CULTURAL TRENDS (750-1200)
Religious Conditions: Importance Of Temples
And Monastic
Temples held an important place in the
predominantly agrarian economy of medieval
India, especially in south India. Even though
temples rose to power during the Pallava period,
they gradually consolidated their position under
the Cholas with the help of royal patronage. The
importance of temples was more visible during
the early medieval period largely because of the
fact that land grants during this period were
given more prolifically. During this period we
see the emergence of great royal temples which
symbolised the power of the ruling kingdom.
From the 10th to 13th centuries, a large number
of temples were built in various regional
kingdoms. On account of the royal support and
patronage they received, temples had an access
to agricultural produce and a control of society.
They were also used to counter the divisive forces
prevailing in those kingdoms. Temples flourished
on the landgrants and cash endowments by the
crown, merchant guilds and others which, in
turn, made them the biggest employer, money
lender and consumer of goods and service. Its
social role, based on this economic substructure,
pivoted around its role of preserving and
propagating education and culture.
Sources both archaeological and literary like
Mitakshara, Pratagmanjari and Tahkike Hind,
help a lot to reconstruct the socio-economic role
of temples. All these are corroborated by copper
plates, stone inscriptions and numismatic
findings.
Land endowments were the most important
resources of the temples in medieval south India.
The landgranted to the temples had two
functions: first, to yield and income with which
to maintain a specified ritual service in the name
of the donor, and second, to provide a productive
place to invest funds granted to the temples for
the performance of services in the first place, they
increasingly led to an expansion of temple
personnel who were paid in kind or through
allotment of land. This resulted in the growth of
feudal land tenure which is evident from various
epigraphic references to tenants fiscal
concessions and immunities which accompanied
many grants perhaps caused greater economic
bondage of the peasantry and weakened the
central authority.
There were various ritual functionaries
attached to temples who were given monetary
endowments by the temple out of their income
from the landgrant and donations from various
quarters. These functionaries included members
of educational institutions (mathas) reciters of
Sanskrit and Tamil sacred works, teachers,
scholars, musicians and poets. They also received
a share of consecrated food offering of the
deities. The economic value of consecrated food
had an important funciton in the endowment
of money to the temple. The secondary
distribution of consecrated food to the devotees
permitted the temple functionaries to resources
of the temple.
Temples also discharged vital responsibilities
towards agricultural development, e.g.,
providing irrigation facilities to agriculturists.
Temples also had economic functions in their
varied roles as landholders, employers, consumer
of goods and services, and banks. They also
discharged the function of money lenders and
depositories. The continuous handling of funds
and receipts of gifts in cash, goods, precious
metals and services gave the temples capital
which the usually reinvested in productive ways.
We have evidences the loans given by temples
to village assemblies for economically productive
purposes. They also granted loans to cultivators,
traders and artisans in reutrn for various articles
given as interest ranging usually between 12.5
percent to 15 percent.
continued ...............in nex part
