Temple Urbanism in Medieval South India B James Heitzman

Temple Urbanism in Medieval South India
Author(s): James Heitzman

Source: The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Nov., 1987), pp. 791-826
Published by: Association for Asian Studies
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VOL. 46, No. 4 THE JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES NOVEMBER 1987
Temple Urbanism in
Medieval South India
JAMES HEITZMAN
the Tamil country of South India experienced a flowering of political, economic,

and cultural forces during the Chola period (849-1279). The environments sup-
porting this expansion were nucleated settlements focused on temples, surrounded
by verdant paddy fields with artificial irrigation networks. This article is a study of
the sacred sites and nucleated settlements that were the heart of this medieval civ-
ilization. The purposes of the study are two: first, to portray the dynamics of early
urbanism during a crucial period of regional integration in South Asia, and especially
to portraythe geography of early centers;second, to provide the basis for a comparative
study of early South Indian urbanism and premodern urbanism in other world areas.
The examination of South Indian data concentrates on four major questions:
(1) What did early centers look like in terms of settlement areas, monumental struc-
tures, and relationships with land or water resources?(2) What were the processes
that caused small settlements to evolve into more complex social environments that
exhibited the traits associated with cities? In particular, this article explores the ev-
olution of ceremonial sites as central mediating institutions for growing complexity.
(3) Who were the actors responsible for the processes of urbanization? (4) To what
extent did urban sites perform central-place functions for their hinterlands?
Urbanism and Political Economy in Early South India
Premodern urban development in South Asia passed through three stages. The
Indus Valley Civilization, flourishing c. 2300-1700 B.C., has left a large number of
sites that provide clues for the early evolution of village farming communities into
central places within a commercial nexus and, perhaps, into systems of centralized
administration. The end of this formative period in the northwest of the subcontinent
resulted in the disruption of larger habitation areasand the artifactual characteristics
that signaled centralized agencies, along with the commercial networking that may
have supported elite consumption. The extent to which cultural and settlement pat-
terns survived the decline of the Indus Valley cities is still debated, but it appears
that subsequent urban developments in North India were fundamentally new phe-
nomena (Wheeler 1968; Fairservis 1975:217-311; Possehl 1979). The second phase
James Heitzman is a South Asia research an- on earlier drafts of this paper.
alyst at the Library of Congress. The text of this article is relatively free of dia-
An earlier version of this paper was presented critical marks. Only the first three occurrences of
at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian a Tamil or Sanskrit term appearwith diacritics and
Studies in Chicago in May 1986. The author in italicized form. For diacritics on place names,
wishes to thank David Ludden for his comments see the maps.
791

792 JAMES HEITZMAN
of urbanism in North India, beginning in the early first millennium B.C., originated
in political and economic integration focused on the Ganga River but involving north-
west and central India as well (Ghosh 1973; Thakur 1981; Thapar 1984:90-110).
The familiar combinations of long-distance trade, political centralization, and ritual
integration (through Buddhist institutions) marked the emergence of central places,
some of which exhibited fortifications that support textual references to increased
militarism (Erdosy 1985:91-98). The height of this second urbanrevolution occurred
in the period 250 B.C.-A.D. 300, with the explosion of a North Indian political,
commercial, and cultural complex throughout South Asia and into Southeast and
Central Asia as well (Thapar 1966:70-135; Heitzman 1984; Bagchi 1955; Liu 1985).
After c. 400 the force of ancient urbanism was spent in South Asia, for both literary
and archaeological data point to a decline in the number and centrality of cities
(Sharma 1972; Sharma 1983:145-56, 232; 1985). In North India, central places
reemerged in the form of primarily ritual sites (e.g., Khajuraho)under the last major
Hindu rulers, but urban settlement patterns with commercial and administrative
connections entered a third-phase growth only under the aegis of Turkic rulers in
Delhi in c. 1200 (The CambridgeEconomic Historyof India 1982:46-47, 82-86).
The far south of India participated in the ancient urban revolution. Early cities
such as Madurai, Kanchipuram, and Pumpuhar were centers of the typical ancient
Indian combination of long-distance trade (especially with the Mediterraneanworld)
and political unification under early kingdoms (Cholas and Pandyas).l As in the case
of North India, this early flowering faded after about A.D. 400 followed by a period
of several hundred years that have yielded few data and seem to have been a time of
migrations and disunity (Stein 1980:76-80; Kasinathan 1981). A new type of urban
development began under the Pallava dynasty (sixth-ninth centuries), centered es-
pecially in the capital city of Kanchipuram. Donative inscriptions at major temples
in the capital indicate that religious institutions, especially temples, lay spatially and
conceptually at the heart of growing political and commercial networks (Minakshi
1977:206-16, 349-56; Stein 1980:80-89; Hall and Spencer 1980:127-38). The
developments originating in the Pallavaperiod came to fruition during the subsequent
reigns of the Chola kings, when many areasof medieval Tamil Nadu experienced the
growth of small urban sites around temples.
The Chola kings, based in the fertile Kaveri River delta, united all of Tamil
Nadu under their rule and expanded their political influence over peninsular India,
Sri Lanka, and even Southeast Asia (see Nilakantha Sastri 1955; Pandarathar1958-
61; Spencer 1983). Although earlier scholars tended to stress the centralized, bu-
reaucratic aspects of the Chola empire (Nilakantha Sastri 1955:451; Krishnaswami
Aiyangar 1931:250-73, 331, 375-77; cf. Stein 1975:65-69; Stein 1980:254-64),
more recent researchhas concentrated on the ritual integration achieved by the over-
lords of a "segmentary"state. According to the latter approach, the kings engaged
in ostentatious gift giving to religious institutions, posing as chief devotees within
an encompassing royal cult that attempted to integrate more localized religious forms
(Stein 1977; Stein 1980:134-40, 173-82, 270-72; Stein 1985a:74-80; Stein 1985b;
Suresh 1965; Suresh 1968:437-50). Loyalty to the Chola overlords, and the mani-
festation of more parochial authority, depended on displays of piety through religious
' The urban character and economic impor- ogy-A Review(1969-70:34-35; 1970-71: 32-
tance of Pumpuhar and Madurai appear in Dan- 33; 1971-72: 42-43). Trade associations are de-
ielou (1969:8-22, 94-98) and the Maturaikkd,nci, scribed in Nilakantha Sastri (1958:133-37);
summarized in Kanakasabhai([19041 1956:133- Wheeler (1971:137-49).
37). For early Kanchipuram, see Indian Archaeol-

TEMPLE URBANISM IN MEDIEVAL SOUTH INDIA 793
gift giving. In this way the unification of the Cholas spread throughout Tamil Nadu
a political system in which religious donations were a means toward political inte-
gration and the establishment of local power.2 Growing temple endowments served
as foci for commercial transactions and agrarian development as well, spreading to
wider areasa political and economic integration begun under the Pallavakings (Stein
1960; Hall and Spencer 1980:140-45; Hall 1984).
Corporategroups were typically responsible for decision making at the local level
during the Chola period. The largest of these groups were the ndttdr, or assemblies
of dignitaries from the nddu, a grouping of a number of villages within a common
agrarianzone based often on common irrigation facilities. The ndttdrwere local power-
holders responsible for administrative decisions or even for tax collection (Subbarayalu
1973:19-49; Subbarayalu1982:273-74, 298-99; Stein 1980:90-109, 118-26; Stein
1985a:61-64). Paralleling the ndttdr,who relied on their control over the dominant
agrariansystem, were extended systems of interregional trade carriedon by itinerant
merchants. Local contacts for these merchants existed in mercantile neighborhoods
(nagaram)within at least one village of each nddu (Appadorai 1936:378-402; Hall
1980:51-70, 124-30). The assemblies of merchants (nagarattdr)usually existed
alongside assemblies of cultivating groups (i7rdr)and assemblies of brahmanas(sabhai),
the latter possessing grants of tax-free land bestowed by kings and other pious donors.
All these groups met in separate assemblies to decide matters of local importance.
Leading cultivating groups probably dominated most villages, governing through
meetings of the hurdr.In the neighborhood of growing temples, the assemblies of all
the corporate groups might meet together to decide matters relating to temple do-
nations and temple worship (Nilakantha Sastri 1955: 486-515; Mahalingam
1954:345-79; Hall 1980:19-50). During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as
the Chola empire declined, these assemblies appeared less often in surviving docu-
ments, a change perhaps caused by their integration within multi-nciduassemblies
(citrameliperiya ndttdr)or by the growing power of individual property owners (Stein
1980:216-35; Karashima 1984:4-35; Heitzman 1985b). The various corporate
groups, important individual men, and the Chola kings were the main agents within
the burgeoning central places, and their changing relationships to each other and to
the temples set the direction of temple urbanism.
The primaryhistorical sourcesfor the Chola period arevast numbersof inscriptions
engraved on the stone walls of temple structures recording donations of land, money,
agrarianproduce, and animals to fund temple rituals for the benefit of their donors.
The inscriptions describing rights of land are of greatest interest here, for they are
rich mines of geographical data. The standard inscriptional procedure for describing
donated lands was to refer to bounding landmarks in each of the cardinal directions.
References to each piece of donated land usually describe at least four other lands or
prominent landmarksin its vicinity. Often the boundariesinclude permanentphysical
features such as hills and rivers or relatively stable man-made featuressuch as temples
or village habitation sites. A substantial percentage of the boundaries are irrigation
facilities including rivers, lakes, and canals, which probablychanged very little during
the last thousand years. When several donated lands share one or more bounding
landmarks, it becomes possible to link them in a rough relation to each other; when
a number of lands are so linked and when landmarks correspond to known modern
2
See the similar formulation of Geertz (1983). For medieval Orissa, see Kulke (1979:17-
(1980). For the Vijayanagaraperiod (fourteenth- 19, 26, 40, 65-67, 223-29).
sixteenth centuries) in South India, see Raghotham

794 JAMES HEITZMAN
geography, fairly extensive areas of medieval terrain come to light. In some places
the number of lands with boundaries in surviving temple inscriptions becomes large
enough and mutual linkages among the lands are complete enough to allow a fairly
accurate reconstruction of medieval topography and landholding patterns.'
This article presents three examples from central Tamil Nadu that provide a body
of Chola-period land donations containing information adequate for the portrayaland
analysis of local geography and temple landholding networks. The three sites are the
small village of Vadakadu in Tirutturaippundi taluk, Tirukkoyilur, a modern taluk
headquarters, and a group of four temples around Tiruvidaimarudurnear the Kaveri
River (see Map 1). The three sites progress in size from the single village through
an important district center to a multi-centered complex in the heart of the Kaveri
River delta. Differences in size allow the study of differencesin the strategies employed
to support temple deities. The unveiling of these varying strategies reveals, amid the
natural peculiarities of each site, a developmental pattern connecting temples with
the expansion of South Indian urbanism and the agrarianeconomy.
Temple Lands at Vadakadu: The Frontiers of Cultivation
The village of Vadakadu4lies in the southwest corner of Tirutturaippundi taluk,

about two kilometers north of the town of Muthupet and about eleven kilometers
north of the ocean. The place is somewhat isolated from the modern urbanization
that has affected nearbyMuthupet and Tirutturaippundi towns. Although the village
site of Vadakaduoccupies a fairly extensive area, there are no large-scaleconstructions
there, and the house sites stand in clusters separated by open ground, gardens, or
small tanks of water. The main buildings in the village are in the Siva temple of
MantrapuresvaraSwamy, which has yielded a number of later Chola inscriptions.
The temple compound (about 250 x 150 meters) mirrors the layout of the village
as a whole, for it is generally devoid of structures aside from the inner courtyardsat
its western end. The village (population 1,209 in 1971) projects a spacious and quiet
atmosphere.
The agricultural economy around Vadakadu has always depended on irrigation
water coming from local riversthat originally receive the runofffrom the Kaveri River
through major canals. A great deal of effort has been expended recently in Tirut-
turaippundi taluk to strengthen and extend the irrigation canalsfeeding local villages,
but in times of drought these places, at the tail end of the system, still suffer from
a shortage of irrigation water. Around Vadakaduthe main water source is the Bamiyan
River, which heads to the south here; it supplies water to smaller canals and storage
tanks on both its banks. East of the Bamiyan River lie Vadakadu, mostly supplied
through the modern KandappirichchanRiver and subsidiarychannels, and East Nam-
mankurichchi, supplied through channels paralleling the Bamiyan River. Presently
all cultivable lands in these and in surroundingvillages are divided into fields serviced
through the local irrigation system stemming originally from the Bamiyan River.
3 My research methodology entailed prelim- moguchi (1981) and Bohle (1981) have used these
inary readings of all inscriptions from each study maps extensively in their studies of several modern
site, fieldwork in the study sites interviewing long- villages in Tamil Nadu. I have used one-inch sur-
time inhabitants and local accountants, and a com- vey maps for the section on Tiruvidaimarudur.
parison of field notes with detailed revenue survey 4 This place is also known as Koyilur, or by
maps of study sites. Survey maps of the revenue the combinative form Vadakadukoyilur. The 1932
villages in Tamil Nadu were available through the survey maps show the name as Kovilkadu.
Revenue Department in Madras. Hara and Ko-

0 IPURA
~~~~~~~KANCH
<) ~~~TIRUKKOYIU
X UMPUHAR
. t~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VADAKADU U.
100
MADURAI
20 0 40 80 km.
20' s =i40miles
780 800
Map 1. Urban Sites of Early South India Mentioned in the Text

NOTE: The inset map shows the boundariesof modernTamil Nadu.

796 JAMES HEITZMAN
The MantrapuresvaraSwamy temple has long been, and remains, a landowning

institution in the area around Vadakadu. The temple owns 90 percent of the lands
in Vadakadu and substantial lands in Nammankurichchi and all other bounding vil-
lages. Formerly the temple possessed extensive holdings in more distant locations,
but during the last hundred years much of that land has been alienated.5
Thirteen detailed inscriptions6from the temple describe the initial stages of tem-
ple land control around Vadakadu. The earliest record dates from 1123 and presup-
poses an already viable agricultural community called Cattanam, also known as Ke-
ralakulacanicaturvedimankalam.' This brahmana endowment, in existence at least
since the latter part of the eleventh century,8 had enjoyed some measure of tax-free
status. The medieval locations of house sites and the temple in Cattanamwere basically
the same as the modern locations. West of the village site lay agricultural fields called
Vikkiramacolanallur,probably including some lands of brahmanasand definitely in-
cluding, in the southern sections, lands allocated for village service personnel such
as carpenters (taccar)and goldsmiths (tattdn;TK 181, 198). West of Vikkiramaco-
lanallur lay the hamlet (pitdkai)of Nampankuricci. The earliest inscription describes
the exclusion of brahmanas from the enjoyment of Cattanam and the grouping of
Cattanam and Vikkiramacolanallurinto one "gift for the god" (devadinam)owned by
the Siva temple. This act created the core of extensive local temple lands (see Map
2, no. 1).
The next series of important additions to temple lands occurred approximately
one hundred years later, when substantial portions of Nampankuricci were transferred
to the temple (Map 2, nos. 15-28). Here prominent local notables partially alienated
their own private lands. Leading in this movement was a group of chiefs calling
themselves Coliyavaraiyan. The first donation by a member of this group occurred
when Piccan pallavarayan,also known as Colavaraiyan,from Paiyyur in Paiyyur nadu,
gave over four me of land around Cattanam village.9 IrajakampiraColiyavaraiyan,
also known as Cokkanayan, later met with temple officials and issued an order (olai)
creating a new endowment for rituals and allocating lands (ARE 1908:203). Later,
5 Informants at Vadakadu, including T. Mu- the central area of the Chola polity. The honorific
rugesa Desikar and A. Margamurti Ayyar, with title Pallavaraiyan suggests an association with
whom I spoke in July 1982, said that large blocks Tondaimandalam in northern Tamil Nadu, where
of temple land in other villages were sold during the Pallavas had earlier held sway. Another do-
the twentieth century to a member of a Muslim nation at Vadakadu by a certain Atittatevan from
mercantile community. Many thanks to S. Raja- Vellur in Paiyur kottam places the area in Ton-
gopal, who visited Vadakadu with me in 1982 and daimandalam (TK 214). A village called Paiyur
revisited the site in 1984 to gather further details lies in North Arcot in Arni taluk. A village called
and maps. Special thanks also to N. Sethuraman, Payyur lies in North Arcot in Cheyyar taluk
who provided valuable logistical help during our (Kirdmankalinakarravaricaippatti 1972:3,8). See
first visit to Vadakadu. further a Payjyurkottam during the Vijayanagara
6 TK 181, 182, 183 (= TK 209), 196, 198; period in Ponneri taluk, Chingleput district (Palat
ARE 1908:203 (= TK 211), 205 (= TK 213), 1981:526-27).
209 (= TK 217), 210 (= TK 218), 211 (= TK A m4 was 1/20 veli. The veli was the main unit
219), 213 (= TK 221), 215 (= TK 223), 216 of measurement for land in the central part of
(= TK 224). Tamil Nadu during medieval times. When the
7 TK 181. The term caturvedimangalam,or British first came to power in South India, a stan-
"auspicious [sitel of the four sacrificial hearths," dard veli amounted to 6.74 acres (Tamil Lexicon
refers to endowments bestowed on learned brah- 1982:3838-39). However, varying sizes of me-
manas to support performances of sacred rituals. dieval measuring rods may have meant regional
8 Epithets of the Chola kings denigrating the variations in "standard"units. There are some in-
Cheras, the conquered overlords of Kerala, ap- dications that administrations altered the recorded
peared in Chola records during the eleventh cen- sizes of a veli according to official whims (Subbar-
tury when the Cholas achieved control over most ayalu 1981:97-105). In this article I have at-
of Kerala. tempted to draw land extents approximately to a
9 ARE 1908:215. Paiyyur nddu did not lie in scale of 6.74 acres per veli.

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Map 2. Temple Lands at Vadakadu During the Chola Period

NOTE: See the text for descriptions of the numbered lands.

798 JAMES HEITZMAN
Vanarayar("Lord of the Banas"), also known as Coliyavaraiyan,set up a monastery

here named after himself (ARE 1908:210, 211). A final record describes Coliyava-
raiyanas a "ruler"(vanniyar)here, with a subordinate (akampatiyar)in charge of local
security (kdval kuli; ARE 1908:192 C= TK 203,208}). Notables in Nampankuricci
transferredproperty (kdni)there to the temple and defrayedtaxes on the donated land
by adding them to the taxes due from their remaining landed property. Boundaries
of the donated lands in Nampankuricci indicate that these men held much of the
land in the north of the village, although members of cultivating castes (ve.l.llar)also
continued to own land there. Nampankuricci remained, at least during the time of
these donations, a settlement of agriculturalist groups, increasingly dominated in the
early thirteenth century by notables who were probably newcomers to the area.
Mercantile communities from several places in the vicinity of Cattanam donated
lands and resourcesfor the deity there. The prominence of local commerce, probably
based on the exploitation of salt marshes along the coast, appearsin the name of the
road passing through Cattanam ("the big road of the three hundred," next to no. 6
on Map 2) referring to a pan-regional trading association and in the naming of a
trading settlement to the east (Uppur, the "salt village") after the main local article
of commercial value. The donations of mercantile communities were instrumental in
providing the Cattanam temple with small plots of land in eight exterior villages by
the end of the Chola period. 10
Although the early brahmanaassembly of Keralakulacanicaturvedimankalamwas
deprived of the official enjoyment of the expanding temple lands, the brahmanafam-
ilies were probably not sent packing but remained in Cattanam with emoluments for
ritual duties through the temple. In addition, lands in the immediate vicinity either
remained in the hands of brahmanasor came under their control as cultivation ex-
panded. The area north of Nampankuricci was known as Tantinallur (Map 2, nos.
19, 20, 28), probably controlled by brahmanas. The areas north of Cattanam, un-
mentioned in earlierrecords, comprised brahmanalands in the early thirteenth century
(Map 2, no. 2; TK 182, 183, 198, 209, 224). The settlement of Kalyanapuran-
kontacolanallur, several kilometers to the west, was also a brahmanaenclave.11
The boundaries of donated lands provide some insights into the extent of the
local irrigation system in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The main irrigation
canal was called the Katukali River, which originated at the Akalaka River (the
modern Bamiyan River) north of Nampankuricci, flowed south-southeast on the east-
ern side of Nampankuricci and turned to flow east past the northern side of Cattanam
(see TK 181, 182, 183, 198). Branching from this main river were a number of
smaller channels, some of which were labeled by numbers (the second through sixth
channels appear in the surviving inscriptions; TK 182, 198, 203; ARE 1908:192,
209, 210, 211). The terminal areas of the minor channels were, and still are, the
sites of a number of tanks that conserve water for longer periods. The channel system
of the Katukali River is the only irrigation network traceable until the later inscrip-
tions of the thirteenth century mention lands and canals north of Cattanam. There
10 Out of eight exterior villages seven may be " Since the Chola capture of Kalyanapuri(cap-
located with some degree of accuracy. Three seem ital of the Western Chalukyas in modern Karna-
to have lain in the neighborhood of the temple. taka state) took place during the eleventh century,
One lay about five kilometers to the east. One lay the naming (and perhaps the foundation) of Ka-
about twelve kilometers to the southwest, on the lyanapurankontacolanallur("the temple village of
route of the modern road heading down the coast. the Chola who took Kalyanapuram")probably oc-
Two lay near Tirutturaippundi, about twenty kilo- curred during that time.
meters to the northeast.

donations by brahmanasbounded irrigation facilities north of Vadakadu correspond-

ing to the modern Kandappirichchanand its extension, known then as the Anaimatai
vaykkal and the Patoti vaykkal (Map 2, nos. 2-5). The existence of these main chan-
nels indicates that the fields north of Cattanamvillage were cultivable, probably under
brahmana control, in the early thirteenth century.
Several features of these inscriptional referencesto lands and irrigation facilities
suggest that the agrarian economy around Vadakadu was slowly expanding during
the Chola period. The earliest land record carefully enumerates the boundaries on the
southern and western sides of the original temple land endowment but contains little
reference to boundaries on the north and east. The reason for this omission may lie
in the relatively undeveloped irrigation system of the twelfth century, when the
Katukali River was the central irrigation facility. Cultivable lands clustered around
the channels branching off from this river. In Chola land deeds, changes in the own-
ership of land required the delineation of boundaries in order to separate the lands
of different owners. Uncultivated land, without access to the irrigation system, re-
mained the public domain of the village; because the land bordering this public
domain impinged on no one's individual land rights, it required no boundary ref-
erences. Thus the lands north and east of the original temple endowment were prob-
ably unirrigated, uncultivated, and public property in the early twelfth century. One
hundred years later, however, a major canal system existed north of Cattanam, ir-
rigating lands controlled by brahmanas. The donation of those lands to the temple
required the careful delineation of boundaries in order to differentiate between the
donated lands and contiguous lands in the hands of other owners. The wastelands of
the twelfth century had become irrigated rice lands in the thirteenth century, along
with the individuation of land control that accompanied rice cultivation.
The expansion of the local landownings of the temple at Vadakadu was closely
connected with an expansion of the local cultivable area that proceeded in several
stages. The earliest permanent settlement known to exist here was the brahmana
settlement of the eleventh century, either set up on virgin territory or imposed upon
an original village of cultivators around Nampankuricci. The creation of this early
brahmana community was the work of the Chola kings, who allocated at least the
tax revenues from the village lands. The alteration of the official title of the village
from a "gift for brahmanas"(brahmadeyam) to a "gift for the god" (devadinam)in-
corporated the original brahmanatitles within the larger organization of the temple.
Subsequent endowments came from secular notables who added to temple lands from
their own properties. These notables seem to have been newcomers to the area, moving
from Tondaimandalamto take possession of sections within a shrinking Chola domain.
The concentration of all these donations among the fields watered by a single irrigation
canal changed at the end of the Chola period when the construction of new canals
to the north opened up new cultivable lands. The main actors in this new expansion
seem to have been the brahmanas connected with the temple. The importance of
commercial communities in local trade was translated into a few small, peripheral
donations of lands in exterior villages. The main initiators were the kings, then local
secular notables, then the temple staff alone.
Temple Lands at Tirukkovalur: The Ritual Center
Tirukkoyilur is the headquartersof a taluk with the same name on the southern
bank of the Pennai River. The place has a very long recordedhistory; it was the scene

800 JAMES HEITZMAN
of legendary exploits recorded in Sangam literature from the early Christian era (Sri-
nivasan 1980). Today the place is a bustling, crowded urban center (population in
1971 was 18,226) offering a marked contrast to the isolation of Vadakadu. The
modern town contains two main centers of habitation that revolve around two me-
dieval temples. Tirukkoyilur proper centers on Tiruvikrama Swamy temple, one of
the main shrines for the worship of Vishnu in Tamil Nadu, known in Chola times
as the abode of Tiruvitaikali Alvar. The smaller settlement of Kilaiyur (called Kilur,
or the "easternvillage," in lists of inscriptions) centers on a Siva temple that in Chola
times was the abode of Tiruvirattanattu udaiyar.
The Vishnu temple has receivednumerousdonations from devotees since the Chola
period, and its original Chola-period architecture is surrounded by massive and im-
pressive constructions dating from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. During
the Chola period the temple was in the hands of an autonomous temple administra-
tion, but presently a monasteryadministers the temple's affairsfrom its center directly
east of the temple. 12 The Siva temple received less patronage during the post-Chola
periods and today presents a less imposing appearance that enhances the pristine
beauty of its Chola architecture. The two temples contain inscriptions describing a
total of 104 individual named plots of temple lands from the Chola period, of which
60 have been located for the present study (see Map 3).
During the twentieth century Tirukkoyilur has experienced an increase in pop-
ulation and market activity typical of most taluk headquarters, but a major facet of
the local economy is still agriculture. Despite the addition of numerous tube wells
throughout South Arcot district during recent years, agriculture around Tirukkoyilur
depends even today on irrigation waters obtained from the adjacent Pennai River.
Sluices located several kilometers to the west divert Pennai waters through irrigation
ditches to either a large lake (periyaeri) or a small lake (cirreri)south and west of
Tirukkoyilur town (see Map 3). In accordancewith the generally eastward slope of
the land, the large lake waters fields directly to its east, while the small lake waters
lands between it and the Pennai River, to its north and northeast. The lands to the
west of the big lake receive irrigation waters from several small lakes and irrigation
systems to the west and the south.
The legendary history (sthala purdynam) of the Vishnu temple describes Tiruk-
koyilur (then called Tirukkovalur, the name retained for the rest of this study) as
originally a brahmanacommunity in which the main activities were the performances
of sacrifices, worship, and austerities by brahmanas and religious mendicants. Al-
though the Vishnu temple and bathing sites (tirtham)on the Pennai River were im-
portant in this early community, the presenceof the brahmanasappearsas antecedent.
Surrounding the community was a wilderness full of ferocious beasts (Tirukkivalgr
sthalapuronam1978:10-12). Despite the ratherformulaicportrayalof the settlement,
which is simply a localized version of the forest hermitage (Granyam)appearing in
classical literature, the legendary history here may preservea memory of some original
brahmadeyam that grew up in the early history of settled agriculture along the Pennai.
The wilderness around the settlement correspondsto the uncultivated areas that, as
we have seen, surrounded the early brahmadeyam at Cattanam.
12
The Emperuman Jiyar monastery lies on the striking, but not uncommon, example of the lon-
north side of the street heading east from the east- gevity of brahmana settlement patterns and ritual
ern entrance to the Vishnu temple. The modern control, transformed from the original brahma-
monastery exists directly in the center of the area deyamand sabhai systems into late medieval mon-
called ampalamduring the Chola period. This is a astic institutions.

SOUTHASIA
URBANISMIN MEDIEVAL
TEMPLE 801
li fl,,0 .tu;
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I~~~~
.: ~ ~~~~~
.' ..S ~~~~~~~~ . .....
. . . . . . .U
MEESgg
1i
41
xVX
...............
jEW
Map 3. Temple Lands at Tirukkoyilur During.the. Chola.......

NOTE: .
SUbPeriO 1...9-85.SbPrOd2..95-07;SUPeiO .3=. 00-17;.UberO
4 = 178-129. Se the eXt fr deSriPtinS Ofthe nmbere ......
SORE .TrUkY1r.SI7.3,.3,1914;E P. 142-4;. STI.6;.AR.190:2;.92.1309
311,~~~~~~~~~........
31,38,32.32.3-4,35,38.49.5;.943525 . .46.5; Klr
.... 7:863, 3,9 3,91 ,91 , 2 ; IT 2,44 4 ; R
................,8
1905:11,~ <2 ~ ~ ~~~........ ........

802 JAMES HEITZMAN
By the Chola period, the geography of Tirukkovalur revolved around the Vishnu
temple. The temple itself, originally a brick structure, was rebuilt in stone in the
middle of the eleventh century (SII 7:135[= El 7, pp. 145-461). Although there
was undoubtedly an original surroundingwall, an additidnalwall was added sometime
around 1100.13 It seems likely, however, that the addition of a surrounding wall did
not necessitate the expansion of the sacred ground devoted to the lord. References
to the nearby roads and house sites suggest that an original expanse of sacred ground
became covered with temple structures during a long period of temple construction.
Today, imposing towers (gopuram) give access to buildings on temple grounds covered
in paving stone. In the Chola period, the same ground was coveredwith flowergardens
(Map 3, no. 13), separating the sanctum from its surrounding wall and the sur-
rounding wall from other habitation structures. This layout is more visible today at
the Siva temple in Kilur, somewhat distant from other buildings, more neglected
during the last eight hundred years.
A processional street probably surrounded the grounds of the Vishnu temple,
although the inscriptions only referdirectly to the easternstreet. This street, running
north-south, eventually reached the Pennai River after crossing several important
irrigation channels. Another road branched off from this street north of the temple
walls and headed for the embankment separating the two lakes, reaching the lands
south of the small lake. East of the temple lay the ampalam, or site of the learned
community. It is likely that here lived the majority of the brahmanas involved in
the assembly (sabhai)of Maturantakacaturvedimankalam,the name bestowed on the
brahmanacommunity here in the early Chola period. 14 Much of the space in the area
of the ampalamwas taken up by habitation structures (manoai),but as in the case of
the temple, there were gardens and agricultural lands separating some of the houses
even in this section of the town (Map 3, nos. 10, 11). The areanorth of the ampalam,
near the major canals, contained minor temples of Pillaiyar and Subrahmanyamand
at least one Jain monastery-temple (pa(/iccantam).Today this area is still the site of
minor temples and a variety of public offices.
The geography of southern Tirukkovalur is unknown for the Chola period, but
references to the mercantile community (nagarattdr)suggest that there was a com-
mercial establishment in the southern part of town near what is now the merchants'
quarter. During the early Chola period the nagaramat Tirukkovalur appeared as an
assembly dealing with corporate responsibilities toward the temple, taking deposits
yielding interest for temple rituals, guaranteeing supplies for temple worship and
provisions for personnel (SI1 7:858, 864, 870, 932, 935). During the later Chola
period, the nagaramwas associated with weaving and oil-vending groups and with
nadu-wide commercial groups (SI1 7:129, 865, 901). The wider scope of association
visible in the mercantile organization of Tirukkovalurparalleled the presence of nadu-
wide coalitions of cultivators (citrameliperiya ndttdr), who were acting within the
Vishnu temple as major donors during the thirteenth century (81 7:129; ARE
1921:341).
13 All inscriptions in the Vishnu temple from sabhaicomes from the 21st regnal year of the Rash-
the twelfth century exist on the walls of the second trakuta king Krishna III (SII 7:897 [= El 7, pp.
surrounding wall (prdkdram).The earliest record 142-43). The Rashtrakutas, based in what is now
on these walls comes from A.D. 1133 (ARE Maharashtra state, overran the northern areas of
1921:349). Tamil Nadu for about thirty years in the mid-tenth
14
The earliest reference to the Tirukkovalur century.

Two inscriptions describe the boundaries of Tirukkovaluraround the year 1000.

Kannattampativillage lay east of the Siva temple. South of the big lake, Arumpakkam
village (corresponding to a modern village of the same name) formed the southern
boundary;it was in turn bounded on the south by Venmaruvillage, modern Vimmar.
On the west lay Karati, on the site of the modern village of the same name (S1
7:144, 857). The original endowment of Maturantakacaturvedimankalammay have
constituted the entire extent of lands within these large boundaries, but the Chola
records reveal sabhai control only within the ampalam and in the lands in the west,
flanking the small lake to the north and the south (SII 7:137, 139, 140, 872). Later
inscriptions mention the existence of settlements called Comaci kiranurand Panriyur
in the western sections of Tirukkovalur adjoining the lands of the brahmana com-
munity; perhaps these were recent additions to cultivated acreage formed out of, or
next to, lands of the brahmanas. In the eastern sections of town, the modern ad-
ministrative division between Tirukkoyilur and Kilur had its medieval antecedents,
for references to the lands near the Siva temple mention several settlements called
Tevankuti ("settlement of the god"; SI1 7:863; SITI 44, 45), Civapuram ("city of
Siva," perhaps a trading quarter; 81 7:858; ARE 1934-35:246), and Putupperur
(the "new, big town"; SII 7:144; ARE 1905:12). In the absence of further details,
we may identify these names with the modern habitation areas in Kilur around the
Siva temple.
The irrigation facilities around Tirukkovalur have retained the same basic con-
figurations and even the same names since the Chola period. Several inscriptional
references indicate that the small lake (cirreri)stretched then, as now, from a point
in the west where its feeder canal joined it near the Ndrai kal rocky ground, to an
embankment in the east separating it from the large lake (periyaeri; ARE 1921:211,
322, 341, 345). The large lake, never specificallymentioned in the Chola inscriptions,
did exist during the Chola period, for the description of land number 17 mentions
embankments to its east that must have retained waters of the big lake; the Chola-
period name of the "small" lake also implies its pairing with a "large" lake. The
main irrigation canals from the Chola inscriptions similarly match several main mod-
ern canals. Predominant for Tirukkovalur town was the "canal of the small lake"
(cirrerivdykkdl), flowing from the eastern end of that lake to the northeast and then
the east, watering fields in the town and especially between the town and the river.
Equally important was the Nittavinota vaykkal, which started from a sluice a bit
northwest of the small lake, flowed directly east past Tirukkovalur town, and even-
tually went past Kilur to points east.
The lands donated to both the Siva and the Vishnu temples lay generally in areas
close to the Pennai River that were irrigated by the major canals. Land donations in
the east and far west during the tenth and eleventh centuries shifted to donations
immediately north or northwest of Tirukkovalur town or farther to the southwest
during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.15 The lands of the Siva temple lay around
15
Many of the lands between the river and the been located. One inscription, for example, men-
Vishnu temple may actually have been controlled tions temple lands of 11.25 veli in the area north
by the Vishnu temple quite early inthe Chola pe- of the small lake and 10 veli in Kilanur-none of
riod or earlier, but they appear in the inscriptional which have been located on Map 3 (ARE 1921:340
record only in later transactions. The total extent [ = SITI 64). The contexts of the unlocated lands
of temple lands in these areas may have amounted suggest, however, positions very close to those of
to twice the amount portrayed on Map 3, since the located lands.
only about half of the total recorded lands have

804 JAMES HEITZMAN
modern Kilur (Map 3, nos. 1-9), while lands of the Vishnu temple lay around Ti-
rukkovalurtown and to the west (Map 3, nos. 15, 16, 21-30). Landsof both temples
lay north of Tirukkovalur town, but even here in the thirteenth century there was
an explicit attempt to divide the holdings into different, compact blocks. 16
Originally much of the land controlled by the temples was in the hands of the
brahmanaassembly of Maturantakacaturvedimankalam.Earliertransactionsinvolved
sales of land by the brahmanaassembly to the temple directly or through intermediary
donors, and the growth in temple lands was probably proportional to a decrease in
the lands of the brahmanaassembly during the later Chola period. 17 Temple lands,
accumulated from plots within the lands of the brahmanas,intermingled with those
lands remaining with the brahmanas.Additional lands interspersedamong the fields
of the temples or of the brahmanas belonged to persons or groups connected with
the temples or other religious institutions. Sections of land were given to temple
security personnel (kaikkolar).8 Other lands mentioned as boundaries refer to en-
dowments for monasteries,Jain establishments, or lesser deities. 19 With the exception
of one land apparently set aside as a service tenure (jivitam;ARE 1905:2), lands for
religious institutions and personnel seem to have formed a solid block, especially in
the stretch of lands along the Pennai River.
Although there is a striking concentration of lands in the hands of religious
personnel along the river and near the temples, there is an equally striking absence
of temple lands in areas to the south. The agricultural fields watered by the large
lake do not appearin the donative inscriptions, although those fields were undoubtedly
being cultivated during the Chola period. References to agricultural groups (urdr)
from other nearby settlements (SII 858, 880, 886, 889; ARE 1905:2) parallel a
complete lack of referencesto urarfrom Tirukkovalur. There was, then, a bifurcation
of roles between the ritual personnel of the two temples and agriculturalgroups tilling
the land. Most of Tirukkovalur was a separateritual center, controlled by high-caste
ritual personnel who also exerted great control over adjacent lands. The boundaries
of this ritual center were, however, quite circumscribed-a total land area of ap-
proximately 3.5 square kilometers-and its influence extended to few places outside
its immediate environs.2
Within the boundaries of the ritual center, control over lands was manifold and
fragmentary. The expanding temples officially controlled heterogeneous land rights
and duties. Most lands probably directed defrayedtax income to the temples. Temple
officials administered some lands outright as property of the god. Some private prop-
erties were legally required to set aside part of their nontaxable produce for the
temple.21 Lands remaining with members of the brahmanacommunity, mixed with
16
SITI 42; ARE 1905:2. This attempt at mu- 1921:318, 349. For the Jain monastery (palliccan-
tual exclusion in the late Chola period is reminis- tam), see SII 7:890, ARE 1905:2 (= SITI 42). For
cent of similar trends toward sectarian divisions the temple of cuppiramaniyapillaiydr, see ARE
manifest at Tirumeyyam in southern Pudukkottai 1905:2.
district. See Tirumalai 1981:119-24. 20 Lands outside the immediate area of Tiruk-
17 El 7, pp. 142-43; SII7:139, 140-42, 864, kovalur providing resources to the temple include
868, 893; ARE 1905:11, 20; 1921:311, 322, Ariyur (79?10', 11?52'), Aviyur (79?4' 30",
338, 349; 1934-35:250. 11056' 30"), Karikalacolanallur(79010', 11059'),
18 ARE 1921:347; 1934-35:253. Persons Marutur and Pullalippuram (not located).
called Kaikkolar appear during the Chola period 21 Inscriptions portraying the various types of
exclusively as warriors and policemen, but later land and resource control are SI 7:142,143, 917,
data reveal them as members of weaving com- 922; SITI 45; ARE 1921:345; 1934-35:245-50.
munities. See Mines 1984. For a greater discussion of these records, see Heitz-
'g For monastery lands (matapuram),see ARE man (1985a:210-11).

Table 1. Donors at Tirukkovalur During the Chola Period
Subperiod1 Subperiod2 Subperiod3 Subperiod4

(849-985)a (985-1070)a (1070-1178)a ( 1 178-1279)a
Type of Donor Number% Number % Number % Number %

Individualbrahmanas 5 11 1 4
Brahmana assemblies (sabhai) 1 6 4 9
Shepherds 4 9 1 6
Merchants 5b 11 fc 6
Local leaders 1 6 8d 17 7 26 2 13
Persons with high honorific 5 28 9 20 2 7 3 19
titles
Miladu or Malaiyaman rulers 10 56 9 20 17 63 9 56
Chola kings/queens 1 6 2 4
TOTAL: 18 100 46 100 27 100 16 100

aThe four-partchronology
usedherefirstappearedin Sitaraman,
Karashima,andSubbarayalu
(1976:89);Karashima, andMatsui(1978:xlv).
Subbarayalu,
b Includestwo donationsby corporatebodiesor merchants(nagarattdr).
c Includesonedonation
by nagarattdr.
d Includes two donations by village assemblies of agriculturalists (u7rdr).
the temple lands, were undoubtedly subject to several types of cultivating arrange-
ments, including subletting to tenants and employing agricultural laborers. Several
service groups such as security personnel (kaikkolar)probably did not personally cul-
tivate all the lands providing them with support, necessitating the participation of
cultivating groups in the production process. The actual tilling of much of the land
within the ritual center remained the job of cultivating groups, probably living in
the settlements east of Tirukkovalur around the Siva temple, probably dominating
groups of agricultural laborers (paraiyar).22The cultivators and associated laborers,
invisible in the recordedtransactionsof temple, brahmana,and mercantile assemblies,
were a necessary component of the complicated tenurial system within the ritual
center.
The Siva and Vishnu temples yield a total of 107 inscriptions (82 percent of the
extant inscriptions from these sites) that mention the donors of land and other re-
sources to the ritual center at Tirukkovalur. Table 1 lists the different types of donors
appearing in these recordsand the numbers of donations given by donors during four
separatesubperiods within the Chola period. These data demonstrate that significant
persons and groups within the ritual center and economy of Tirukkovalurcontributed
relatively little to the expansion of the temple networks. Noteworthy among those
individuals not appearing are brahmanasand merchants, who acted more often as
22
For discussions of tenancy and labor during Vishnu temple lands agree to help support rituals
the Chola period, see Nilakantha Sastri by forwarding small amounts of paddy from their
(1955:555-57); Kumar(1985:348-5 1); Heitzman share of the produce (kil vdram), along with other
(1985a: 147-63). Cultivators around Tirukkovalur temple dues (koyil katamai; ARE 1921:346).
appear in only one record, in which the tillers of

806 JAMES HEITZMAN
administratorsof the temple or receiversof deposits than as donors in their own right.
Similarly, corporate groups (sabhai, nagarattar, urar) that often appear as authors of
inscriptions rarely alienated their own resources to the temples, acting instead as
witnesses or registering agencies. Shepherdsprovided as many donations as brahmanas
or merchants, testifying to the close interpenetrationof rustic, ritual, and commercial
economies. The Chola kings, represented here by female members of their families
(El 7, p. 144; ARE 1905:3), exerted little direct influence on the development of
temple rituals and estates.
The types of persons most responsible for the expansion of temple resources and
landholding fall into three categories of political leadershipbased primarily on control
of the agrarianeconomy outside Tirukkovalur. The categories of leadership are sug-
gested by a hierarchy of titles attached to personal names in the inscriptions. At the
lowest level were persons whose names appearwithout honorific titles or with terms
indicating "possession"of land and/or influence in some named village. 23 These local
leaders accounted for an average of 16 percent of the donations forwarded to the
temples. A higher level appearsin the names of persons associatedwith high honorific
titles, typically containing epithets of kings, who in addition were often "possessors"
in one or more places. These persons accounted for an averageof 19 percent of donated
resources.24 The category that appears most frequently in the donative inscriptions
refers to the highest stratum of local political power, associated with overlords of the
entire region surrounding Tirukkovalur along the Pennai River. During the tenth
century a lineage of Vaidumba rulers claimed control over the region of Miladu as
subordinates of the Rashtrakutas, a powerful dynasty from the area of modern Ma-
harashtrastate to the northwest, who overran the northern reaches of Tamil Nadu
for a period of about thirty years.25The subsequent reconquest by the Cholas allowed
the reinstallation of a lineage of Miladu lords who posed as little kings in their own
right through elaborate poetic praises of their land and their rule and through in-
termarriagewith the Cholas (Srinivasan1980:120-31; Trautmann, 1981:391). After
1070 a new lineage calling itself Malaiyaman, harking back to ancient rulers of this
area, took control of Tirukkovalurand made the area its main cult center (Srinivasan
1980:147). In fact, the location of this place in the core of the area called Miladu,
along the fertile alluvium of the Pennai River, always made Tirukkovalur a strategic
center for the political control of the northern marches of the Chola country and
stimulated repeated donative statements by the paradeof subordinate little kings who
ruled the area. These noble donors were responsible for by far the largest amount of
resourcesdonated to the temples (averaging 49 percent of all donations), mostly land
or defrayed taxes from land.
Tirukkovalur offers a perspective on the relative position of religious institutions
within Chola-period political economy. The small area included within the ritual
center was administratively dominated by brahmanasand temple administrations.
23
The category of "local leaders" used here in- dyas, and Cholas, all absorbed into the Cholas. For
cludes a few persons with the title of "elder" (ki- discussions of these terms, see Karashima
lavan), "possessor" (utaiyan), and a few who were (1984:58-64); Subbarayalu (1982:278-81).
part of temple staffs. For discussions of the terms 25 Vaidumba inscriptions at Tirukkovalur, all
kilavan and utaiydn, see Karashima (1984:57-58). engraved during regnal years of the Rashtrakuta
24The most common of the high honorific emperor Krishna III, are El 7, pp. 142-44; ARE
phrases are those ending with the terms "lord" 1905:16. For the Rashtrakutas, see Nilakantha
(araiyan), "leader of the nadu" (ndtdlvdn), or Sastri (1955:128-34); Altekar (1934:115-19);
"member of the cultivating castes [serving] the Srinivasan (1980:117-19). See also records of the
three kings" (muventaveldn)-the three kings rep- Banas, allies of the Cholas in their early struggles
resenting the dynasties of the ancient Cheras, Pan- (S1 7:930, 935; El 7, pp. 140-41).

However, their economic influence outside the area of the ritual center was low. The
temples possessed few rights to lands beyond the immediate neighborhood of the
town-limited in the inscriptions to small parcels in only five villages. The villages
bounding Tirukkovalur had no known connection with the temple. But even within
the boundaries of Tirukkovalur there were large expanses of cultivable lands located
east of the big lake that were separatefrom the temple, probably cultivated by small
peasants either independently or in subordination to largerlandowners. The tendency
around Tirukkovalur was to concentrate most temple lands within a fairly narrow
band irrigated by the old channels connected with the small lake.26
Tirukkovalur was an old settlement with a small, independent irrigation system,
which accumulated sacred myths and sites as its archaic economy developed. As in
the case of Vadakadu, where the earliest records describe the grant to a brahmana
community, the endowments around the original Vishnu temple were the domain
of an early brahmadeyam. During the Chola period, the interests of the brahmana
community slowly coalesced into the administrations of the Vishnu and Siva temples,
to which members of the brahmadeyamprogressively alienated their lands. Simul-
taneously, the donations of secular notables gave the temples greater access to the
agrarianresourcesfrom more and more lands within the boundariesof Tirukkovalur.
The leaders in this parade of donations were local rulers, mostly the Miladu lords
and then the Malaiyaman lineage, but other notables and local leaders also partici-
pated. As at Vadakadu, local mercantile interests were a continuing but subsidiary
source of donated lands, no more important than pastoralists in donation largess.27
The piecemeal accumulation of land rights at Tirukkovalur resulted in a variegated
control of lands, unlike Vadakadu where the bulk of land donations was the work
of a few agencies and involved the ownership of lands by the temple. The transfer
of donated funds into Tirukkovalur did not result in the penetration of its temple
administrations into larger areas; it led instead to an increasing concentration of
heterogeneous holdings within the ritual center.
The relatively circumscribed spatial extent of temple land control within Tiruk-
kovalur nevertheless contains several hints of local agrarianexpansion. The locations
of the earliest endowments, mostly east of the Vishnu temple (Map 3, nos. 1-4, 12),
may portray an early reliance on irrigation waters flowing east from the small lake.
But even at an early period, small pieces of land farther to the west (Map 3, nos.
28-31) were donated, a phenomenon that increased in subsequent centuries. The
later concentration of donations in the far west may represent an ongoing creation
of distant, peripheral fields.28 A related development is the later referenceto Panriyur
26
Informants at Tirukkovalur indicated that them.
the Vishnu temple presently holds only ten acres 27
One inscription from the Siva temple refers
of land directly north of the temple along the to the "lamp shepherd of this god" (inndyandrti-
river-those lands comprising the medieval hold- ruvilakku manrdti), indicating that the temple re-
ings of nos. 9 and 15 on Map 3. L. Thyagarajan tained overseers of flocks supplying milk to make
found that the Siva temple presently controls no oil (SII 7:915). The pastoral economy around the
lands within the town but possesses lands in several temple sites may have been considerable, but it is
exterior villages. This segregation of lands per- poorly represented in surviving records.
petuates the divisions beginning in the twelfth 2 The locations of temple lands suggest that
century. Informants at Tirukkovalar included the many of the lands were poorly suited for rice ag-
head of the Emperuman Jiyar monastery, which riculture. The block in the far west was near the
administers the Vishnu temple, the retired ac- edge of the irrigation system running from the
countant of Tirukkovalur, and a number of in- small lake. Lands east of the road to the river were
structors at a local high school. My thanks to all on somewhat higher ground, which even today is
of these people and to L. Thyagarajanand to Ram used for public buildings. Many of the flower gar-
Anirai Kavalan for arranging the interviews with dens near the river remain dry lands (puncey)today.

808 JAMES HEITZMAN
village in the peripheral zone south of the small lake, bounding the lands of the
brahmanas(Map 3, nos. 18, 19). This location suggests the association of later temple
lands with the edges of cultivation, as seen earlier at Vadakadu.
Temple Lands in the Kaveri River Delta: The Temple Complex
The temple landholdings around the Kaveri River during the Chola period reveal
developmental patterns familiar already from the studies of Vadakadu and Tiruk-
kovalur, renderedmore complicated by larger networks of interaction among different
places. In contrast to the relatively localized temple lands of the former places, the
temples along the Kaveri River drew proportionately larger resources from lands
outside the boundaries of their villages. The existence of lands in exterior villages
created a complex of temple networks, rather than the relatively unique networks
visible in more isolated areas. The development of these temple complexes, which
flourishedduring the later Chola period, revealsmore clearly the role of seculardonors
in temple landholdings and the continuing role of temples in agrariandevelopment.
The central temple forming the hub of the developing temple complex is at
Tiruvidaimarudur, a small modern town (population 10,410 in 1971) lying about
two kilometers south of the Kaveri River in Kumbakonam taluk. This was the site
of a Siva temple praised in the pre-Chola hymns of Saiva saints, the focus of great
patronage during Chola and post-Chola periods (Champakalakshmi 1979:20-22).
Remodeling in the twentieth century destroyed the medieval inscriptions here, but
fortunately the Archaeological Survey copied them before their destruction and pre-
served 141 inscriptions from the Chola period. Several kilometers east of Tiruvidai-
marudur lies Maruttuvakkudi, the site of a temple containing eight later Chola in-
scriptions. North of Tiruvidaimarudur, on the north bank of the Kaveri River, is
Veppattur, containing nine later Chola inscriptions. Three kilometers downriver from
Veppattur is Tirumangalam (medieval Mankalakkuti), the site of a temple erected
under royal auspices in the twelfth century (SII 5:703; 23:302). The four temples
form a rough quadrilateral flanking both sides of the Kaveri River in central Kum-
bakonam taluk (see Map 4).
The central place in this area in medieval times, as today, was the town of Kum-
bakonam (medieval Kutamukku), located about ten kilometers west of these four
places in the "corner"(ko.nam,mzikku)formed by the branching of several major ef-
fluents from the Kaveri River. During the Chola period, Kutamukku was a major
site in the "urban"complex attached to Palaiyaru, a Chola capital, which spread over
a large area to its south and west. Palaiyaruand Kutamukku contained a number of
important brahmanasettlements, temples, royal palaces, and military encampments
and were the scenes of major political and diplomatic events throughout the Chola
period (Champakalakshmi1979:6-19; Minakshisundararand Pandarathar195 1). The
wide official boundaries of Kutamukku stretched in the east to include the temple
village of Tirunagesvaramand lands as far as Karampaitillainayakanallur(Map 4, no.
10; Champakalakshmi 1979:9-10). Any discussion of Chola-period developments
around Tiruvidaimarudurproceeds in the context of a large and active royal presence
centered in nearby Kutamukku.29
29 Kulottunga Chola III (1178-1218) con- the last of the monumental central shrines built
structed the great Kampaharesvaratemple only a by the Chola kings (Sarkar 1974).
few kilometers west of Tiruvidaimarudur. This was

The configuration of settlements and activities within the immediate vicinity of

Tiruvidaimarudurresembles the geography of medieval Tirukkoyilur. The Siva tem-
ple and its encompassing grounds stood at the center of town, surrounded by walls
with entrance towers (gopuram)added during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.30
Processional streets surroundedthe temple walls and other streets branchedoff toward
the east and toward the river to the north. Another main road probably ran through
Tiruvidaimarudur from Kutamukku in the west, heading to Maruttuvakkudi and
points east. 31 Aside from garden lands for the temple, the town included a settlement
of cultivators (fr) and a mercantile community (nagaram),perhapscomprising several
discrete neighborhoods, that was very active in temple affairs especially during the
early Chola period.32 Contiguous to the town was the brahmana community called
Tiraimur, which remained officially separatefrom Tiruvidaimarudurbut in fact func-
tioned as the most important assembly monitoring temple affairs.The early formation
of lands at Tiraimur into a devaddna-brahmadeyam, that is, a simultaneous endowment
for the temple and for the brahmanas, is an early example of the interpenetration of
temple and brahmana interests that dominated religious institutions everywhere in
the Chola domains after approximately 1100 (SII 3:203).
The kind of information on temple lands contained in the inscriptions at Tiru-
vidaimarudur differs from the data found at either Vadakadu or Tirukkovalur. The
latter places provide detailed descriptions of individual pieces of land within their
own boundaries, complete with interesting referencesto irrigation systems and village
landmarks. Although there are a few such records from Tiruvidaimarudur, they are
inadequate for an in-depth portrayal of village geography there. The singularly un-
informative referencesto the irrigation system within Tiruvidaimarudur,for example,
indicate only that Kaveri River water filled canals running east among the lands
dedicated to the god and to brahmanas(e.g., SI1 5:702). The reasonfor this difference
lies in the early action of the Chola kings in forming large areas of the town into a
devaddna-brahmadeyam, which, combined with lands for the temple grounds and gar-
dens, funneled a large amount of local agrarianproduce directly into the temple. As
at Vadakadu, the early control of these large expansesby the temple forced subsequent
donors to provide for additional rituals either by adding lands on the edges of the
early endowment or by seeking resources in other villages. The necessity to look
outside for resources resulted in the much larger network of villages yielding lands
and produce to the temple at Tiruvidaimarudur.
The creation of multi-village landholdings was underway early in the Chola pe-
riod.33 An early sphere of temple involvement was probably Vannakkuti, just to the
30 Inscriptions from the tenth and eleventh 32

Hall (1982:397-403) states that the name
centuries were on the walls of the central shrine. of the nagaram at Tiruvidaimarudur was Kumar-
Inscriptions from the twelfth century were on the amattantapuram, coming down from Pallava
walls of the first surrounding wall (prdkdram).In- times, although the single Chola-period reference
scriptions from the late twelfth and early thir- to this name provides no clues to its location (SII
teenth centuries appeared on the first and second 23:227). Manaparanapuramseems to be a neigh-
prdkdramand, in one doubtful case (SII 23:310), borhood within Tiruvidaimarudur's nagaram (SII
on the east tower of the second prd am. Refer- 5:7 13).
ences to the temple entrances (tiruvacal) on the 33 It has been possible to locate a large per-
south and east appear in SII 23:2&8. centage of the exterior villages through the use of
31 The tirumanicana peruvali in Tiruvidaimaru- a computerized concordance of Chola-period place-
dur (SII 23:291) headed north. References to a "big names. My thanks to Ella Shum of the DRL Com-
road"at Tiruvidaimarudur (SII 5:722) and at Adu- puter Center at the University of Pennsylvania,
durai to the east (KK 147) describe it as heading who wrote the programs for the concordance.
toward the north. The road surrounding the tem- Thanks also to John Abercrombie, who gave me
ple at Tiruvidaimarudur appears in SII 5:708; access to his sorting programs.
23:288.

810 JAMES HEITZMAN
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NOTE: Arrows indicate the direction of resource flow from lands in villages. Enclosed areas indicate
resource flow from groups of villages combining lands for temples.
SOURCE: (Tiruvidaimarudur) SII 3:202-3; 5:694, 702-3, 705, 707-8, 711, 713, 7 16-18, 722-23;
13:195, 270; 19: 162, 181, 195, 220, 222-23, 227, 249, 257-58, 264, 272-73, 275-76,
286-89, 291, 301-3, 305, 307, 309, 342; (Veppattur)ARE 1910:51-52;(Maruttuvakkudi)
SII 23:386-90, 392-93; (Tirunagesvaram) SII 6:34.

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812 JAMES HEITZMAN
east of Tiruvidaimarudur(Map 4, no. 3), where tenth-century donations formed the

basis for an endowment that totaled one hundred veli of tax-free land by the twelfth
century. Equally important was the more distant site of Vilankuti (no. 26), where
a series of small donations built up an endowment for the-temple in the tenth century.
The addition of small endowments in three other sites (nos. 15, 24, 25) created by
the year 1000 an extended landholding network that resembledthe extended networks
associated with the temples of Vadakadu or Tirukkovalur.34
A major expansion of the extended landholding network of the Tiruvidaimarudur
temple took place during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Some lands came to
the temple from close at hand, as several nearby brahmana communities gave up
produce from pieces of land among their holdings (nos. 4-6). Another endowment
of ten veli of land came from a position quite far to the east (no. 22). The major
focus of temple involvement in this later phase was in the south, where a number
of transactions provided the temple with lands in at least four locations (e.g., nos.
34, 35). The additions of these new lands formed an extended landowning network
that perhaps doubled the area connected to the temple (SII 5:702, 705, 707, 708;
6:34; 23:289, 291).
The expansion of the landholding arenaof the Tiruvidaimarudurtemple brought
it into closer contact with the landholdings of neighboring temples that were ex-
panding in a similar fashion. The temples at Veppattur and Mankalakkuti possessed
intersecting lands on the north bank of the Kaveri River in an area where the Ti-
ruvidaimarudurtemple also controlled fields (nos. 13, 14; SII 5:703, 708; 23:302).
The Maruttuvakkuti temple resembled the Tiruvidaimarudur temple in its accu-
mulation of lands from brahmanacommunities between it and the Kaveri River (nos.
7 and 8) and its involvement with lands to the south (no. 33) that were shared with
the Tiruvidaimarudur temple (SII 23:392, 393). These temple interests created a
close-knit complex of temple rights that intersected and moved out into wider agrarian
hinterlands.
Most of the lands coming under temple control after 1100 came from the previous
holdings of brahmana communities and, in a number of cases, from lands on the
borders of brahmana communities. The pattern of converting earlier brahmadeyam
lands into temple lands, seen especially at Tiruvidaimaruduritself, became widespread
in the later transfers of land for that temple and for neighboring temples. Out of
twenty-six places yielding lands for the temples after 1100, twenty-one were brah-
madeyam villages. The lands thus transferredto the temples were usually compact
blocks that were often given their own names as new devaddnamfor the temples, but
they originated as pieces of lands within two or more different villages (nos. 7, 9,
18, 22, 29; SII 23:289, 301, 386, 392, 393). It is therefore likely that the objects
of the land transactions were lands on the outer edges of these brahmana villages,
cut away to form new estates under temple management.
Several characteristics of the land donations indicate that the formation of new
temple lands from former villages, usually brahmadeyam, was associated with ex-
panding cultivation. The later formation of temple lands in the areas south of Ti-
ruvidaimarudurand Maruttuvakkudiis particularlyinstructive. Although the villages
lay approximately eight kilometers south of the temples, the wording of earlier in-
scriptions suggests that the southern sites adjoined the temple villages. This unusually
34 (Vannakkuti) SIl 23:272, 273; (Vilankuti) 23:220; (Peravur) SII 19:162; (Vaiykal) SlI
SII 5:716, 718; 23:249, 264; (Ceynnalur)SII 19:18 1.

large extent of settlement boundaries was probably an administrative convenience

that labeled wide spaces undergoing limited exploitation, in the same way that Ku-
tamukku officially stretched as far as lands belonging to Tirukkutamukku brahma-
deyam in the area south of Tiruvidaimarudur(SII 23:387). Viewed in this light, the
rather extensive lands between Maruttuvakkudiand the brahmadeyamvillages on the
south, bordered by the lands of Kutamukku on the west, appear as a development
zone within which new temple estates were forming as new villages. In addition, the
boundaries among the southern villages (nos. 27, 29) are relatively undefined and
seem fluid in earlier records (SII 23:307, 309, 386, 389). The implication is that
there was uncultivated space lying between Maruttuvakkudiand the southern group,
and between the villages within that group. This situation resembles the condition
of the early temple lands at Vadakadu, where poorly defined boundaries were the
sign of uncultivated areas. We have already witnessed, in the later appearance of
Panriyur on the borders of the brahmadeyamat Tirukkovalur, a similar suggestion
of the administrative creation of temple lands on the peripheries of earlier brahmana
lands.
The phenomenon of the border location applies equally to many of the contrib-
uting brahmana villages. The entire southern group and the two distant groups of
villages to the east lie on the bordersof two or more nadu (nos. 17-19, 20-23, 27-
33; SII 23:289, 301, 386, 389; Subbarayalu 1973: maps 6, 7). Thus the earlier
brahmadeyamsettlements existed on the bordersof the integrated irrigation networks
and agrarian economy, in the same way that the later temple lands existed on the
boundaries of the stabilized brahmadeyamsettlements.
The Chola kings played a large part in the creation of the earlier brahmanacom-
munities and their subsequent contributions to growing temple landholding net-
works. The foundations of these brahmadeyam,usually lost in obscurity, necessitated
the alienation by the royal government of at least the land tax income, requiring the
active donation of the king or at least his consent. Similarly, the cooperation of the
land revenue department and/or the granting of a royal order accompanied the later
transfers of brahmadeyamand other village lands into devadanam lands in the later
Chola period.35In several instances the Chola king and his queen initiated rituals at
the Mankalakkutitemple (no. 14) and authorizedthe transferof lands for the provision
of the god there (SII 5:703; 23:302).
Even when the kings were involved, the driving forces behind the newer temple
endowments were other powerful, local donors. The combination of lands just south
of Maruttuvakkudi occurred after a royal order that in turn responded to an official
request (vinnappam) of Centamankalamudaiyan (SII 23:393). The grant of lands at
Veppattur originated in the official request by a certain Brahmarayan(ARE 1910:5 1).
The referencesto these notables even in the issuance of royal edicts, combined with
the numerous referencesto their activities in many of the land deals described in the
inscriptions, implies that they were behind most of the transactionsthat progressively
built up complexes of temple lands in the Kaveri River delta.36
" The land revenue department (puravu vari

ruvidaimarudur: SI1 5:702, 708; 19:181; 23:257,
tinaik kalam) appeared increasingly in the Chola 272, 276, 288, 289, 301, 305, 307, 309, 310.
inscriptions after c. 1000 A.D. See Subbarayalu 36 Six out of eight records at Maruttuvakkudi
(1976:143-52; 1982:291-95)y; Heitzman that feature the agents of the king are really official
(1985a:352-64). For the royal order (vinnappamor recognitions of private donations. At Tiruvidai-
vijiapta), see Stein (1978:136, 144-46). The high marudur, other requestors are Kalappalarayan(SII
percentage of records from this temple complex 5:708), Cirukulattur utaiyan (SII 23:257), Kata-
featuring the king or his agents includes all records varayan (SII 23:272), and Vanadhirajan (SII
from Maruttuvakkudi; ARE 1910:51 from Vep- 23:288, 289).
pattur; and the following inscriptions from Ti-

814 JAMES HEITZMAN
Table 2. Donors at Tiruvidaimaradur During the Chola Period
Subperiod1 Subperiod2 Subperiod3 Subperiod4

(849-985) (985-1070)a (1070-1 178)a (1 178-1279)3
Type of Donor Number% Number % Number % Number %

Individualbrahmanas 1 2 - 3 8 1 10
Brahmana assemblies (sabhai) 2 4 - 1 3
Shepherds 6 11 - - -
Merchants 7b 13 - 3 8c
Local leaders 16d 30 3 25 8 22
Persons with high honorific 9 17 2 17 10 28 4 40
titles
Agents of kings 4 7 4 33 6 16 2 20
Chola kings/queens 9 17 3 25 5 14 3 30
TOTAL: 54 100 12 100 36 100 10 100
a The four-partchronologyused here first appearedin Sitaraman,Karashima,and Subbarayalu
and Matsui(1978:xlv).
(1976:89); Karashima,Subbarayalu,
b
Includesthreedonationsby corporatebodiesof merchants(nagarattdr).
Includes one donation by nagarattdr.
d Includesonedonationby a villageassemblyof agriculturists(z7rdr)
andonedonationby ndduassembly
(ndttdr).
Table 2 presents the number of donations to the temple at Tiruvidaimarudurby

different categories of donors during the Chola period. Several features of these data
are reminiscent of the patterns visible already at Tirukkovalur. Brahmanas (as in-
dividuals or in assembly), shepherds, and merchants appear as relatively peripheral
to the process of resource allocation for the growing temple network. The several
categories of leaders in charge of the agrarianeconomy, identified by titles of local
possession or by high honorific titles, contributed a much larger share-an average
of 45 percent of the donations going to the temple. The more influential donors with
high titles appearincreasingly to supplant more local leadership. As at Tirukkovalur,
a high percentage of gifts officially came through the agency of the dominant political
overlords, here the Chola lineage and their agents in the royal tax department, re-
sponsible for an averageof 41 percent of donated resources. Note that the interference
of the Cholas was through their official intermediaries, unlike the situation at Ti-
rukkovalur where Miladu and Malaiyaman rulers appeared more often in person.
Whereas in Tirukkovalur the Malaiyamanlords were directly responsible for half of
the donations, in the central Kaveri Delta there was typically a greater role for other
local leaders, especially persons with high titles.
A model for understanding agrarianexpansion through religious foundations now
presents itself: the kings or other high-ranking personages would give wastelands or
underutilized lands to communities of brahmanasand encourage them to supervise
cultivation there by tax incentives and perhaps by coordinating the construction of
new irrigation facilities. The foundation of the brahmadeyam was a technique for
expanding cultivation on the bordersof the nadu, the zone of settled rice cultivation.

TEMPLE
URBANISM
IN MEDIEVAL
SOUTHINDIA 815
Later, the uncultivated borders of the brahmadeyamwere subjected to more modern

techniques of expansion by integration into networks of temple lands. In this way
the areas coming under irrigation and cultivation in the neighborhoods of religious
foundations continually expanded through official donations of land ownership and
taxes on lands that were, at the time of the donation, underproductive. This model
confirms the pattern seen already at Vadakadu and Tirukkovalur, where the early
association of the local agrarianeconomy with the brahmadeyamslowly gave way to
a frameworkof temple control, as irrigation agriculture in the vicinity of sacredshrines
expanded in two stages.
Temples, Urbanism, and Political Economy in Medieval South India
The study of temple landholding revealsthat temples in central Tamil Nadu grew
from small bodies into larger ritual centers integrating within their administrative
frameworksthe major religious institutions of the later Chola period and the agrarian
resources from local and even distant lands. The expansion of the ritual centers co-
incided with a "temple urbanism" focused within adjacent settlements. Urban de-
velopments remained closely bound to the agrarianinterests of temples and temple
donors-interests concernedespecially with the expansion of cultivation in peripheral
zones.
There were several stages in the evolution of the Chola-period temples studied
here. The first stage was often the establishment of a brahmanaendowment (brah-
madeyam) either on virgin land or on top of a preexisting agricultural community.
The presence of the brahmanasplaced a superior, nonlaboring class above the tenants
and/or agriculturalworkerswithin a largely agrariansetting. Over time, the resources
of the brahmadeyam tended to move slowly into the hands of deities in important
local temples. This process occurred through the progressive alienation of shares by
individual brahmanas as personal acts of piety or, more typically, through sales to
secular donors who then bestowed the lands on the temple. In some cases the slow
change of the brahmadeyamwas accelerated by administrative decisions sanctioned
by the kings, converting previous brahmanaendowments or cultivators' villages di-
rectly into estates for deities. During the centuries after the year 1000, seculardonors,
brahmanas, and the king added to the growing networks of temple administration
and land control by more gifts of land in places within the temple villages and outside
the boundaries of temple villages in more extended networks of temple estates. The
intensification of temple control within the bounds of the local village created ritual
centers dedicated to the support of worship with larger temple staffs. In the central
Kaveri River delta, the load of donations created a complex of temples with extensive
landholdings in a large number of villages.
The expansion of local temples occurred alongside, and interacted with, the
growth of commercial networks focused on the mercantile communities (nagaram)
scattered amid the numerous agrarianzones of central Tamil Nadu. Early nagaram
were the heart of the small-scale exchange networks in some basic commodities (e.g.,
metals, salt, oil), manufacturedarticles (e.g., cloth), and luxury goods, which pen-
etrated, if only in small amounts, even to the village level. The growth of the ritual
endowments of the Chola period coincided with, and must have stimulated, the
growth of commercial networks on the local and regional level, with an associated
growth of artisanalactivity. Temple rituals demanded a wide assortment of foodstuffs
and precious goods, many of which required the services of merchants for procure-

816 JAMES HEITZMAN
ments and artisans or specialized workers for fabrication into elaborate offerings and
cult objects. Specialists in commerce and manufacturinglived alongside the brahmana
ritual specialists, the cultivating groups, and the agricultural laborers who congre-
gated in larger numbers around the lands of the religious institutions (Nagaswamy
1978:135-40).
Despite the growing concentration of specialization and population around the
temples, spatially the settlements of the Chola period show little differentiation be-
tween "town" and "country." The village of Cattanamexhibits a spatial configuration
that may resemble closely the patterns prevalent in villages of the Chola period. The
habitations in this village congregate in one general area in a pattern that has not
shifted appreciablyduring the last eight hundred years, the houses falling into discrete
blocks with wide spaces between them, corresponding generally to divisions of oc-
cupation and caste. These habitations continue to lie for the most part to the east of
the main temple, similar to the scene at Tirukkovalur;only more massive urbanization
in modern times tends to obscure this basic medieval settlement pattern. The system
of streets revolves around the holy street (tiruvTti)that surroundsthe main temple on
its four sides. Subsidiary roads link the different neighborhoods within the village
and lead to nearby bodies of water and to nearby villages. Gardens, tanks, and cul-
tivable fields are contiguous to, and intermingle with, blocks of housing.
The greater concentration of different occupational and caste groups in the larger
medieval settlements like Tirukkovalur or Tiruvidaimarudurdoes not seem to have
brought with it an alteration of the basic settlement patterns of the village during
the Chola period. Houses may have lined the streets of the different neighborhoods
within the habitation areas, but the built-up areaswere interspersedwith spaces given
over to cultivation and gardens. This pattern is visible at Tirukkovalur, where do-
nations within the ampalam east of the temple reveal cultivable fields in the center
of the brahmanahouses (ARE 1921:311, 348), and at Tiruvidaimarudur,where cul-
tivated areas existed adjacent to the temple and palace grounds in the center of the
settlement.37 The islands of houses lying amid the gardens in the larger settlements
tended to belong to the different occupational/caste groups that controlled them-
the brahmanas, the cultivating castes, the merchants, the artisans. Separate from
these neighborhoods and fields lived the laboring populations essential for production
processes.
The large agrariancomponent in the local economies of the ritual centers deter-
mined the villagelike character of places that experienced larger concentrations of
population and occupational specialization in the Chola period. Originally small set-
tlements of brahmanas,merchants, and artisans, clustered around holy sites, received
large capital inputs from the donations flowing into the temples, while employment
within the temple ritual and administrative networks brought larger numbers of
nonlaborers into the vicinity of the temples. The expansion of habitation areas, al-
though centered on the streets adjacentto the new temple walls, followed the patterns
of preexisting settlements with their spatial segregation in separate neighborhoods
of subcastes or subspecialties among cultivating and mercantile groups. The arrange-
ments for the support of expanding temple personnel, often connected to the earlier
brahmadeyamendowments, preserved an agrarianeconomy in the heart of the mul-
37 In the these lands belonged to a royal palace (nam vfttu)

sixteenth year of his reign, Kulot-
tunga Chola III proclaimed that lands east of the and was converted to the route of the road and to
Tiruvidaimarudur temple be realigned to allow gardens (nantavanam,toppu;SII 23:288).
construction of a new processional route. Part of

tiplying neighborhoods (cf. Hilton 1966:185; Hilton 1975:80-87; Reynolds

1977:194-95).
The more concentrated settlement patterns of this "temple urbanism," based on
the developing religious institutions, allowed the integration of wider agrarianzones
within the larger complexes seen around Tiruvidaimarudur. Administrative termi-
nology, sanctioned by the Chola kings, at times gave official recognition to these
wider areas of integration, and names like Kutamukku or Palaiyaru came to apply
to large territories. The "urban"characterof these larger administrative units rested,
however, on the integration of a number of individual settlements, grouped around
ritual centers, that preservedin themselves the characteristicsof the village. Surviving
information from Palaiyaru, the Chola capital, suggests that the boundaries of the
"city" were temples generally oriented toward the cardinal directions. There is little
indication that habitation sites were densely packed within the area demarcated by
the temples; instead, there were a number of discrete, compact sites grouped around
temples, with large spaces devoted to cultivated fields or pastures (Minakshisundarar
and Pandarathar 1951:28-30). But the administrative recognition of this extended
areaas one place, the extensive and integrated commercial or manufacturingnetworks,
and especially the ritual interactions of the many temples formed the complex in-
frastructureof a major central place. In the absence of defensive walls, the settlement
patterns and intense regional interactions of the capital shaded into the local networks
preserved at peripheral centers like Tiruvidaimarudur.
The vast majority of the resources tapped by the growing temple networks in-
volved the produce from cultivated lands allocated to religious institutions. The de-
scriptions of these lands in the temple inscriptions provide several clues concerning
the extent of cultivation and the temples' roles in agrarianexpansion during the Chola
period, when subsidiary channels and cultivable tracts were progressively added to
preexisting irrigation systems. In Vadakadu the entire area north of the village was
probably added during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries after the con-
struction of a major new feeder canal. In Tirukkovalurlands in the far west and south
of the small lake were the sites of agrarianexpansion contingent on the construction
of irrigation facilities. Around Tiruvidaimarudurthe wide extent of reclamation pro-
jects appears in the concentration of donated lands on the borders of villages that in
turn bordered on more ancient cultivated zones. The continuing expansion of arable
tracts indicates that new irrigation works were opening up new areas of settlement.
The temple records demonstrate that religious institutions were important foci for
inputs of capital allowing agrarian expansion in their vicinity. The expansion pre-
served in surviving recordsmay representonly a fraction of the development occurring
throughout Tamil Nadu, perhaps mostly outside temple auspices, but there is no
doubt that the strategic central locations of development around the temples were
of great importance to the political and economic leaders who provided donations.
The Chola kings played a large part in agrariandevelopment when they initiated
or sanctioned the donation of peripheral lands to brahmadeyam or devadanam en-
dowments. The kings provided tax relief and/or ownership of lands to overarching
organizations that then mobilized men and resourcesfor cultivation. Locally dominant
brahmana communities also played a large part, by the supervision of cultivators,
tenants, and laborers on their brahmadeyamgrants, or by projects organized under
the auspices of temples. The later concentration of a variety of land rights in the
name of the gods prompted temple staffs to guarantee the cultivation of marginal
lands through a variety of arrangementswith cultivating groups. In the final analysis,
it was these cultivators who were the prime motivators of land reclamation. Most of

818 JAMES HEITZMAN
the work fell on small-scale cultivators, hungry for land, who entered into contracts
with the brahmanas and the temples to supervise agricultural labor in return for
several levels of cultivating rights. But these humble peasants appear rarely in the
surviving records; the secular personages who do appear often possessed high titles
and alienated their own extensive rights to large amounts of land. They belonged to
the group that organized the construction of irrigation works and controlled property
in land (kdni).They formed a nobility above the average cultivator but still based
their position on a personal supervision of local production and resourcedistribution.
There were several motivations for participation by powerful local personages in
agrarianexpansion through the temples. A primary practical concern may have been
the allocation of cultivating rights to the new lands. The Chola country after the year
1000 witnessed a greater concern for the delineation of property and tenurial rights,
especially in the area around the Kaveri River. Within the context of temple land
ownership, cultivating groups appeared more often as possessors of "cultivators'
rights" (kuti kdni)assuring permanency of tenure on lands officially controlled by
higher agencies like religious institutions. The control of the cultivators' shares of
agrarianproduce entailed an equally important control over the labor of subtenants
and agricultural laborers. The persons who initiated the expansion of temple lands
had a large say, officially or unofficially, in the allocation of cultivation rights along
with their appended control over men. Agrarianexpansion was in this way a method
of increasing bases of clientage that were undoubtedly closely allied to kinship links
(Tirumalai 1981:233-44; Heitzman 1985a:163-73; Derrett 1977:263-64). In ad-
dition, the initiators of temple endowments were in a position to influence the al-
location of ritual or administrative positions connected with larger amounts of ritual
events and incoming produce, and perhaps they even had access to highly prized
sacralized food that possessed an exchange value of its own (Appadurai 1977). These
practical advantages accompanied the social prestige of participating in the donation
systems officially sanctioned by the Chola kings and thus reinforced the political
purposes that motivated temple donations.
Conclusion
The three case studies from South India presented here portraythe physical layout
and the social processes involved in the evolution of early urban sites. The existence
of numerous inscriptions describing central events in the formation of temple en-
dowments allows an in-depth view of pristine cities that in many other world areas
are accessible primarily through archaeological remains. We are fortunate to have
contemporaneous written records in the South Indian cases that support conclusions
useful for comparative study with urbanism elsewhere.
The central places of the Pallava-Chola periods were relatively independent, in-
digenous developments that were quite new in South India. In Paul Wheatley's terms,
they exhibited characteristicsof "primary"rather than "secondary"urbanism, that
is, their developmental patterns were subject to few external influences (Wheatley
1971:225-56). This remains true despite the legacy of ancient North Indian civi-
lization, which did bequeath to South India a wide variety of linguistic and cultural
forms, and despite the existence of early cities such as Madurai, which knew con-
tinuous occupation for over two thousand years. The dislocations of the fifth century
caused major discontinuities in the early networks of trade, polity,and cultural tra-
ditions that marked southern India as a major outpost of ancient Indian urban tra-

ditions. Whereas western Europe retained the outlines of Roman urbanism in the
survivalof the walled cite and its ecclesia(Fevrieret al. 1980:123-26, 423-49; Latouche
1961:103-12), the ancient Indian pattern of concentrated settlements and suburban
monastic sites does not appear in the Chola-period settlements.
The sites that grew up around temples during the Chola period exhibit a variety
of traits that classify them as cities, from the standpoints of either the Childe
tradition38or the central-place approach.39Monumental architecture existed in the
large and ornate stone temples that stood at the heartsof the settlements. Occupational
specialization was mirroredin the separateassemblies that handled local affairs, dom-
inated by elite groups of brahmanas, merchants, and leaders of agrariansociety. Ar-
tisans and long-distance merchants interacted through the nagaram, stimulated by
the concentrations of ritual specialists and luxury goods demanded for temple cults.
The centrality of the temple sites for interactions with a wider hinterland occurred
on several levels: economic interaction took place through trade in metals, salt, and
specialized ritual items (e.g., camphor) for temples but was probably overshadowed
by transactions in agrarianproduce from temple landholding networks. The temple
sites were foci for political legitimation manifested in donations by leaders from
outside the ceremonial centers (cf. Ludden 1985:29). Extended networks of com-
munication existed in the brahmanacommunities, with many of their members trac-
ing ancestry to ratherdistant locations and with a hoaryreligious tradition that always
remained pan-Indian in scope.40
Density of population remains elusive in Chola-period urbanism. Although pop-
ulation statistics are unavailable, it is doubtful that figures approachedone thousand
at a small site like Vadakadu or exceeded several thousands at Tirukkovalur or Ti-
ruvidaimarudur.Even within the rathernucleated habitation areasthere were gardens
and fields that broke up housing concentrations and separateddifferent occupational
communities. Agglomeration into larger administrative units was probably an official
grouping of many individual sites without large-scale topographical changes. Walls,
for example, existed only around the temples. The centrality of irrigation agriculture
to the riverine economies of the early sites undoubtedly encouraged the relatively
nucleated habitation sites and their rather even spread in small centers throughout
alluvial regions, allowing each ceremonial center access to its own fields and the
products of satellite villages. But the physical difference between village and urban
life was not abrupt; it was markedperhapsby largersizes or numbersof neighborhoods
or by the temple towers seen from afar. The pattern of village and central places
stands midway between the walled cities of early northern China or western Europe
and the decentralized sites of the classic Maya, perhaps approximating more closely
the pattern of Sumeria in the third millennium B.C. (see Adams 1981:61-81; Michell
and Filliozat 1982; Fritz, Michell, and Nagaraja Rao 1985).
3 V. Gordon Childe's presentation (1950) of to exhibit some or all of the characteristics devel-
the characteristics of urban sites included dense oped by trait-complex approaches. See Blanton
population, monumental architecture, occupa- (1976; 1981:392-400); Hammond (1974); Robert
tional specialization, dominant elite groups, long- Adams (1981); Hohenberg and Lees (1985:47-
distance trade, and artisanal residence. For a dis- 73).
cussion of the "trait-complex" approach and its re- 40 Numerous personal names of brahmanas in
lationships to other approaches, see Wheatley Chola-period records include place-names con-
(1972). For the applicability of Childe's tradition, nected at some point with the ancestors of those
see Robert Adams (1966:9-14; 1972:735). persons. The brahmanasmay have retained contact
3 The central-place approach concentrates on with those places through kinship links or intel-
networks of trade, administration, and commu- lectual lineages. At some major sites, such as Chi-
nication. The main terminals for the most "effi- dambaram, brahmanasfrom the north came on the
cient" operations of networks are cities, tending invitation of the kings. See Kulke (1969:419-21).

820 JAMES HEITZMAN
The continuum of changes in the three case studies exemplifies the dynamics of
development in ceremonial centers. It must be stressed first that all the social in-
gredients of urban society-priests, merchants, agrarianpolitical leaders-predate
the formation of temple endowments. The question of first causes is therefore un-
answerable here; the original stimulus for settlement could depend equally on a pri-
mordial agricultural community, the sacredsite, or commercial advantage. Donation
records indicate that urban characteristicsoccurred when indigenous political and
economic infrastructures,evolving slowly over perhapsfour centuries, achieved a level
of interactive complexity that producedregional political integration. The overarching
political authority of the Chola dynasty stimulated the ostentatious displays of re-
ligious largesse that supported early brahmanacommunities and later temples. The
kings created systems of endowments that were remarkablyuniform and encouraged
the construction of monuments and cults that similarly exhibited stylistic uniformity
throughout Tamil Nadu. But the direct actions of the Chola rulers usually remained
limited to the official recognition of tax-free status or the alienation of land titles to
areas that in many cases may have been relatively undeveloped or limited in extent.
The kings attempted to establish templates of ritualized integration through grants
to religious institutions that would provide models for political legitimacy with the
kings themselves at the top. Nevertheless, the bulk of donations were public displays
initiated by subordinatepolitical actorswho demonstratedtheir own piety (and power)
over more limited realms-the Malaiyamanor Coliyavaraiyanrulers, the severallevels
of entitled leadership. The donations of the many local rulers toward local deities
inexorably transformed the independent brahmanasettlements into temple endow-
ments staffed by brahmanas.The necessaryrole of commercial networks in providing
goods for growing populations of nonproducersand for temples stimulated the na-
garam and artisan groups, but the world of mercantile capital occupied a subordinate
position in the ritual centers.
The royal decentralizationimplicit in Chola-periodurbanismmay offer instructive
parallels for other world areas. Mayan ceremonial centers, for example, exhibit many
of the characteristics seen in South India: relatively dispersed settlement patterns,
large numbers of small sites, "segmentary"political orders(Hammond 1975; Sanders
and Price 1968:45-46, 140-45; Coe 1984a:83-84; Coe 1984b:89-102; Bray
1972:913-15). In both areas, the primacyof local lineage leadersin an agrariansetting
is consistent with a mercantile component and with political authority that encour-
aged styles of ritual elaborationand largesse constituting primary vehicles for its own
expansion. In medieval Europe, the policies of the Merovingianand Carolingiankings
similarly concentrated on the patronage of Gallic ecclesiastical institutions, encour-
aging the growth of the cite and its suburbs within a politically decentralized system
(Pirenne 1956; Ennen 1979; Reynolds 1977). For Sumeria, we may posit the existence
of numerous agrarian leaders who manifested their influence in ceremonial centers
that grew on sites of preexisting commercial or cultic significance and supported
expanding dynastic pretensions. Underlying these political factors in urban growth
were movements toward agrarian expansion that certainly encouraged population
growth. I would suggest that a model of multiple subordinate actors and the im-
portance of agrarianelites could profitably inform the study of urban origins even in
those areas(such as Mexico or Egypt) where data support a strong centrist bias (Adams
1966:118-19, 154-65; Adams 1977).
Severalwriters have portrayedthe ceremonialcenter as a stage in evolution toward
a more militaristic society dominated by imperial polities (Adams 1966:133-54,
172-73; Wheatley 1971:308-21; Wheatley 1978: 145-58; Wheatley 1983:303-5,

TEMPLE
URBANISM
IN MEDIEVAL
SOUTHINDIA 821
325-27). South India offers some remarkableparallels here, for the Chola polity,
relatively more bureaucratizedand unstable in its later stages, gave way eventually
to the Vijayanagarapolity that united all southern India under a single administration
geared for warfare with the north. The growth of this larger and more intrusive
political force coincided with a continued expansion of temple endowments into dom-
inant local interests in their own right and with growing social stratification and
conflict within the commercial and artisan communities of the temple cities (Stein
1980:400-405, 427-34; Stein 1985b:395-400; Palat 1986; Karashima and Sub-
barayalu 1983). The Chola-period origins of the ceremonial centers thus initiated an
expanding process of economic and political integration culminating in constant war-
fare and later, in the seventeenth century, in the collapse of the indigenous system
and conquest from without. This scenario, familiar from earlier urban evolutions,
led in the South Indian case to incorporation within the British Empire.
List of References
Abbreviations
ARE Annual Reportson Indian Epigraphy.
El EpigraphiaIndica.
KK Kutantai kalvettukkal.Ed. N. Marxiyagandhi. Madras:Tamil Nadu
State Department of Archaeology, 1980.
SII SouthIndian Inscriptions.
SITI SouthIndian TempleInscriptions.Ed. T. N. Subrahmaniam. Madras Gov-
ernment Oriental Series no. 157. Madras:Government Oriental Manu-
scripts Library, 1953-57.
TK Tirutturaipp7ntikalvettukkal.Ed. R. Nagaswami. Madras:Tamil Nadu
State Department of Archaeology, 1978.
All citations of ARE in this article refer to estampages or transcripts viewed at
the Indian Epigraphy Office in Mysore. My thanks to Dr. K. V. Ramesh and his
staff there for their assistance in reading unpublished records.
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Temple Urbanism in Medieval South India

Author(s): James Heitzman

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the Tamil country of South India experienced a flowering of political, economic,

Urbanism and Political Economy in Early South India

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Temple Lands at Vadakadu: The Frontiers of Cultivation

The village of Vadakadu4lies in the southwest corner of Tirutturaippundi taluk,

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Map 1. Urban Sites of Early South India Mentioned in the Text

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The MantrapuresvaraSwamy temple has long been, and remains, a landowning

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< ....... <

... < <

Map 2. Temple Lands at Vadakadu During the Chola Period

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Vanarayar("Lord of the Banas"), also known as Coliyavaraiyan,set up a monastery

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donations by brahmanasbounded irrigation facilities north of Vadakadu correspond-

Temple Lands at Tirukkovalur: The Ritual Center

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) ~ ~~~ ~: ~.' ~ ~~~~~~~~

Map 3. Temple Lands at Tirukkoyilur During.the. Chola.......

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Two inscriptions describe the boundaries of Tirukkovaluraround the year 1000.

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Table 1. Donors at Tirukkovalur During the Chola Period

Subperiod1 Subperiod2 Subperiod3 Subperiod4

Type of Donor Number% Number % Number % Number %

TOTAL: 18 100 46 100 27 100 16 100

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Temple Lands in the Kaveri River Delta: The Temple Complex

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The configuration of settlements and activities within the immediate vicinity of

30 Inscriptions from the tenth and eleventh 32

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__*E M,V 4_ t -J4 0 4 t

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east of Tiruvidaimarudur(Map 4, no. 3), where tenth-century donations formed the

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large extent of settlement boundaries was probably an administrative convenience

" The land revenue department (puravu vari

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Table 2. Donors at Tiruvidaimaradur During the Chola Period

Subperiod1 Subperiod2 Subperiod3 Subperiod4

Type of Donor Number% Number % Number % Number %

Table 2 presents the number of donations to the temple at Tiruvidaimarudurby

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Later, the uncultivated borders of the brahmadeyamwere subjected to more modern

Temples, Urbanism, and Political Economy in Medieval South India

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37 In the these lands belonged to a royal palace (nam vfttu)

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tiplying neighborhoods (cf. Hilton 1966:185; Hilton 1975:80-87; Reynolds