Agraharam
Agraharam or Agrahara ( Sanskrit : अग्रहार agrahāra m .; Tamil : அக்கிறஹாரம்; Telugu : అగ్రహారం; Kannada : ಅಗ್ರಹಾರ) refers to a piece of land in southern India that a Brahmin in the Indian Middle Ages was assigned or given as a livelihood by the king. It was mostly located in the vicinity of a temple and other properties of the same type, so that the term can also mean a Brahmin village or a Brahman quarter or a Brahmin street within a small town. The component Agrahara can be found in several village names in the states of Kerala , Karnataka , Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh .
Other, less common names were Chaturvedimangalam , Ghatoka or Boya .
history
Until the 20th century, members of the Indian priestly caste were forbidden to do physical work; They lived from the more or less generous monetary donations and other offerings (e.g. food, fruit, milk, etc.) of the devout temple visitors, who received help from the respective deity in family emergencies (e.g. birth, illness and death ) expected which they could not attain without the participation of the Brahmins. The oldest mention and description of an Agraharam comes from the work Perumbanatruppadai of the Sangam period (approx. 4th century). Here it says among other things:
- On the outer front of the houses there was a shelter where well-fed cattle ('calves') were tied up. The houses were cleaned with cow dung. There were cult images inside. Poultry and dogs did not approach them. It was the village of the guardians of the Veda, who passed its words ('sound') on to parrots with bandaged beak.
Another mention of the foundation of a - no longer existing - Agraharam refers to the 4th century and comes from a famous pillar inscription from the heyday of the Kadamba dynasty in Talagunda , Karnataka .
Nowadays Brahmins are also active professionally or commercially; the Agraharams have consequently lost their importance to a great extent. Sometimes the name is still used as a designation for communal residential complexes.
Plant and architecture
Agraharams were often straight streets, built on both sides, leading to a temple, which, so to speak, was the place of work and thus the source of income for the Brahmins. In some cases there was a Shiva temple at one end of the street and one for Vishnu at the other . Agraharams thus formed a kind of trellis of comparatively noble houses that stood out from the simple wooden or mud huts of most of the other villagers. Some houses even had a porch ( portico ) supported by wooden posts , which emphasized the special character of these buildings.
Examples
Since most of the villages are only called Agrahara , only the names of the districts ( tehsils or mandals ) are usually mentioned below .
Kerala
Kalpathi, Kuzhalmannam, Thiruvananthapuram
Karnataka
Agrahara (near Baragur), Arkalgud, Arsikere , Channarayapatna, Chiknayakanhalli, Chintamani, Holalkere, Hosadurga, Hunsur, Kadur, Kanakapura, Koratagere, Malur, Nuggehalli , Sandur, Shrirangapattana, Sira, Somahallialli, Somahalli, Srinivaspur, Konappana Agrahara
Tamil Nadu
Agraharam, Annalagraharam, Ganapathi, Kallidaikurichi , Kondayyampettai, Pallipalayam, Pudupalaiyam, Kolinjivadi, Thuvariman, Malapattu Agraharam, Ravanasamudram
Andhra Pradesh
Kannuru, Siddavaram
Web links
- Kuzhalmannam Agraharam - Information (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cynthia Talbot: Precolonial India in Practice - Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra. Oxford University Press 2001, ISBN 978-01-951-3661-6 , p. 266.
- ^ PT Srinivasa Iyengar: History of the Tamils from the Earliest Times to 600 AD Asian Educational Services 1929, ISBN 978-81-206-0145-1 , pp. 388-389.