SAST 203 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Samanta, Gupta Empire, Shivaram Rajguru
22 Jun 2020
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Temples were endowed w land for royal rituals, hundreds of brahmins were assigned to each. The personal priest of the king (rajguru) was in charge of the royal temple: although construction was expensive, the temples soon became self-supporting. Surplus from temples were lent to villages w interest: paintings in the temple depicted the king as a god. Some kings even transferred their realm to the royal god and ruled it as god"s representative - could use this to threaten disobedient. More and more resources were given to brahmins and not enough for infrastructure & agriculture: samantas rebelled from high taxes, so a dynasty would fall and get replaced. Transformation of hinduism: 2 techniques seemingly contradictory, one: rise of philosophical systems from debate w buddhists and jains in "brahmin counter- reformation, two: great popular movements of bhakti cults that often explicitly rejected brahmin orthodoxy and monist philosophy.
