summary
The purpose of this essay is to understand the role of royal charitable gifts or dāna in the context of Hindu religious ideology, including Buddhism, temple urbanism, and political power in pre-modern South India. It examines the 14th and 16th centuries, under the rule of King Vijayanagar in the capital of Vijayanagar (present-day Hampi).
The temple city of the capital is largely due to royal favors, a continuation of the Hindu religious tradition since ancient times. Using iconography, inscriptions, and literary sources, this essay explores the symbolic and religious values of benevolence that can reveal temple patronage and Vijayanagar royalty.
With the help of artistic and historical evidence, it provides a glimpse into the workings of the Mahayana (Great Gift) and the relationship between palaces, bazaars and temples. Through ritual gifts as an intrinsic aspect of "Dharma" royal power, King Vijayanaga was able to maintain a complex network of interrelationships and power. The institutionalization of the traditional giveaway system, represented by official architecture and visual imagery, mirrors the complex royal gifting system of dyanamism, which played an important role in maintaining religious and political power.
introduction
Religious gifts as a personal and social practice have been rooted in the ancient Indian religious traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Gift-giving or dāna has always been an integral part of Hindu Buddhism (religious ethics), especially in relation to rājadharma (royal duty), which had a huge social and political influence in the Vijayanagar Empire, which ruled South India between about 1336 and 1565.
Famous scholars such as Marcel Moss have conducted exhaustive studies of the theory of gifting, and they have emphasized the power of coercive return and exchange and its creation of a series of relationships. Mariam Helm's research is based on dāna in South Asia, and she concludes that it has an ethical basis.
Diana Eck, on the other hand, sees it as a complex aspect of Buddhism with ethical and philosophical foundations. Regarding the definition of dāna, this concept is discussed at length in ancient Indian Hindu sacred texts, including Dānastutis, Viśṇudharmottara Puraṇa, and Manusmriti in RgVeda; All texts explicitly agree on its importance in order to obtain Puṇya (merit), please the gods, obtain heaven and guarantees of safety and protection.
Viśṇusmriti and Manusmriti clearly mention the special benefits obtained by giving specific gifts such as cattle, gold, mountains, land, lamps, crops, knowledge, food, clothes, beds, shoes, fans, etc. They clearly point out the importance of receiving gifts, charity for worthy people, auspicious times, ritual procedures for gift-giving and in what spirit it should be carried out. In the religious texts, Dhana is considered compulsory, a great responsibility, a practice of the Dharma. There are four concepts at the foot of the Dharma: knowledge, gifts, repentance, and truth.
The practice of royal gift-giving
Dana is considered part of the family and the king's Dharma. The latter promulgated the Mahayana or Great Gift, which is described in great detail in Puraṇas (quasi-historical texts). In Matsya Puraṇa, the king's gift is called mahādānani. Once the Puritan tradition and emphasis on royal gifts became part of the rājadharma, it continued as a living faith and was practiced by Hindu kings in ancient and medieval times.
By the Gupta period, it was established as part of a royal duty or rājadharma requiring gifts to Brahmins and religious institutions, especially Hindu temples. Halsa is said to have gifted a town and its land tax for the success of his parents. Every five years, he holds modsamahapariśad in Prayag and donates his treasury to charity.
One can trace the history of royal gifts in South India back to the Sangama period, which continued during the Chola in Tiruchirapali, Pandias in Madurai and Cherasi in Kerala. The Pallava people of Tondai Mandalam (c. 500 CE – c. 900 CE) claim to be protectors of the Dharma.
and donated large gifts to temples and brahmins from the trophies obtained from the war at royal ceremonies, thus linking temple art with political power. King Rashtrakuta performed a large gift-giving ceremony in the form of Mahayana. In fact, when sacrificial kingship was replaced by the concept of dāna, gifts became important as an institutional practice of royal power.
Previously considered a ceremonial gift and associated with the performance of royal rājasuya and aśvamedha sacrifices during the king's dedication, it has now become personally important. According to Ronald Indon, the Great Gift or Mahayana offering was replaced by King Dantidurga of La Strakuta around 757 AD. The continuing importance of dāna can be found in sacred texts such as Dharmasastra Nibandha by Lakshindhara, which is popular in southern India, and dāna's ideology is clearly articulated in Caturvarga Cintamani.
Temple urbanism in Vijayanagar
The temple economy of Vijayanagar and many temple cities of the empire was associated with the charities of the king. Its dynamic operation in terms of temple economic and political power can be understood with the help of royal images in the architectural environment of the capital Vijayangar temple city. Classifying the city according to natural and man-made features, Michel and others distinguished between two main areas, the sacred center located in the north of the city and the royal center located within the innermost fortifications in the heart of the city.
The sacred center is dominated by four large temple complexes: Virupaksa, Krisna, Tiruvengalanatha (or Acyuta Raya) and the Vitthala Temple. These large temple complexes or cities (puras) are known by the name of the temple; Thus, the main feature of having Virupaksapura, Krisnapura, Vitthalapura and Tiruvengalanathapura (or Acyutarayapura) is the large temple complex with its high walls and towering portals, approached by a long chariot street, flanked by shops (angadi), used as a bazaar.
The architectural assemblage of temple cities such as Chris Nebra, Vita Rapura, Virupaksa Pura and Tiruvengala Natapula is a creation of agricultural cities. The complexes were built with large grants from kings and nobles. They are characterized by a large enclosure with tanks, wells, schools, which they enter through a towering gate and are approached by a long colonnaded street that serves as a market or bazaar for the exchange of goods. In these markets along the chariot street, gold, rubies, pearls, diamonds are openly sold at the bazaar.
In fact, each temple complex is surrounded by an agricultural hinterland, residences, handicrafts, markets and water facilities, all of which are closely related to the local economy. The temple, especially in the sacred center, utilizes a variety of food products, including coconut, rice, turmeric, incense, leaves, flowers, lamps, butter, salt, pepper, betel nut leaves and nuts, oil, mustard, sugar, plantain leaves, flowers, lamps, butter, salt, pepper, mustard, beans, sugar, bananas, firewood, cotton clothing, as well as items from foreign markets, musk, camphor, saffron for multiple functions of worship, ritual celebration, teaching and feeding.
Indirectly, demand has boosted industries such as cotton, jewelry, and stone workers. Important industries that developed around the temple town of Vijayanagar were artisans, weavers, oil presses, ceramics, textiles, jewelry, armor, weapons, stone carvers, leather workers, hairdressers, potters and washing machines. The temple even built a system of roads to efficiently transport food and distribute goods around the capital, thus playing an important role in the temple city or the cityscape of Plas in the capital Vijayanagar.
Results and discussion
The gift-giving scene most likely depicts Anandanidi gifts from around 1539 AD. The reason for giving large gifts soon after his accession to the throne may be found in the list of contenders for the throne. Perhaps, he hoped to secure his throne by ensuring the goodwill of his nobles and chieftains and strengthen his claim to the throne, since he was not the son and direct heir of Krishnadevalaia.
In fact, the throne was threatened by Rama Raya, son-in-law of Chris Nadeva Raya. After the death of Krsnadeva Raya, the controversy over accession, it is said that Ajuta Raya was crowned three times, first in Tirupati when he heard of his brother's death, second in Karahasti and third in the capital.
Due to the uncertain status of the king (especially Rama Raya has long been a contender for the throne), in order to guarantee his throne, perhaps a large number of gifts should be given to gain additional prestige and status. Whether or not the scene depicts a specific event, it is clear that the specific purpose of the sculpted portrait was to show his free nature and enhance his prestige in the capital, and the visual images confirm the ideological power of gift-giving.
The second group of portraits is located on a unique permanent stone structure called Equilibrium in the municipality of Vijayanagara, locally known as Tulabala, near the Temple of Vitara in Vitarapura. The structure consists of two columns supporting the central beam. It provides for the suspension of a balance, possibly made of metal, specifically for the making of Mahayana.
Kings were compared to gold and precious stones, which were given to all classes of society, brahmins and temples. At the base of the balance column depicts portraits of Krishnadeva Raya and his two queens, Chinna Devi and Tirumala Devi, proving that the structure was built by the king after his victory over Gajapatis in Orissa. The identification is also based on the degree of similarity with the royal (inscription) portrait image of Krisma Raya and his two wives at the northern entrance of the portal of the Tirupatima Rumalai Temple.
Thus, for the first time in the history of South India, a permanent stone structure was built for royal gifts, which meant the institutionalization of royal free practice, and gifts were an important aspect of medieval South Indian royal power. Although the scale portrait is small, the symmetrical structure of the balance is a powerful symbol of the king's generosity. In addition, the structure is located near the Temple of Vitala, on an important road between the palace district and the temple city or plas, which is a visual reminder of the king's generosity and generosity.
The nature and pattern of royal gift-giving has shifted due to changes in political ideology, religion and social change, which can be confirmed by the image of gift-giving. The king visually reaffirmed his superiority and autonomy as a prominent figure in the kingdom, unconstrained by anyone, ruler of all, as a person with the exclusive right to give gifts.
The royal gift is an act of devotion and an ideology of Hindu Buddhism, but also carries with it an awareness of its material and symbolic value. It underpins the temple, which is a bastion of economic power and an instrument of authority. The ostentatious gifts increased political stability and social order, affirmed the morality of obligation and reciprocity, and enhanced the sanctity of the royal power of Vijayenagar.
The visual representation of dāna can substantially reveal the liberal aspect of royal power in the context of historical evidence, illustrating in new ways its close connection with various institutions and modes of shared relations centered on magnanimous architectural and visual images.
bibliography
1. Sewell (1983) (reprint) The Forgotten Empire: (Vijayanagar): Contribution to Indian History.
2. Heizman, James (1997). The Gift of Power: Lords of Early Indian States: 145 ff.
3. Marcel, Moss. 1966. Gifts: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Ancient Societies.1966.
4. Heim, Maria (2004). The Gift Theory in South Asia: Reflections on Dana by Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism: 5.
5. Ek, Diana L (2013). Religious gifts: Hindu, Buddhist and Jain views on Dana. Social Research: International Quarterly, 80.2: 359-379