freinds, every town in south india had a buddhist/jain past. every town hadabudhist/jainname.atleast every town had a buddhist/jain quarters until 500 AD.
look at kancheepuram there is stll ajain kanchi there. look at nagapatnam there are are evidences of a buddhist nagai. in poombuhar there is a ruin of a buddhist poobpuhar opposite to the pallavaneeswaram temple.
to day some political parties try to revive a buddhist past of our lands and i do not see it as absurd altogether....
Yes both bhudhism and |Jainism were prosepered in TN along with |Hinduism. |( Hinduism was not wiped out but these religions had royal patronage|)
|Budhism over time had absorbed elements of |Hinduism like idol worship and their ahimsa was only in principle and the enrtire people were turned meat eaters.
|Later day bhudist scholars also moved away from the original religion to part advaitic and ||Tantric bhudism.
||Kanchi Paramacharya has mentioned that he had read the works of Nagarjuna and admired his works. The fact is both Bhudism and |Jainism on one side started adopting h|Indu practises and on thye other side due to royal patronage showed a wild streak in |Tamilnadu which eneded them here.