FROM TEMPLE SCHOOLS to UNIVERSITIES Little Is Known

FROM TEMPLE SCHOOLS to UNIVERSITIES Little Is Known

CHAPTER TEN FROM TEMPLE SCHOOLS TO UNIVERSITIES Little is known about educational developments in brahmanical society during the earlier part of the first millennium A.D.; the old system of the iiciirya-kula probably continued, and the grant of so-called agrahara-s to brahmin communities, first mentioned in the Mahabharata, 1 created an economic basis for Vedic instruction. agrahara at first denoted the grant of a village ( or the revenue from it) to feed brahmins, 2 whether for ritual duties, temple worship or instruction we do not know - but a combination of these is probable. The term has been more popular in Southern India: a typical South Indian agrahiira nowadays is a cluster of narrow lanes with narrow row houses that may each stretch quite a way back, with a temple at the end of the lane, in the center of a village or town. It was governed by a sabhii,3 and entry was often forbidden to non-brahmins. In Northern India, brahma-deya (also brahma-diiya)4 denoted tax-free land given to brahmins, first in the Kauµiliya Artha­ sastra,5 and such land given to temples is mentioned in inscriptions from 1 Mahabharata III 65,3; 222,43: XV 2,2. Such grants are frequently found in inscriptions, e.g., B.V.Krishna Rao, El 3 I (I 955/56), pp. 1-10 (third century A.D.); King Harsa (seventh century A.D.) granted a village as agrahara to two brahmins: G.Biihler, EI 4 (1896/97), pp.208-2 I I. 2 S.Gurumurthy, Education in South India, Madras I 979, pp.25-45. His etymology (agrahara from agra + ahara as "foremost district" on p.26) must be rejected, as it violates sandhi rules; is it perhaps "first take" after a conquest or a forest clearance? A common name for these large villages was also caturvedi-mangalam: K. V .Subrahmanya Aiyer, Historical Sketches of Ancient Dekhan, Madras 1917, repr. Coimbatore 1969, vol.III pp.149-157. 3 Proceedings of such sabha-s are recorded in Tamil inscriptions from Tamilnad and Karnataka: E.Hultzsch, SII2/l (1891 ), p.74 (cf. V.Venkayya, ibid., p. [19)); ARE 1898, p.18 (no. 77 of 1898) and V.Venkayya, Archaeological Survey ofIndia, Annual Report 1904/05, pp. 131-145; A.K.Nilakanta Sastri, Studies in Cola History and Administration, Madras 1932, pp.74-78, 85-95, I 12-116, 163, etc.; EC.9 (1905), Channapatna Taluq nos. 127-132, text pp.197-200, trans. pp.159-161. 4 K.V.Subrahmanya Aiyer, El 30 (I 953/54), p.103 (brahmadeya); V.V.Mirashi and LR.Kulkarni, El 23 ( 1935/36), p.17 (brahmadaya). 5 KA II I, 7; 20,20. FROM TEMPLE SCHOOLS TO UNIVERSITIES 167 the eighth century on. 6 Asoka and his son and successor Dasaratha donated caves to the Ajivikas 7 as a residence during the rainy season, 8 and about two hundred years later a high official under the Satavahana king ~i:ia donated a cave to the Buddhists.9 In a further development, the Satavahana king Gautamiputra Satakari:ii in A.D.124 donated two hundred nivartana-s of land for the sustenance of the ascetics living on a nearby mountain (i.e., in caves), 10 later replacing it with another hundred nivartana-s of better quality, 11 and in A.D.149 Vasi~thiputra Pu~umavi gave a village to the Buddhist community ofthe Bhadraya¢yas living in the Queen's Cave. 12 It is not known if any service was expected in return from these monks. The grant by the King Satakari:ii Harifiputra 13 of a brahmin settlement at Belgame (Shimoga District, Kama~ka)14 started a development by which Belgame with five ma_tha-s, three pura-s, and seven brahma­ puri-s (i.e., agrahiira-s) 15 became an important educational center. That 6 Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi, Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era (Cl/ vol. IV) Ootacmund 1955, pt. I p. l 02 in an inscription of Jayabhata IV from A.D. 736. 7 On this religious movement cf. AL.Basham, History ~nd Doctrines ofthe Ajivikas, London 1951. 8 Barabar inscriptions of Asoka, Nii.gii.rjunI Hill inscriptions ofDasaratha ( all in Gayii. District, Bihar). 9 E.Senart, El 8 ( 1905/06), p.93, no.22; D.C.Sircar, Select Inscriptions, 2nd ed., Delhi 1993, vol.I pp. 189f. 10 E.Senart, EIS (1905/06), p.7lf., no.4; D.C.Sircar, ibid., vol.I pp.197-199. 11 E.Senart, El 8 (1905/06). p. 73, no.5; D.C.Sircar, ibid., pp.200f. 12 E.Senart, EIS (1905/06), pp.60-62, no.2, and pp.65-67, no.3; D.C.Sircar, ibid., pp.203-209. 13 It is not clear if this king and his family (the Cutus) were a branch of the Sii.ta­ vii.hanas or were their successors in the southern part of their dominions: K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, History ofSouth India, 3rd ed., London 1966, p.99; D.C.Sircar, The Successors of the Siitaviihanas, Calcutta 1939, pp.219-221, El 35 (1963/64), p.72, and Select Inscriptions, vol.l, 2nd ed., Delhi 1993, p.479; S.Sankaranarayanan, ALB 58 (1994), pp.102f. 14 B.L.Rice, EC 7 ( 1902) Sk.263 (text pp.251 f., trans. p.142; approximately A.D. 300); this Belgame (from Sanskrit Bali-grii.ma) is different from its larger namesake in Northwestern Karnataka: J.D.M. Derret, The Hoysalas, London 1957, p.x. It was the capital of Banavii.se, called alternately riijadhiini Balligiive, Balligriima, Balipura or Balinagara (EC 7 [1902] Sk.106, 131 and 133). Afready in A.·o. 105 an inscription refers to a Yajurveda master of the Katha branch, one Somayasas from Saketa (Uttar Pradesh) who settled in Belgame/Belgaum and conducted as many as eighty Vedic sacrifices: S.Sankaranarayan El 39 (1972), pp.183-188. 15 EC7 (1902) Sk 119 (textp.163, trans. p.91)and 123 (textp.169, trans. p.94); the five matha-s and the three pura-s are mentioned frequently. e.g., Sk.99, 100, 123. .

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