ended in 1619 when the Portuguese defeated Cankili II, the last ruler of the dynasty
Dutch period
5 During the Dutch period, a great commotion having arisen A in South India, various races of its inhabitants left their homes in Karaikal, and sought peace and comfort in Vadukkoddai, Karaithivu and other islands. Many Brahmin families both of the Vishnu and Saiva samayams settled here, also many Pallars of Cholaland came in such large numbers seeking employment in the fields of the Vellalas of Jaffna, that some of them had to return back for lack of jobs while others took to climbing the Palmyrah palm (Y.V.M. 56),
Civil war
V1s were about 3% (< 30000 people) - mostly iyers, some shivAchArya-s, very few Iyengars. Those with family connections escaped earlier in the 80s.
Brahmins were specifcially subject to torture and rape by sinhalese specifically because of hinduness.
Lots of v1s fought in ltte. Their top leadership had lots of brahmins like brigadier vidusha.
Some of those who remained were raped (eg. shAradAmbAL) and killed.
vaiShNavas
This legacy endured, as seen in figures like Vanamamalai Aiyangar, principal of Pirapaharan’s alma mater, Chidambara College, who had a major influence on VP’s guru (Ponnusamy Venugopal?).
The perumal temples are now served by sivacharya priests only. - RL