Temples of irrigation and land management
AGRICULTURE IN south India has traditionally been based upon small-scale irrigation, using tanks, wells and river water. In this system, temples were not merely places of worship but played a pivotal role in irrigation management. They represented the crystallisation of community efforts, which explains why Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha proclaimed recently that her government had spent Rs 1 crore on renovating the tank at Mylapore's famous Kapaleeshwar temple.
Despite the importance given to agricultural development, neither the Chola (9th-12th century) nor the Vijayanagar (14th-16th century) empires in south India set up departments of irrigation or public works. These activities were left to individuals, to village organisations and to temples, for the latter could mobilise resources of land and money second only to the state. The Shaivite temple of Kalahasti, near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, for instance, used devotee endowments to excavate irrigation channels and to reclaim temple lands. A Kalahasti inscription of 1540 states: "Virappanar Ayyar deposited with (the treasury of the Gods at Kalahasti) for the purpose 1,306 pon, which was to be invested in the new settlements of Muttayammansamudram... with a view to bring the lands under cultivation [and] the lands Lakkusetipuram are to be irrigated and brought under the plough with the help of the waters of Virasamudram lake [which will] be repaired and maintained by investing 1,006 pon of the amount deposited."
Other examples of temple-sponsored irrigation works in south India indicate the scope of such undertakings. In 1584, the trustees of a Shaivite shrine and a Vaishnavite shrine, along with some individuals, excavated a river channel through the land of one temple to supply the tank on the land of the other temple. The temple whose land was traversed received one acre of land as compensation. In another case, some fallow lands of a temple were granted tax free status in 1952 by the, state and temple officials then leased these lands for reclamation and cultivation.
An early Vijayanagar inscription from Mysore records state and temple officials exempted from tax the land irrigated by a temple tank constructed with funds from a local merchant. The merchant was given the income from this land for two years after which the lands and the tank reverted to the temple, except for, a portion that the merchant retained as his dasavanda (payment in land for services rendered) for constructing the tank.
Another Mysore inscription, dated 1410 indicates village organisations and temples cooperated in the construction of irrigation works. The villagers dammed a river and built a channel through their land the temple. It was stipulated water from the channel would be used in the proportion two-thirds for temple lands and one-third, for village, land with the cost of repairs and maintenance to be borne in the same proportion. A 1424 inscription from the same place states the dam constructed by the villagers in 1410 had been breached but temple officials and villagers were able to obtain help from a military commander to repair it. Irrigation of temple lands involved a high degree of planning. In 1496, a temple manager in present day Kolar district in Karnataka executed an agreement with a person who excavated a tank in the village, temple stipulating the quality of tank construction and they award of dasavanda land, irrigated by the newly constructed tank. The inscription reads, "...to Alapa's son Narasimhadeva, the temple priest of the God Narasimha, Kondapa-Timmanna's son Aevapa granted a [land payment] agreement as follows:
"Whereas the Gundallahalli village... belonging to the offerings of our God ...Narasimha... and provides for the offerings and ceremonies ... God and the livelihood of the attendants [and] on your expending money and causing a virgin tank to be constructed...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 tank... We grant you in the rice lands that will be formed under the tank (an award of land equal to) three in ten as a (payment for the construction of a tank). If any failure occurs (in the tank) we will levy money and grain from (all) of the rice lands (under) the tank, including those of your [land award] and have it 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 areca, coconut or other permanent gardens in your (awarded land) and have the full enjoyment of the same... For building houses for the (cultivators) who cultivate your rice fields, we will point out the sites. For such cultivators we will not exact house tax or other taxes. These rice fields are granted to you (for) as long as the sun and moon endure, to be enjoyed by you and your posterity, with right to bequeath and sell".
These are some examples of development of irrigation by temples, in south India sometimes with the support of a state official and sometimes with the support of private persons. South Indian temples controlled lands second only in area to land owned by the Vijayanagar state.
Besides irrigation, temples were involved also in reclaiming land and using the income from money and land endowments to finance temple maintenance, festivals and for food offerings to the deities.
The endowment was usually made to play for a perpetual service for the merit of donors or their assignees. By lending temple funds to village assemblies (urs) for developmental purposes, temples played a crucial role in mobilising the region's developmental funds. Frequently, loans were made to commercial firms at 20 per cent interest. Village or land endowments usually gave the temple a major share of income (melvaram), while the cultivators retained the minor share (kudivaram). Endowed lands entailed important responsibilities. During the Chola period, for example, a series of Srirangam temple inscriptions from the reign of Kulottunga I (AD 1070-1118) describe the redevelopment of vast portions of temple lands buried under sand by floods of the Cauvery river. These reclaimed lands were leased out a new by the temple for cultivation.
Investments by tamplyes
The Tirupati temple, established in the 9th century, is an excellent example of money endowments from devotees being invested in developing agriculture, by promoting small-scale irrigation in the Vijayanagar empire. By the 16th century, about 150 villages were assisted with investments by this temple. An example of how this system worked is the granting in 1429 by Devaraya II (1423-1446) of three, including the brahmin village Vikramadityamangala, to the temple tax free to provide income for festival offerings to be made for the merit of the emperor. Each year thereafter, the temple works office (tiruppani-bhandaram) would reserve a share of the regular income from the villages to be used for the prescribed offerings. In 1495, a donor named Kandadai Ramanuja Ayyangar stipulated that 1,300 panam of his endowment of 6,500 panam was to be used to create an irrigation channel in Vikramadityamangala and income from this irrigation channel would support an additional offering. Thus, the regular income from the temple village of Vikramadityamangala, enhanced by a capital improvement of 1,300 panam, supported two different food offerings.
Funds were used to create irrigation tanks and channels on a village-by-village basis. The income added to a temple village by such improvements was calculated carefully and, a major part used to cover the cost of the ritual service for which the endowment was made. Temple-endowed irrigation schemes did not change the organisation of agriculture as the management of village lands and irrigation regulation were left to the cultivators.
The absence of any effective temporal power in the Tirupati area in the early years of the Vijayanagar empire enabled the temple to establish by 1390 an independent managerial body of trustees known as the sthanattar. Enormous responsibility rested with this body and its establishment was a necessary precondition for the scale of growth subsequently achieved.
By the middle of 15th century, the Tirupati temple had become a significant centre of Vaishnavism and in order to support a vast increase in ritual activities at Tirupati, there was a corresponding increase in endowments by the state of money and land. The money endowments were used by the temple for the construct irrigation works in about 100 villages endowed to the temple in the Tirupati-Chandragiri area. About 90 per cent of all villages granted to the Temple in the 16th century came directly or indirectly from state donors.
State patronage was crucial for the growth in importance of the temple, but the large scale of endowments of land and money could not have been achieved had the temple not assured that they endowments would generate the secure and stable incomes necessary to perform specified ritual services. This assurance was provided in the temple's programme of investment in temple village irrigation and convinced even small donors.
Based upon Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India and All the King's Mana, by Burton Stein.