History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c44.67

v3.c44.67

That temples and maṭhas have throughout the centuries been supplementary to each other, both ministering to the religious and spiritual wants of the people can be shown by a few examples. It has been seen how Bāṇa (in the seventh century) refers to the recitation of the Mahābhārata in the temple of Mahākāla at Ujjayinī. The Rājatarangiṇī (V. 29) states how king Avantivarman of Kashmir appointed one Rāmaṭa Upādhyāya to the post of expounder (vyākhyātṛpadaka) of grammar in a temple (about 900 A. D.). The Agnipurāṇa²¹⁰¹ enjoins that in a temple of Śiva or Viṣṇu or the Sun if any one reads a book he may thereby acquire (the merit of) the imparting of all knowledge. Some maṭhas on the other hand provided for instruction not only in spiritual knowledge but also in secular knowledge. In the Patna Inscription of the time of the Yādava king Singhaṇa, we read that Cāṅgadeva, the court astronomer and astrologer, established in *śake* 1128 (1207 A. D.) a maṭha for the study of the Siddhānta-śiromaṇi (an astronomical work) of Bhāskarācārya, the grandfather of Cāṅgadeva (E. I. vol. I. p. 338), the maṭha being endowed with lands and other sources of income by two feudatories of Singhaṇa. Vide also E. C. vol. VI. Sg. No. 11 referred to above (p. 907) where in endowing the maṭha at Śṛṅgerī provision was made for the worship of Mallikārjuna and Śāradāmbā.