Temples have been the nucleus of religious, spiritual, social and cultural developments in India throughout history. As they grew in size and number, with each settlement having several shrines dedicated to various Gods and Goddesses, the need to manage, maintain and conduct the temples was felt. That is when patronising existing temples and commissioning new ones with established endowments began.
The inscriptions on temple walls speak volumes about such endowments, donations and gifts in gold and kind, humbly submitted by devotees who could afford them. Sometimes these endowments were also created by depositing gold collected as penalty from convicts. The temples had representative bodies, from which chosen members administered the financial activities. The gold and funds were sometimes lent, sometimes deposited in revenue-generating schemes or at times paid as advance for welfare schemes that shall pay back soon.
Such enormous deposits have sometimes lured the unscrupulous, who laid their hands on them. There are a few very interesting incidents that can be studied to understand the way theft and robbery in temples were dealt with. I reserve that for a future column. However, the ancient Tamils used the concept of dharma to instil the qualities of righteousness and being just, and prevent people from misappropriating temple wealth. The dharma sastras warn individuals to be very careful when handling public money, especially those of the temples.
To keep people cognisant of what they reap when they swindle temple funds—what is equal to thieving in a temple or the extent of humiliation that occurs to one who misappropriates temple wealth—verses describing the sins and benefits of these deeds are usually narrated in the concluding part of the inscriptions. Although such imprecatory verses start appearing from the middle of 8th century CE, they seem to have gained popularity and variety after the 15th century. Of the collection of such verses, the ones etched in the inscriptions of the Sri Arunachaleshwara temple, Tiruvannamalai, are pretty interesting as they reflect the societal norms, belief systems, cultural connotations and faith as it existed then.
One of the earliest inscriptions that talks about such ignominious acts is from the times of the Chola ruler Rajadhiraja II (1170 CE). It says the act of misusing or confiscating temple land may be considered as low as sharing one’s wife with the enemy, eating his leftovers and gulping the water that he washed his feet with. If an offender is caught, one can imagine his reputation in society that would now consider him equal to those guilty of such shameful acts, and the humiliation that comes along with it would be enough to send a shiver down one’s spine.
The most commonly seen verses of imprecation equate the sin of misappropriating temple resources to that of killing a cow on the banks of Ganga or Kumari (Kanyakumari teertha), or accumulating the collective sins of the population that resides between Ganga and Kumari. A 1199 CE inscription hurls curses on an offender that the sin of a beef-eater be upon him. The torment of sin and the fear of shame that come along were sufficient to ward off such thoughts in temple administrators that they dare not dream of grabbing even a single penny.
The idea of being in servitude to one’s enemy, by defeat in war or selling oneself seems to have been a strong social deterrent. An inscription from 1205 CE says that if an individual diverts the interest from the temple endowment for his personal gains, he shall be considered to have eaten from the spittoon of his enemy and chewed the paan he spat. Addressing the individual as a slave to his opponent, carrying his sandals and assisting him with his pitcher are also listed in a few inscriptions.
A 13th century CE inscription warns an offender with dire consequences similar to that which occurs when one ill-treats a pregnant woman and/or denies her water to quench her thirst. Moreover, even if a basket of paddy is stolen from the temple silos, the culprit is equivalent to a Shiva drohi and a guru drohi, clearly positioning one’s guru on a pedestal higher than Shiva. Starting from around the 15th century, miscreants who embezzled temple accounts were considered as having earned the sins of murdering one’s own parents and guru.
Hold on. Are there no references at all about the merits that you earn by being righteous and honest? Yes, there is indeed a beautifully composed Sanskrit inscription from the times of the Vijayanagara king Mallikarjuna (15th century CE). It says: “Between one gifting and him protecting another’s gift, protection of another’s gift is superior. While the former reached heaven, the latter reached the world of Vishnu.” Clearly, protecting an existing endowment is considered morally and ethically superior to even creating one.
Madhusudhanan Kalaichelvan Architect (madhu.kalai0324@gmail.com)