page_title: Matha
section_title: Historical roles of matha
hierarchical_section_title: Matha / History / Historical roles of matha
caption_attribution_description: English: One of the stone face inscriptions found in a village near Dharwad district, northwest Karnataka. A part of the inscription states in Sanskrit-Kannada hybrid language, the following about Kodiya matha: There is the Kōḍiyamaṭha, the place of Dakṣiṇakēdāra (dakṣiṇakēdārasthāna), location of a beautiful field of crops [which are] like hairs bristling for the worship of the Śivaliṅga; the established place (niṣṭhitasthāna) for the ritual practice of the Śaiva ascetics who are perpetual chaste students; a place for the self-recitation (svādhyāyasthāna) of the four Vedas— the Ṛg, Yajus, Sāma, and Ātharva—along with their ancillary treatises; a place for teaching (byākhyānasthāna) grammar, like the systems of Kumāra, Pāṇini, Śākaṭāyana, and the Śabdānuśasana; a place for teaching the six systems of philosophy—namely the Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Mīmāṃsā, Sāṃkhya, Buddhist, etc.; a place for teaching the treatises on Yoga— namely the Lākulasiddhānta, the work of Patañjali, and others; a place for various [branches of] learning (vividhavidyāsthāna), such as the 18 Purāṇas, the Dharmaśāstras, all Kāvya compositions, drama, dance, and so on; a place for the provision of food (annadā- nasthāna) to the poor, the helpless, the crippled, the blind, the deaf, story-tellers, singers, musicians, flute-players, dancers, Vaitāḻikas, the naked, the injured, the mendicants coming from various regions, like Jain mendicants, those bearing a single or triple staff, the haṃsa and paramahaṃsa mendicants; a place for the medical treatment (bhaiṣajyasthāna) of the diseases of the many helpless and sick; a place for offering protection (abhāyapra- dānasthāna) to all living beings. Sources (translation): 1. Fleet (1899), Epigraphia Indica, Vol 5, pp. 213–261 2. Florinda De Simini (2016), Of Gods and Books, Ritual and Knowledge Transmission in the Manuscript Cultures of Premodern India, De Gruyter, pp. 166-188 This is a photograph of a 12th-century inscription whose image was published in 1899. It qualifies as 2D-Art. Any rights I have as a photographer are herewith donated to wikimedia commons with CC 4.0 license.
context_page_description: A matha, also written as math, matha or mutt, is a Sanskrit word that means "institute or college", and it also refers to a monastery in Hinduism.
  Monastic life, for spiritual studies or the pursuit of moksha traces it roots to the 1st millennium BCE, in the Vedic tradition. The earliest Hindu monasteries are indirectly inferred to be from the centuries around the start of the common era, based on the existence of Sannyasa Upanishads with strongly Advaita Vedanta content. The matha tradition in Hinduism was likely well established in the second half of 1st millennium CE, as is evidenced by archeological and epigraphical evidence.
  Mathas grew over time, with the most famous and still surviving centers of Vedanta studies being those started by Adi Shankara. Other major and influential mathas belong to various schools of Hindu philosophy, such as those of Vaishnavism and Shaivism. The monastery host and feed students, sannyasis, gurus and are led by Acharyas. These monasteries are sometimes attached to Hindu temples and have their codes of conduct, initiation and election ceremonies.
context_section_description: {{|India|float=right|width=200|caption=Kanchi inscription suggests the existence of a Vedic-Agamic matha in the 4th century CE. Then it was known as a Ghatika.
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  The matha tradition of Hinduism attracted royal patronage, attracting endowments to support studies, and these endowments established, states Hartmut Scharfe, what may be "the earliest case on record of a university scholarship". Some of these medieval era mathas of Hinduism in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, were for Vedanta studies, but some mathas from the 700 to 1000 CE period predominantly focussed on Shaivism, Vaishnavism, military, martial arts, music, painting or other fields of knowledge including subjects related to Buddhism and Jainism. There is evidence, states Hartmut Scharfe, of mathas in eastern and northern India from 7th century CE onwards, such as those in Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh particularly in the Hindu holy city of Kashi, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha, but these are not from ancient temple inscriptions, but implied from traveller records (Chinese) who visited these regions.
  Brahmins were likely involved in the education and oral culture of textual transmission in ancient India through the gurukul tradition, but inscription evidence collected by E. Hultzsch suggests that at least some matha attached to temples were dominated by non-Brahmins by the early 2nd millennium CE.
  The mathas and attached temples routinely hosted debating, Vedic recital and student competitions, and these were part of community festivals in the history of South Asia. These mathas were also the centers where many new texts were composed, as well as the libraries and repository of ancient and medieval manuscripts, where the old texts were preserved and decaying copies replaced over the centuries. The Thiruvavaduthurai Adhinam – a Shaiva matha about twenty kilometers northeast of Kumbhakonam, for example, was a major source of preserved palm-leaf manuscripts of ancient Tamil literature for the colonial era scholars trying to rediscover historic Indian literature. Some scholars such as the 8th-century Adi Shankara who established four major mathas in different regions of India, stated in the founding documents that the respective responsibility of the mathas was to preserve one Veda each. Some Hindu monasteries offered hospice care for pilgrims and various forms of assistance to their local communities.
  According to Kenneth G. Zysk – a professor specializing in Indology and ancient medicine, Hindu mathas and temples – like Buddhist monasteries – had by the 10th-century attached medical care along with their religious and educational roles. This is evidenced by various inscriptions found in Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere. An inscription dated to about 930 CE states the provision of a physician to two matha to care for the sick and destitute. Similarly, a stone inscription in Andhra Pradesh dated to about 1262 CE mentions the provision of a prasutishala (maternity house), vaidya (physician), an arogyashala (health house) and a viprasattra (kitchen) with the religious center where people from all social background could be fed and cared for.
  The historical role of mathas as knowledge and services repository is attested in early Sanskrit texts, as well as many historical inscriptions found along the ruins of Indian temples and monasteries. For example, several stone inscriptions in Sanskrit and Western Chalukya era Kannada have been found near the Shiva temple and monastery in a village near Dharwad district (northwest Karnataka–Maharashtra border). These slabs have been dated to between 1094 and 1215 CE. One of these includes the role of Kodiya–matha – also referred to as the Dakshina Kedarasvera matha. It states:
  There is the Kōḍiyamaṭha, the place of Dakṣiṇakēdāra (dakṣiṇakēdārasthāna), location of a beautiful field of crops [which are] like hairs bristling for the worship of the Śivaliṅga; the established place (niṣṭhitasthāna) for the ritual practice of the Śaiva ascetics who are perpetual chaste students; a place for the self-recitatio
caption: 12th-century Kodiya matha stone inscription.
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