Local Government in Ancient India c15.2

c15.2

We have now considered the subject of local government in ancient India in all its aspects on the basis of our available evidence, but our study will be incomplete without a reference to the growth of the various kinds of public institutions, which was one of the most remarkable characteristics of communal life, proving the success, to some extent, of the indigenous administration. We have already referred to the existence of public halls in the villages and towns of ancient India, where meetings of the assembly and other public functions were held. But besides these halls there were also other kinds of public buildings and institutions which may be noted in this connexion. One inscription registers the gift to a temple of a Maṭha (= a college) in the western street for reciting the Veda (ibid., p. 125). Another refers to the Maṭha of Āṇḍār Sundara-Perumāl at Kāñcīpuram (ibid., p. 123). A third inscription (ibid., p. 86) registers the gift of one house and a house-garden of 41 feet for purposes of a Maṭha, together with some land mortgaged to it as a guarantee for the regular supply of rice. 'The succession of pupils (of the donee) shall enjoy this Maṭha as long as the moon and the sun endure.' An inscription attributed to Kṛṣṇa III of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa dynasty [A. D. 940–56] mentions fines payable into court called *dharmāsana* (ibid., vol. III, p. 12). An inscription of the eastern Cālukya dynasty mentions two *sattras* (i. e. almshouses for Brāhmaṇas (*S. I. Ins.*, vol. I, p. 61), and another speaks of a *maṇḍapa* 'which was to be used as a watering-shed and *sattram*' (ibid., p. 136). No. 465 of 1909 (*Mad. Ep. Rep.*, 1910, p. 41), assigned to Kulaśekhara I, records a gift of two villages for a Vaiṣṇava Maṭha, where learned Brāhmaṇas from eighteen Vaiṣṇava countries were to be fed. No. 181 of 1912 refers to a maṭha-pati, who is an important functionary frequently appearing on temple councils in later records. No. 509 of 1912 (*Mad. Ep. Rep.*, 1913, p. 57) records a sale of land belonging to a temple for a Maṭha. An interesting series of inscriptions from the Kurnool district, assigned to the middle of the thirteenth century A. D., refers to a famous Maṭha named Golaki Maṭha, which is stated to have wielded its spiritual influence over three lakhs of villages under a succession of famous teachers. Another important Maṭha was that of the Mahāvratins mentioned in no. 423 of 1914 (*Mad. Ep. Rep.*, 1915, p. 42). A series of epigraphic records in South India relates to Maṭhas connected with Śaivism, which grew in power and popularity under the Cola kings, so that by the thirteenth century we notice a number of them under Śaiva Sannyāsins influencing the greater part of the Tamil country. No. 467 of 1908 refers to a Maṭha called Tiruvāgīśam-Rājendraśolan at Tirucchattimuram, and another Maṭha at Śembaikkuḍi (*Mad. Ep. Report*, 1908–9, p. 103). Other Maṭhas connected with the Śivayogins or Māheśvaras are mentioned in nos. 164, 177, 402, 583 of 1908. Besides the Maṭha there was also another institution called *guhai*, or a monastery. No. 471 of 1912 records the gift of such a monastery for a Śaiva saint by a village, which also provided for the feeding of all strangers who might visit it. The property of this monastery was confiscated in the twenty-second year of Kulottuṅga Cola III, when there was a general crusade against these non-Brahmanical Śaiva Maṭhas instigated by the Brāhmaṇas. The Maṭhas were not, however, altogether suppressed, since we find them flourishing in the time of Rājarāja III.