Temples beyond Worship:

        Since the ninth century CE, and over the course of their 400-year rule, the Cholas filled the deltaic region of the river Kaveri with a highly concentrated network of stone temples with intricate sculptures. A typical South Indian temple is seen as a remnant of a bygone era of cultural and technological supremacy. However, they have held a significant place in defining social roles of people based on their caste and have acted as spaces for political contestations with agrarian communities in South Indian society.

        Apart from these roles that temple as an institution has played, the granite stones that make up the temple structures act as archives. They are etched on with records of donations made to temples (in forms of cattle, men, women, land and metal), documenting details about land transfers, measuring rods, floods and droughts, human sacrifices and, most interestingly, unrest and rebellions.

        The Brahadeeswara temple located in Thanjavur, stands as a right and most popular example to understand the  socio-economic role that a temple has played in the Chola times. Built by Rajaraja around the year 1000 AD, this temple is now been recogonised as a world heritage site by the UNESCO and is preserved by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) both for its cultural and historic significance. When seen from a distance, the grandeur of the temple would put anyone in awe. A much closer look would reveal that, the base of the huge temple structure is etched with endless letters.

        There are other not very popular temples in the deltaic region such as Sivalokathyagar temple at Achalpuram that record in some detail about the social and economic negotiations between the oppressor and the oppressed post an unrest. We will explore in detail about this particular temple in this storylet.

The Brahmadeya:

        Achalpuram is one of many villages that were known as Brahmadeyas. These were villages that were donated to Brahmins at various points in time by both the Cholas and Pallavas. These villages along with agricultural land were donated to Brahmins, by turning the existing owners into cultivating tenants (ulukuti / உழுகுடி). The tenants were forced to pay a rent that was more than 60 percent of the produce. On the other hand the Brahmins were given a tax concession by the king for the land that they owned. Because of this concession in tax, these lands came to be called as tax-free lands (iraiyili / இறையிலி). Brahmins did not involve in any physical activity that related to cultivation, owing to the graded hierarchy in work and their ritual purity.

        Most of such donations were made by kings themselves or members of the royalty. While making these Brahmin settlements, members of servicing professions such as the potters (kusavar / குசவர்), hairdressers/ medical practitioners (ambattar / அம்பட்டர்), musicians (uvaccar / உவச்சர்), black smiths (kollar / கொல்லர்), etc. were made to settle in these villages to serve the Brahmins. They were given a meager share from the total produce of the village, to compensate their labour.

What can we learn from the Achalpuram Inscription ?

        The Achalpuram inscription begins by saying that the following is to the attention of tenant cultivators who live in separate quarters (pidakai / பிடாகை) around the main Brahmin settlements. Tenant cultivators were agrarian communities that were called Vellalas. As per the inscription, there seems to have been an increase in the rent, which the cultivators resisted. While the inscription only records the final resolution and not the process of negotiation, some inscriptions in surrounding areas even go on to record that the tenant cultivators migrated out of the village in protest of increased rent and forcible collection methods.

        The inscription goes on to record the new decreased rent as a result of the protests and thus acts as evidence of peasant resistance in the region. Rent on wet irrigated lands was higher in comparison to dry rain-fed lands, as the former was more fertile and amenable to paddy cultivation. Paddy played a central role in the medieval Chola economy, as it also acted as currency, hence the higher value. Taxes and wages were often paid in the form of paddy. These agrarian relations that were established by the Cholas continue to exist in the present, having survived the several regimes that followed.

        There are also certain protection that are extended to the tenants. Rent that were left unpaid by one tenant cannot be collected from other tenants, collection officers should not employ coercive means to collect taxes, are a few such protections. These protections tell us that such coercive and extractive practices that have been used by land owners have been resisted against. The inscription stands as an evidence showing how the land owners agreed to discontinue such practices.

        The tenants were also given rights to inherit the land, cattle and slaves owned by their deceased predecessors. The information that tenants could own slaves is more revealing.

        Though we know from other inscriptions that there were slaves owned by temples and royalty for their services, this is one of few instances where we could see tenants owning slaves. There is generally very little direct information on slaves being employed in agriculture. Though there are evidences that give us little information about the landless labourers who were placed socially below the tenants. These evidences include the delegation of labour tax 1 to labourers and separate living quarters of people who were neither Brahmin landlords, nor Vellala tenants. Tenants owning slaves as mentioned in this inscription and having a hereditary right over such ownership gives us an idea about the relationship that the tenants might have had with the landless labourers. This inscription goes only so much to mention the term slave, and fails to record any further information, such as who that slave could be, what kind of activities they were involved in, etc.

        Achalpuram stands out as a rare case in the history of Chola temple architecture where moments of resistance by tenant cultivators—who had little to no control over the Brahmin temples—have found a place on the temple walls. While temple inscriptions discuss the lives and roles of the intermediary castes such the Vellalas, agrarian tenants and servicing castes remain undocumented.

📸  (1) Large paddy granaries in Srirangam temple that tenant cultivators paid as rent to the temple, for cultivating in the temple land.

📸  (2) Women agricultural labourers transplant paddy as the landowner, clad in white veshti and shirt, walks on the bund.