History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c44.63
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c44.63
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v3.c44.63.1
The founding of maṭhas appears to have been not very ancient. The Baud. Dh. S. (III. 1. 16) in speaking of a householder who is an *agnihotrin* remarks 'after departing from his house he (the householder) stops at the extremity of the village, builds there a hut (kuṭī), or a cottage hall (maṭha) and enters it'. Here maṭha does not appear to have any technical sense. In the lexicon of Amara a maṭha is defined as 'a place where pupils (and their teacher) reside'. A temple and a maṭha were both established from the same religious motive or sentiment, but they served different purposes. A temple was built principally for the purpose of prayer and worship. It also often provided for religious instruction, for the recitation of the Mahābhārata, the Rāmāyaṇa and the purāṇas, for *kīrtans* to the accompaniment of music. But these latter were only secondary purposes. In the case of the maṭhas they were primarily intended for the instruction of pupils or the laity by some great teacher in the tenets of a sect or in the doctrines of some philosophy or in some branch of learning such as grammar, mīmāṁsā, astronomy and the like. In many cases shrines or temples are associated with or affiliated to the maṭhas, but the worship of a particular deity is not the primary object of maṭhas. Maṭhas among the followers of the Vedic religion probably owed their origin to the example of Buddhist monasteries (vihāras)²⁰⁹⁹.
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The foundation of maṭhas received a great fillip after the times of the celebrated *Advaita* teacher, the great Śaṅkarācārya, whom tradition credits with having established for the propagation of his system of Vedānta four maṭhas at Śṛṅgerī, Purī (Govardhanamaṭha), Dvārakā (Śāradāmaṭha) and Badarī (Jyotirmaṭha). Vide E. C. vol. VI Sg. No. 11 (an inscription dated 1652 A. D.) where reference is made to a grant in Śṛṅgapura, the dharmapīṭha established by Śaṅkarācārya, to the famous maṭha at Śṛṅgerī for the worship of Mallikārjuna, Vidyā-śaṅkara-svāmī and Śāradāmbā. Other ācāryas like Rāmānuja and Madhva established their own maṭhas and the number of maṭhas is now legion. Originally a maṭha started by a sannyāsin like the great Śaṅkarācārya must have had no property, as ascetics were prohibited by the śāstras from possessing property, except such articles of personal use as clothes, sandals, religious books on palm leaf or paper &c. Besides sannyāsins were required not to stay long in one place. So people built shelters for them, in order to accommodate them when they visited their town or village and these were probably originally called maṭha, which in its narrow sense means a place where an ascetic resides. In its wider sense it means an institution where a teacher presides and instructs several disciples in religious and analogous tenets, practices and dogmas.
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But gradually the zeal and devotion of the disciples and followers of the great teachers endowed the maṭhas with considerable moveable and immoveable properties. The origin of maṭhas (spoken of as maṭṭams in South India) has been lucidly set forth as follows in *Sammantha Pandara v. Sellappa Chetti* 2 Mad. 175 at p. 179 'a preceptor of religious doctrine gathers around him a number of disciples whom he initiates into the particular mysteries of the order and instructs in its religious tenets. Such of these disciples as intend to become religious teachers renounce their connection with their family and all claims to the family wealth and as it were affiliate themselves to the spiritual teacher whose school they have entered. Pious persons endow the schools with property which is vested in the preceptor for the time being and a home for the school is created and a maṭṭam constituted. The property of the maṭṭam does not descend to the disciples or elders in common; the preceptor, the head of the institution, selects from among the affiliated disciples him whom he deems the most competent and in his own life-time instals the disciple so settled as his successor, not uncommonly with some ceremonies. After the death of the preceptor the disciple so chosen is installed in the *gaddi* and takes by succession the property which has been held by his predecessor. The property is in fact attached to the office and passes by inheritance to no one who does not fill that office.
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It is in a certain sense trust property; it is devoted to the maintenance of the establishment, but the superior has a large domain over it, and is not accountable for its management nor for the expenditure of the income, provided he does not apply it to any purpose other than what may fairly be regarded as in furtherance of the object of the institution. Acting for the whole institution he may contract debts for purposes connected with his maṭṭam and debts so contracted might be recovered from the maṭṭam property and would devolve as a liability on his successor to the extent of the assets received by him'. Vide also *Giyana Sambandha Pandar Sannadhi v. Kandasami Tambiran* 10 Mad. 375, pp. 384–389; *Vidyapurna Tirtha Swami v. Vidyanidhi Tirtha Swami* 27 Mad. 435 at pp. 438–439, 451, 453–55, *Kailasam Pillai v. Nataraja*, 33 Mad. 265 (F. B.) at pp. 267, 273–277 for further remarks on the origin, growth and objects of maṭhas.²¹⁰⁰