The Chalukyas were the followers of Brahmanical religion but they also followed a policy of religious tolerance. During their reign Jainism prospered in the Deccan. Many Chalukyan kings granted villages to well known Jain scholars. There is no information regarding Buddhism. As regards Brahmanism there arrived the Bhagvata and Pashupati cults the cults of devotion to Vishnu and Shiva respectively. Superb structures were set up at Vatapi and Pattadakal in the honor of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. The sacrificial form of worship was composed. Of the Shaivite saints the most popular were Appar, Sambandar, Manikkavasagar and Sundarar.The hymns dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu have been preserved in two separate collections the Tirumurari and the Nalyira Prabandham.
The Jainism and Buddhism gradually gave way to a new form of religious worship the devotional cults of the Tamil saints which later came to be called the Bhakti movement. The devotional aspect was formulated in a relationship between god and man based on love. Tamil devotionalism achieved a great wave of popularity in the 6th and 7th centauries AD and continued in the hymns and sermons of the Nayanars and the Alvars.