History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c44.63.1

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.