THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL February 4, 1961

The State, the Temple and Agricultural Development A Study in Medieval South India

Burton Stein

The focal point of intensive agricultural development of present Indian Community Development Programme has been the Community Project Block,

Here, 100 villages, more or less, are subjected to relatively intensive inputs of capital, technical assistance, and social services with the aim of substantially raising agricultural production and incomes as well as making village communities better places in which to live.

The 100 village area is an administratively functional region into which local, state, and all-India resources can be channeled with efficiency. Intensive regional development is modern in most nays, parti­cularly in the way in which human and material resources from India, and beyond India are brought to bear upon a small village region.

ln other ways, however, this kind of agricultural development has precedents going back to the large irrigation schemes of British India and earlier.

The object of this paper is to examine the role of the state in South Indian regional development carried out by temples daring the Chola and Vijayanagar periods ( 900-1600A.D).

THOUGH the concept and func-l ion of statehood was markedly

different in medieval South I n d i a than it is in modern India , there was the same concern w i t h the produc­t iv i ty and welfare of the village and wi th the relationship of vil lage wel­fare lo the stabil i ty and strength of the stale. In the Amuktamalyadu. a Telugu epic poem of the sixteenth century which is widely at t r ibuted to the greatest of the Vi jayanagar rulers. Krishndevaraya. the k ing presumably Krishnadevarava, states:

The extent of the slate is not the cause of its prosperity. When a state is small in extent then both v i r tue | "dhurma" | and prosperi­ty |"artha' ' | wi l l increase only when tanks and i r r iga t ion canals are constructed and favour is shown to the poor cult ivators in the matter of taxat ion and services-1

Vet, notwithstanding the recognized impor t a nee of agr icu l tura l develop­ment, neither the Chola nor Vi jaya-nagar states had departments of i r r i ­gation or publ ic works dealing w i t h agr icu l tu ra l improvements. Such activities were left to individuals , separate villages, and extra-village insti tutions such as temples.

The best examples of regional de­velopment which took place in this pe r iod were those under the auspi­ces of South Indian temples, often i n v o l v i n g as many as 150 to 300 villages. One reason for the pro­minence of temple-sponsored deve­lopment is that the stone and copper inscript ions, the basic historical

sources for this period, give more informat ion about temples because most of the surviv ing inscriptions dealt essentially w i t h temple affairs. A more important reason is that temples mobilized resources of land and money second only to the state and were therefore capable of financing such projects.

Temple-directed regional agri­cul tural development grew out of the nature of the endowments which temples received. Endowments were made in order to provide income for temple maintenance, for festi­vals honouring the deities, and for food offerings to the deities. The endowment typica l ly involved the provis ion of a perpetual service for the merit of the donor or someone designated by the donor. In order to provide for these services, a per­manent earning resource had to be established, the proceeds f rom which would pay for the specified service. Endowments were of two k inds : land and money. Vil lage or land endowments usually gave the tem­ple the major share of income (mel-varum) while the cultivators retain ed the minor share (kudivuram). The temple, thus, d i d not have owner­ship over the endowed land, hut a command over a share of its in­come. There were important respon­sibi l i t ies toward the endowed land. D u r i n g the Chola period, for exam­ple, a scries of Srirangam temple in scriptions f r o m the reign of Kulo t -tunga I (1070-1118) describe a gigantic process of redevelopment of a large po r t ion of temple lands

179

buried under -and by Hoods of the Kaveri r iver. Under the auspices of the temple, these ruined lands were leased on a new basis for re­clamation and ultimate r e c u r v a ­tion.2 Money endowments were also made to provide perpetual services. This confronted the temples wi th the need In insert such funds securely in order to realize a perpetual in­come or interest (po l i yu t tu ) . Mo­ney settled upon tin- temple was frequently loaned to village assem­blies for developmental purposes which gave the temple an impor­tant role in mobi l iz ing developmen­tal funds wi th in a legion. In other places, edowments of money were frequenly baned by the temple to commercial firms for a perpetual interest of around 20 per cent. In most other temples, not favourably placed for commercial investment of endowed funds, it was necessary to invest the funds in their own tem­ple villages. The earnings on such invested funds would come in the form of a greater income from the major share of income already re­ceived by the temple.

The Tirupati Temple : An Example

The T i rupa t i temple in Andhra State offers an excellent example of regional agr icul tural development produced by the appl ica t ion of money endowments as capital for the improvement of villages winch had been endowed to the temple d i n i n g the Vi jayanagar period. This case also illustrates the importance of the stale in developmental activities

February 4, 1961 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL

which included some 150 villages by the sixteenth century.*

From the time of its establish­ment in the n in th century to the middle or the fifteenth century, the T i r u p a t i temple had become a sig­nificant centre of Vaishnavism in the northern p a r i of Tami lnad . Its g rowth in importance was due. in part, to the persecution of Vaishna-viles du r ing the Chola period, espe­cially in the eleventh century, and the town of T i r u p a t i was probably established as a sanctuary for Vaish-navites safe from Saivite Chola rulers. Another factor in the grow­ing importance of the Tirupati tem­ple p r io r to the fifteenth century was the occupation and plunder of many Hindu temples in the Southern part of the peninsula by Musl ims du r ing the fourteenth century sulta­nate of Madura . In this latter per iod, the T i rupa t i temple became a refuge for many Vaishnavite priests f rom southern Tami lnad and even for the major deity Sr i Ranganatha of Sr i rangam when that great tem­ple was under M u s l i m control . In recognition of the increasing impor­tance of T i r u p a t i after the eleventh century. South Ind i an rulers pro­vided endowments to support the r i tua l activities of the Temple. The Yadavaraya rulers of Vengi in the thir teenth and early fourteenth cen­turies became supporters of the Temple, and maintained a close supervisory control over its affairs3 . In the middle of the fourteenth cen­tury , the Yadavaraya state was

- superceded by the young and ex­panding Vi jayanagar stale. How­ever, the rulers of the first dynasty of Vi jayanagar ( 1136-1485) d id not succeed to the supervision or management of the T i r u p a t i temple: the early rulers were Saiviles and therefore less interested in this Vishnu Temple and they were also p r i m a r i l y concerned wi th the con­solidation of their rule in the southern parts of Tami lnad far from T i r u p a t i . The absence of any effective te r r i tor ia l power around T i r u p a t i in the early years of the Vi jayanagar per iod permit ted the Temple to establish an independent managerial and trustee body, the stfianaltar. The emergence of this

For a delailed discussion of the eco­nomic operations of the Temple see the writer 's "The Economic Func­tion of a Medieval South Indian Temple," The Journal of Asian Stu­dies. X I X (February, 1960) 163-76.

management body by 1390 was of par t icular importance in the cen­tury of r ap id growth w h i c h the Temple underwent f r o m 1456 to 1505. Enormous responsibilities came to rest upon this management body, and it is not too much to say that its establishment was a neces­sary precondit ion for the scale of growth achieved.4

By 1 156, the Temple had become an, impor tant regional Religious cen­tre which attracted the support of an impor tant ru l ing f ami ly in the T i r u p a t i area, the Saluva f a m i l y . One of the members of this f a m i l y , Saluva Narasimha, while st i l l a m i l i ­tary leader of on ly local reknown, became an impor tant pa t ron . When Saluva ISarasimha became emperor of Vijayanagar in 1486, his support increased and the fu l l prestige of imper ia l patronage was bestowed upon the Temple . The patronage of Saluva Xarasimha and his successors to the Vi jayanagar throne in the next century ushered in a new era for the Temple . The new era was represented by the establishment of numerous minor shrines at T i r u p a t i and new facilities for the comfor t of p i lgr ims such as rest houses and feeding houses. The new era was also represented by intensified r i tua l activities, par t i cu la r ly festivals, and food offerings at the various shrines.

In order to support the vast in­crease in r i tua l activities at T i r u p a t i , endowments of money and land in­creased. Two factors appear to be decisively important relative to the century du r ing which endowments so greatly increased. The first fac­tor was the importance of state sup­port through land and money en­dowments. The rulers of Vi jayana­gar and their officers were the p r in ­cipal donors of land and money re­sources which underpinned the growth of the Temple. The second factor was the u t i l iza t ion of money endowments for the creation of i r r i ­gation works in the villages which hud been endowed to the Temple .

The crucial support of the V i j a ­yanagar state and the ut i l iza t ion of money endowments for i r r iga t ion works were complementary factors cont r ibu t ing to the economic foun­dation of the T i r u p a t i Temple. On the one hand, the i r r i ga t i on pro­gramme which covered about 100 villages in the T i rupa t i -Chandrag i r i area could never have occurred wi th ­out the grant of villages f r o m state donors. About ninety per cent of

180

a l l villages granted to the Temple in the sixteenth century came, directly or indi rec t ly , f r o m state donors. About one-half of the value of a l l money endowments came f rom state donors. The economic s tabi l i ty of the Temple was therefore cr i t ica l ly dependent upon the grants of state donors. On the other hand, how­ever, the scale of endowments of land and money could scarcely have been achieved had the Temple not offered the assurance that money endowments would produce the secure and stable income necessary to per­f o r m specified r i tua l services. This assurance was provided in the Tem­ple's programme of investment in temple vi l lage i r r i g a t i o n . This prac­tice provided an efficient means for absorbing the large endowments of state donors. It also permit ted state officers or chiefs whose fiefs were located at great distances f rom T i r u ­pati to grant money instead of land to the Temple and thus reduced the problem of managing far-flung tem­ple villages. Moreover, the prac­tice permit ted other donors, even the most modest donors, to make money endowments w i t h the assur­ance that the money would be in­vested in i r r i ga t ion improvements and would yie ld a reliable income for the performance of a r i tual service.

It may be useful to cite an early example of agr icu l tura l develop­ment in a T i r u p a t i temple village in order to i l lustrate the process which came to extend over many villages in the T i r u p a t i area. In 1420 the Vi jayanagar emperor Devaraya I I 11422-1140) granted three tax-free villages and some money to the Tem­ple for the purpose of p r o v i d i n g specified food offerings at a par t i ­cular festival. Among the villages granted to the Temple was the Brahmin village Vik ramad i tyaman-gala5. The village of Vik ramadi tya -mangala was next mentioned in an inscr ip t ion of 1495 when it was re­corded that Kandadai Ramanuja Ayyangar , the agent for the endow­ments of the emperor Saluva Nara-simha and an impor tant teacher and official at the Temple, granted 6,500 panam for food offerings to the major deity Sr i Venkatesvara and two minor deities. Of the 6,500 panam, it was provided that 1.300 panam was to be used for the exca­vat ion of an i r r i ga t i on channel in the temple village of V ik ramad i -tyamangala, "and w i t h the y ie ld ob­tained by means of the sa id- i r r iga-

T H E E C O N O M I C W E E K L Y A N N U A L

l i on channel, all the necessary a r t i ­cles [ f o r the food offerings] shall he supplied f r o m the Shri Bhunda-ram [ t emple t reasury] " In the 1429 insc r ip t ion , V ik ramad i tya ­mangala was granted to the Temple to provide income for specific offer­ings to be made d u r i n g a festival for the mer i t of the Vi jayanagar em­peror Devaraya I I . Each year there­after, the officers of the temple works office (tiruppani-bhandaram) wou ld collect a share of the regular income of the vil lage to be used for the pre­scribed offerings. Then, in 1495, the donor Kandada i Ramanuja A y y a n -gar stipulated that 1,300 panam of his endowment was to be used to create an i r r i g a t i o n channel in Vikramadi tyamanga la vil lage and that the addi t iona l income f r o m this improvement would support an addi t ional offer ing. Thus, the regu­lar ineomc f r o m the temple vi l lage of Vikramadi tyamanga la was en­hanced by a capital improvement of 1.300 panam, and, on the basis of this improvement , the village, after 1495, .supported two different food offerings.*

Though the two factors of the T i r u p a t i investment programme and state support were interdependent factors in real iz ing the scale of g rowth achieved at T i r u p a t i , there can he no question of the p r imacy of tdate support . F rom the very first re­cord of an endowment to the deity Sri Venkatesvara in the n i n t h cen­tury , the endowments f rom rulers of South Ind ian k ingdoms and their officers had contr ibuted the bulk of resources to the Temple . Endow­ments f rom slate donors not only p rov ided the bulk of resources ne­cessary for the im-reused tempo of r i t ua l activities at T i r u p a t i after 1456, but, by p r o v i d i n g an example, these state endowments also indirect­ly faci l i ta ted the endowments of temple functionaries and local resi­dents and merchants. Together, the money endowments of temple func­tionaries and local residents and merchants amounted to fifty per

* It should be pointed out that the Temple was not the sole beneficiary of such an investment and increase in income. The cultivators of the lands of the benefitted village, as holders of the minor share of in­come (kudivarom). also realized en­hanced incomes. This may be taken as a measure of the welfare pro­duced by the irrigation programme of the Temple.

cent of all money endowments by value between 1509 and 1568. In the per iod before 1456, these two donor groups were represented by only a few endowments according to the exis t ing record. F rom 1456 to 1568, however, the temple func­tionaries and local residents and merchants played a major part as donors. In considering only the money endowments by these two groups, the fo l lowing observation may be made. Temple functionaries contr ibuted about one-fourth of the total money endowments to the Temple d u r i n g the per iod of the greatest development of the Temple, 1509-1568. It has been shown else­where in detail by the wr i t e r how functionaries were able to convert their basic l ive l ihood payment of consecrated food (prasadam) into money th rough an exchange sys­tem which had developed w i t h i n the Temple precincts but which was not a part of the regular temple or­ganisation. Br i e f ly , consecrated food was sold to p i lg r ims by persons who leased the r ight to collect the con­secrated food due to the temple func­tionaries and others. Th i s exchange system depended upon a large num­ber of p i l g r i m "consumers' of the consecrated food. It can be argued that the T i r u p a t i temple became a major p i lgr image centre largely because the endowments of state do­nors gave the Temple the prestige of imper ia l support as well as the re­sources for impressive arid frequent religious services. The -temple func­tionaries could not have converted their food payments into money ex­cept through sales to p i lg r ims , and p i lg r ims would not have massed at T i r u p a t i wi thout the sustaining sup­port in prestige and endowments which the state provided.

The same argument is true for the local residents and merchants of T i r u p a t i , the other major donor group . Local residents and mer­chants contr ibuted about one-fourth of the total of money endowments by value to the Temple in the period 1509-1568. These local donors were comprised of merchants and a var­iety of specialists such as teachers. scholars, and artisans, persons who congregated in impor tant religious centres to serve the various needs of the place. A l l of these persons dc r ived their l ivel ihoods f rom the ac­t ivi t ies sur rounding the Temple. Thus, in the same degree that tem­ple functionaries were dependent upon the sustaining economic and

February 1 1961

prestige support of the state which attracted p i l g r i m s to whom the func­tionaries sold their consecrated food payments, so the merchants and other specialists or T i r u p a t i were dependent upon the, great numbers of p i l g r ims who came to T i r u p a t i to worship and who employed the ser­vices of specialists around the Tem­ple. In both cases, the money in­come finally realized by the func­tionaries and local residents derived f r o m the tact that the, T i r u p a t i temple had become a rel igious cen­tre* of the first importance. Kndow-ments by state donors were basically responsible for ra is ing the Temple to this k ind of p i lg r image centre.

The i r r i g a t i o n programme carried out by the T i r u p a t i Temple pr ima­r i l y w i t h state endowed resources raises the question of the relation­ship of the Vi jayanagar state to i r r i ­gation and the role of temples in this ac t iv i ty . The Vi jayanagar rulers considered i r r iga t ion to be of vi ta l importance, as indeed they might , given the character of the Vi jaya­nagar agrarian economy. Agr icul ture in- southern India was based upon small-scale i r r i ga t i on through the use of tanks, wells. and river water sources. The i r r iga t ion programme of the T i r u p a t i temple, based upon the investment of money endowments. is probably a good example of the small-scale i r r iga t ion of the t ime.*

Funds were used to create i r r iga ­t ion tanks and channels on a village-by-village basis. The income added to a temple village by such impro­vements was probably calculated wi th care so that part of this in­come, the. major part, could meet the costs of the rural servise for which the endowment w as made. The i r r i ga t ion p r o l a m i n e of the T i r u p a t i temple villages involved no observ­able changes in the organization of agr icul ture in the area beyond the probable slight reorganization of agr icu l tura l labour ar is ing out of the introduct ion or extension of i r r iga ­ted lands in the village. The manage­ment of village lands and the regu­lation of i r r i ga t ion was retained in the hands of cultivators w i t h i n the village organizat ion of labour.

The kind of agrarian operation which Wittfogel calls, "hydroagricul-ture" as distinguished from, ""hydrau­lic agriculture". In the former the degree of Social and Political con­trol required is slight. Oriental Despotism. New Haven, Vale Uni­versity Press, 1957. P 3

182

THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL February 4. 1961

The Vi jayanagar state appeared lo recognize the. importance of small scale i r r i g a t i o n works upon wh ich most of southern India depended. Yet, despite this recognit ion, there was no department of i r r i ga t i on in the government . 7 In fact, i t cannot he said that the Vi jayanagar state took a direct and active role in the creation of i r r iga t ion facili t ies in the country except around the capi­tal ci ty of Vijayanagar , There are only a few isolated cases of i r r iga ­t ion works being direct ly established by the imper ia l government. In 1339, a Mysore inscr ip t ion describ­ed the construction of a huge tank by the Vi jayanagar prince Bhas-kara Bavadura in the present State of A n d h r a . 8 Under Bukka I I (1405-105-6) a river was redirected into a large channel bui l t under the orders of the emperor and bearing the name of "Bukkaraya c h a n n e l " 9 In 1498, a valley in the present Anan-tapur districts of Andhra was con­structed into a large reservoir under the orders of Saluva Narasimha. 10

In 1953. a great tank was constructed near Bangalore under orders from the emperor Achyutadcvaraya and st i l l provides water to that import­ant city. A r o u n d the city of V i j aya ­nagar, the state look more direct steps. Krishnadevaraya constructed a large tank at Nagalapura. a sub­urb of the capital city and used the technical assistance of a Portugese engineer della Ponte. 11 As report­ed in the contemporary chronicle of Paes, the Nagalapura lank was an important i r r i ga t i on work . 1 2 I t was one of a number of impor tan t i r r iga t ion projects of the capital which apparently had an integrated and effective i r r i ga t i on and water supply system. Sir Thomas M u n r o spoke of the i r r iga t iona l system ar­ound Vi jayanagar in the fo l lowing manner :

To attempt the construction of new tanks [ i n the capital ci ty area | is perhaps a more hopeless experiment titan to repair those, which have been fil led up. for there is scarcely any place where a tank can be made to advantage that has not been applied to this purpose by the inhabitants, "

Whi le the Vi jayanagar state d id not directly undertake i r r iga t ion works in great number except ar­ound the capital , it frequently d id assist individuals to do so, N Venka-taramanayya. the his tor ian of the t h i r d dynasty of Vi jayanagar (1509-

1576) , has stated that "the excava­t ion of tanks and canals as well as the d igging of wells was left to in ­d iv idua l enterprise." 14 The typical procedure followed by those ind i ­viduals seeking to construct a tank or i r r iga t ion channel was for the state to provide the person who undertook the project w i t h free land watered by the tank or channel as payment. This land payment was iriven the name dusavanda or kattit kodage.15 ' ' Vi jayanagar his­torians have cited numerous cases in which the state made such arrangements w i t h persons, and state grants of land for this purpose have been cited frequent ly in the Annual Reports of Indian Epig­raphy. "'

Other Temple Examples The provis ion of i r r i ga t ion works

through H i n d u temples, however, re­mains extremely impor tan t accord­ing to the corpus of South Ind i an inscriptions. The Saivite temple of Kalahasti , near T i r u p a t i , fol lowed the practice of using money endow­ments for the excavation of i r r iga ­t ion channels and the reclamation of temple lands. A Kalahasti inscrip­tion of the year 1510 stated:

We the supervisors of the Trea­sury of the God at [Ka lahas t i ! . . . agree to arrange for offerings of sweet rice cakes on eleven occas­ions ., . V i rappannar A y y a n de­posited w i t h us fo r the purpose 1,306 pan which was to be in­vested in the new settlements of Mnl layammansamudram . . . w i t h a view to b r i n g the lands under cul t ivat ion [ a n d ] Lakkuset t ipu-ram . . . The lands of the latter settlement were to be i r r iga ted and brought under the plow wi th the help of the waters of Virasa-mud ram lake [ w h i c h w i l l | be re­paired and maintained by invest-ing 1,006 pon of the amount de­posited. 17

St i l l other examples of temple sponsored i r r i ga t ion works may be cited to indicate the scope of such undertakings. In 158-1. the trustees of a Saivite shrine and a Vaishnavitc shrine along wi th some private persons arranged to have a r iver channel excavated through the lands of one temple in order to sup­ply the tank on the lands of the other temple. As compensation for permission to cross its lands. one acre (300 kuli) of laud was given to the former temple. 18 In another ease, in 1552. some lands belonging

183

to a temple which had not been cul­tivated for a time were granted tax-free status by an arrangement bet­ween the temple officials and the local state officer, These lands were then favourably leased to cultivators for reclamation and cul t ivat ion. 19

An early Vijayanagar inscr ipt ion from Mysore recorded that a local state officer and temple officials ag­reed lo exempt lands f rom taxes which were watered by a tank con­structed on temple lands w i t h funds provided by a local merchant. The merchant was to enjoy the income f rom this land for two years after which the lands would revert to the-1

temple along wi th the tank. It was also stipulated that the merchant was to retain a por t ion of the land as his d asm and a. or payment in land for the construction of the tank.20

Another Mysore inscr ip t ion of the year 1 110 provides an example of co-operation between a non-temple and a temple for the purpose of constructing i r r iga t ion works for the lands of the temple and the village. The villagers dammed a r iver and constructed a channel over their own lands to the temple at their own expense. It was stipulated that the water carr ied in the chan­nel was to be used in the propor­t ion of two-thirds for temple lands and one-third for the land of the v i l ­lagers. A l l repairs and maintenance were to be borne in the same pro­por t ion , e g . two-thirds by the tem­ple. A 1424 inscr ip t ion f rom the same place recorded that the dam constructed by the villagers in 1410 had been breached and that the tem­ple officials and villagers asked one of the mi l i t a ry commanders of the area for help in restoring the dam which the latter provided."1

Temple-Sponsored Irrigation

A final example of temple-spon­sored i r r iga t ion indicates the h igh degree of planned i r r iga t ional deve­lopment of temple lands in some places. In 1496. a temple manager in the modern Kolar distr ict of Mysore executed an agreement with a person who excavated a tank in a temple village. The agreement stipulated the quality of the tank const ruction and also the payment in land for the work, i e. the award of dasaianda land watered by the newly constructed tank. The agree­ment also stipulated the rights and obligations of the persons awarded the dasavandu land. The inscrip­t ion read as follows :

February 4, 1961 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL

Be it well. [On the date speci­fied | to. Alapa's son Narasimha-deva. the temple priest of the Ood Narasimha, kondapa-Tim-m a u n a ' s son Aevapa. granted a [ land payment | agreement as follows : Whereas the Gundala-halli village . . . belonging to the offerings of our God . . . Narasimha . . . and provides for the offerings and ceremonies . . . of the God and the livelihood of the attendants [and] on your ex pending money and causing a v i rgin lank to he const meted . . . forming an embankment with plenty of earth, building it with stone, fixing a stone sluice and making it secure with bricks and good mortar. and thoroughly completing the lank . . . . We grant von in the rice lands that wi l l be formed under the lams | an award of land equal to) three in ten as. a (payment for the construction of a t ank] . If any the least failure occurs f in the tank] we wi l l levy money and grain from | all J of the rice lands [under | the tank, includ­ing those of your [ land award] and have i t repaired . . . . The same provisions are laid down for any future extension of rice lands under the tank . . . . If the flow of water allows, you may plant a rea . cocoanut or other permanent gardens in your [awarded land] and have the ful l enjoyment of the same. If the tank .should not fill sufficiently for your three-tenths [land award | rice fields, you wi l l take your turn for the water. For bui lding houses for the [cultiva­tors | who cultivate your [land award | rice fields we wi l l point out the sites. For such cultivators we wi l l not exact house-tax or other taxes. These [ land award] rice fields are granted to you [for | as long as the sun and moon endure, to be enjoyed by you and your posterity, with r ight to bequeath and self 22

These examples of i r r igat ion faci­lities established under the auspices of temple-, sometimes, with the sup­port of a state officer and sometimes with the support of private persons, are a few among the many referred to in the South Indian inscriptions. South Indian temples were impor­tant laud-holders having control over lands second only to the Vijayanagar state in their extent. In addition to in igat ional activities,

these temples were also concerned with land reclamation. A Appa-dorai has stated that the medieval South Indian temples were the chief non-state agencies involved in the reclamation of land.23 Temple sponsored reclamation projects were accomplished under what Appado-rai has called "a system of favourable leases/' Cultivators were attracted to marginal or waste lands which had been endowed to temples by the lease of these lands at very small annual rents. This rent would be gradually increased by the temple until it reached a certain amount and fixed there. Under this system of reclamation, the clearing and levelling of land and the provision of i r r igat ion were conditions of tenancy,"1

Was This Stale Support for Development of Agriculture?

Under the conditions which have been described above, where South Indian temples were among the most important agencies for agri­cultural development, the question of whether one reason for the vast state support was to achieve agri­cultural development may be con­sidered. It could be inferred that the Vijayanagar state supported the Ti rupat i and the many other South Indian temples conducting similar programmes in recognition of the contribution which temples made to the provision of i r r igat ion and the reclamation of land. This inferred motive for support would be consis­tent wi th , even supportive of, the other motives which moved the state to support Hindu temples such as the duty of Hindu kings to main­tain the religion and its institutions and. for the Vijayanagar period, the special ideological significance of the Hindu religion in the struggle against the Musl im states of the Deccan. The inference that the state sought to promote land development through its endow­ments must he examined carefully. The evidence from the Ti rupat i tem­ple and other temples does not, prima-facie, warrant the conclusion that the Vijayanagar state was deli­berately helping to provide irriga­tion facilities for South Indian villages through slate endowments and other forms of support to tem-ples, ft is necessary to distinguish between the manifest and latent functions of these endowments and other forms of support. The mani­fest function of money endowments to the Tirupat i and other temples

184

was to offer a r i tual service for the merit which such an act gave to the state donor. The manifest func­t ion of grants of tax-free lands to persons who constructed tanks and i r r igat ion channels, i e, dasavanda or kottu-kodage grants, was a re­ward by the state for an act of reli­gious merit performed by some person. Similarly, the manifest function of the kinds of state sup­port to temples, such as tax re­missions, mediation in disputes, and periodic or regular supervision of temple administration, was to pro­vide for the continuing operation of these important religious insti­tutions.

To be sure, these actions by the Vijayanagar slate had the latent function of supporting the land development activities of temples. However, it is necessary to distin­guish the consequences of the sup­port of the state from the motives for which the support was given. Land development was an obvious conse­quence or function of state endow­ments. Yet, land development may not have been a motive. It was perhaps enough for the Vi jaya­nagar state to support temples simply in order to maintain Hindu institutions. State support of tem­ples in order to promote land deve­lopment is nowhere suggested in the sources, nor is this reason re­quired to explain the support which the state provided medieval South Indian temples. Thus, without ru l ­ing out the possibility that the Vijayanagar stale supported these temples in order to promote land development through these institu­tions, it is not possible to assert that the promotion of such development was a motive in the support of the temples by the Vijayanagar state.

The South Indian Temple as an Economie Centre

The development of lands was but one of the economic activities which medieval South Indian tem­ples carried out. W i t h i n the area of their influence, which varied with the importance and wealth of the temple, each temple was an important economic institution. The variegated economic functions of medieval South Indian temples have been commented upon by most South Indian historians. Nilakanta Sastvi spoke of temples as having the following economic functions : ' landholder, employer . . . consumer of goods and services .. , [and |

THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL February 4, 1961

bank."2 5 The landholder function has already been dealt w i t h suffi­ciently. The temple as an employer of large numbers of persons may be seen in the eleventh century ins­c r ip t ion f rom the Tanjore temple. Here, 609 temple servants are list­ed not i nc lud ing teachers and p r inc ipa l sp i r i tua l and secular offi­cials.26 Mahal ingam mentioned an inscr ip t ion of the Vijayanagar period which referred to a smaller temple w i t h 370 temple servants.27

Temples were also major consumers of local products which were regu­l a r l y purchased and used for the performance of r i t u a l . 28 Numerous inscript ions also refer to the loans made by temples to individuals and village assemblies for economically productive and other purposes. Such loans would usually be secur­ed by lands whose income the tem­ple would enjoy in l ieu of interest.

The variety of economic functions which South Ind ian Brahmanical temples came to have by the Vi jaya-nagar period may be viewed in the fo l lowing developmental framework. Du r i ng the medieval period, Brah­manical centres became religious centres w i th respect to a group of villages and other institutions. This occurred as a result of the H i n d u revival which made the Brahmanical temple the most significant insti tu­tion for bhakti worship. The rise of temples was the result of re l igi­ous developments of the medieval period. Necessarily. Brahmanical temples depended upon an alloca­tion of resources in order to sup­port rituals. Necessarily, also, the temple developed close economic lies w i t h local insti tutions not only as the recipient of their endow­ments, but as landholder, employer, consumer, and source of loan funds. Hence, temples became economic as well as religious centres. An important aspect of the relation­ship between the temple and the local ins t i tu t ion w i th which econo­mic ties existed derived f rom the nature of religious endowments. Endowments were made for the pro­vision of perpetual services which , in the case of money, required investment for earnings.

Study of the T i r u p a t i and other South Ind ian temples has suggested another aspect of the role of tem­ples as economic centres in medie­val South Ind ia . The rulers of Vijayanagar , dedicated to the pro­motion of H i n d u institutions, pour­ed large sums of money into tem­

ples. This money was not bur ied in vaults; it was pressed into imme­diate service by temple officials. At the T i r u p a t i temple, the fo rm in which these sums of money were employed to earn an income was through i r r iga t ion investments. At Srirangam. it appears, money en­dowments were employed in making commercial loans to business firms in Tr ich inopoly . At other temples, such funds were loaned to village assemblies or individuals . It ap­pears that every temple had one, or perhaps several, ways in which its monev trusts could be employed for productive or other purposes. The channeling of these funds wi th which the temples were endowed took place wi th in what might be thought of as an economic system formed by institutions and persons which had economic ties to the temple.

Hypothesis Suggested A l l of the foregoing suggests the

hypothesis that medieval South Indian temples functioned as eco­nomic centres through which re­sources of the Vijayanagar state were redistr ibuted* in the form of endowments. Two aspects of this function of temples as redistr ibution centres appear significant.

(1) The nature of this redistri­bution was both voluntary and in­direct. It was volunlarv in the sense that state officers granted money and land to temples as devo­tees of the deities, not as state agents for the rational allocation of slate resources. This redistr ibut ion was indirect in the sense that the resources which finally came to be used by local institutions were redis­t r ibuted by temple officials accord­ing to the needs of each temple to establish a viable economic founda­t ion. In this paper, three important ways of der iv ing earnings f rom

* The concept of redistribution is dis­cussed in a recent shidv by Kail Polanyi. "The Economy aS an Insti­tuted Process." in Trade and Mar­kets in the Early Empires Glen-coe. Illinois: The Free Press, 1957. The concept is also exemplified in an essay in the same volume by Walter C Nenle with the Indian village as the focus. The essential idea of redistribution as as integra­tive mechanism is the collecting of jioods or the rights over goods into, and distribution from. ;i centre. A "center" need not be essentially economic in its function (p 254).

monev endowments have beet) men­tioned : (a) investment in i r r iga­t i o n ; (b) loans to commercial f i rms: (c) loans to individuals and village assemblies. Presumably there were other ways in which temple officials allocated money which had been granted to them by state donors.

(2) The redistr ibution of state resources through temple centers re­presented a major allocation of state resources for economic and welfare purposes. There are two reasons for suggesting this. First, the H i n d u re l ig ion and Hindu institutions were pr inc ipa l integrating forces within the Vijayanagar state espe-cially in the face of the threat of poli t ical domination from Mus l im stales of (he Deccan. Fu recogni­tion of this integrative function, the Vijayanagar state allocated an im­portant por t ion of its revenues to support the temples and even main­tained an office of temple endow­ments (but no department of i r r i ­g a t i o n l ) . Second, there appear to have been no other channels through which state resources could be allocated for economic and wel­fare projects. The administrat ive organization of Vijayanagar was loosely integrated, and the overall structure of the state was dominated hv its mi l i ta ry needs. The only well-established administrat ive links were for the purpose of maintain­ing a mi l i ta ry organization. Alloca­tions to temples represented the one important and continuous channel throi iuh which state resources came to he applied to economic and wel­fare purposes.

The hypothesis that temples serv­ed as centres for the redistr ibution of resources, par t icular ly state re­sources has emerged from the study of some South Indian temples dur­ing the medieval period. Research in the economic history of India is s t i l l in its infancy and hypotheses of this sort appear to be necessary. In the present state of knowledge about the economic organization of medieval India South and North

there is a curious eompartmenta-lization of economic l ife. Something is known of the peasant village as an economic unit; the general con­ditions and organization of trade through guilds, and the role of the state as the recipient of land reve­nue. characteristically. these insti­tutions and the different levels of economic activity in which they are involved are discussed separately by

185

February 4, 1961 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL

186

South I n d i a n historians wi thout consideration of possible interrela­tionships. I f subsequent research should prove it true that temples were impor tan t centres for the re­d is t r ibut ion of state resources, then an impor tant l inkage between the state and the village or other insti­tutions can be established.

Conclusion

Insc r ip t iona l and other evidence f rom the Tanjore and Sr i rangam temples d u r i n g the Chola period (9th-13th centuries) and the T i r u -pat i , Kalahasti , and Sr i rangam temples du r ing the Vi jayanagar per iod (14th-17th - centuries) make it possible to enumerate the ways in which the state facili tated and sup­ported the regional developmental activites of temples. First, state endowments were impor tant . Laud endowed to temples came p r i m a r i l y f rom the state. The ru l ing group was the only donor group in the country wh ich had command over land resources of an extent which permit ted alienation to temples. The state also endowed money to f inance normal temple r i tua l and special festivals which served to at­tract the support of other devotees and p i lgr ims. The kings and their officers endowed shrines, sacred tanks, and other physical facilities which made South I n d i a n temples more popular and confortable places of p i lgr image and therefore promoted greater p i l g r i m support. Second, the state frequently remitt­ed taxes on temple lands and pro­perties which contributed to the financial s tabi l i ty of these institu­tions. Third, the state adjudicated conflicts w i t h i n the temple organiza­tions and between the temples and other institutions such as temple villages, non-temple villages, other temples, and local state officers. Th i s was an extremely important function since a temple such as Sr i rangam had almost 300 villages in the fifteenth century which could have been administered only w i t h state support of the T e m p l e t rights.2 9 F ina l ly , the state frequent­ly took an active role in supervising temple adminis t ra t ion. In many of the larger temples there was fre­quently a state officer, adhikari dur­i n g the Chola per iod and paru-palyagar d u r i n g the Vi jayanagar period, who was attached to the temple a$ an inspector of adminis­t ra t ive practices and an agent for the endowments of h i g h state offi­cers. In the Chola per iod there are

references to state audits of temple accounts.

The support which the medieval South I n d i a n state gave to temples and hence to the regional develope-mental activities which they carried out can be explained in a number of ways. Concern w i t h the ad­minis trat ive and financial stabil i ty of H i n d u temples was par t of the responsibil i ty of the H i n d u state and in accord w i t h proper (dhar-mic) models of state action. To some extent, state support can be understood as mere devotional acts by state officials devoid of poli t ical motives.

In this paper it has been suggest­ed that, whatever the motive for such state support, the latent func­t i on of the support was to produce a significant degree of agricul tural development through the provision of i r r i g a t i o n to numerous villages which had been endowed to temples. It has been suggested moreover that this latent funct ion may be seen as a redistr ibut ion of state resources through H i n d u temples which had become significant economic centres in their own r igh t . The temple, as an economic organization, repre­sented what may have been the best way of allocating state resources economic developement and welfare on a small, regional scale. In some significant ways, the Community Development Programme, created by the modern bureaucratic and ra­tional Ind ian Republic, is an exten­sion of the small regional develop­mental effort, w i th the peasant village as its focus, wh ich existed in medieval Ind ia three or four centuries ago. The differences be­tween the medieval I n d i a n progra­mme and the contemporary one are. of course, great, perhaps the most important difference being that the motives of the modern state are much more direct and the objectives sought are much more considered.

References 1 A. Rangasvami Sarasvati, " P o l i ­

t ical M a x i m s of the Emperor Poet, Krishndeva Raya," Journal of Indian History, V I , Part I I I ( 1925) , p . 69.

2. Government of Ind ia . Depart­ment of Archaeology, Annual Report of Indian Epigraphy for 1947-48, p. 3.

3. T i ruma la i -T i rupa t i Epigraphi-cal Series Report on the In­scriptions of the Tirupati Tem­ple Devasthanam Collection (Madras : T i r u p a t i Sr i Mahant 's

187

Press, 1930) , p. 102. 1. For a most insightful discussuon-

of this matter and related ones see the discussion by T K T Viraraghavacharya, History of Tirupati, I ( T i r u p a t i : T i ruma­la i -T i rupa t i Devasthanams 1953), pp 529-30.

5. T i ruma la i -T i rupa t i Epigraphical Series, Texts and Translations, I ( T i r u p a t i ; T i ruma la i T i r u ­pati Devasthanam Press, 1931), No. 192.

6. Ibid, I I , No. 134. 7. N Venkataramanayya, Studies

in the Third Dynasty of Vijaya-nagara, (Madras : Univers i ty of Madras, 1935), p. 187.

8. T V Mahal ingam, Economic Life in the Vijayanagar Empire (Madras : Universi ty of Madras, 1951). p. 494.

9. Ibid. 10. Ibid. 11. Ibid p. 5 1 . 12. Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Em­

pire (Vijaya nagar). (London ; Swan Sonnenschein and Co L t d , 1900) , pp 245-6.

13. Mahal ingam, Economic Life ...., p. 59.

14. Venkataramanayya op at p,187 15. Ibid, pp . 190-91. 16. India . Archaeological Survey of

Ind ia , Annual Report on South Indian Epigraphy for 1913 (New D e l h i : Manager or Publi­cations), p. 85.

17. Ibid, 1922, No 166. 18. Ibid 1922, No 9. 19. Ibid, 1922, No 312. 20. Mysore Epigraphical Series

Epigraphica Cartiatica, IX f Bangalore: Mysore Government Press. 1886-1909) Hosekote Taluq, No 50.

2 1 . Ibid, X I . Devanagere Talmy, Nos 23 and 29.

22. Ibid, X. Mulbagal Taluq. No 172.

23. A Appadora i , Economic Condi­tions in Sourthern India 1000-1500 A.D [ (Madras : Univer­sity of Madras, 1936). p 195.

24. Ibid, 25. K A Nilakanta Sastri, The

Cholas, I I . Part I I (Madras : Univers i ty of Madras. 1937)., p 504,

26. Appadorai . op cit. pp 275-6. 27. Maha l ingam. Economic Life...

p 40. 28. Ibid p 38. 29. V X H a d Rao. "A His to ry of

Ph D thesis. Univers i ty of Madras. 1948. Typescript ms P 392,

T H E E C O N O M I C W E E K L Y A N N U A L February 4, 1961

February 4. 1901 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY ANNUAL

188