Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- Notes on sources, abbreviations and transliteration
- Map
- 1 Introduction: studying religion-state relations
- 2 The temple connection in the nineteenth century
- 3 Governance: the necessity for order
- 4 Governance: trustees and the courts
- 5 Economy: the problem of controlling land
- 6 Economy: the temple's weakness as landlord
- 7 Religion: purifying and organizing Hinduism
- 8 Religion: controlling the priesthood
- 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- Notes on sources, abbreviations and transliteration
- Map
- 1 Introduction: studying religion-state relations
- 2 The temple connection in the nineteenth century
- 3 Governance: the necessity for order
- 4 Governance: trustees and the courts
- 5 Economy: the problem of controlling land
- 6 Economy: the temple's weakness as landlord
- 7 Religion: purifying and organizing Hinduism
- 8 Religion: controlling the priesthood
- 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Over the half century of HRCE administration, temples have been transformed from localized, more or less distinct institutions into an organized and constituent part of the Tamil Nadu political system. Social reform, cultural protection and efficiency – ideals closely linked with modernity and the modern state itself – justified and promoted this reconstruction. Yet conflicts over the theory of the temple, and the constitutional limits on interference have repeatedly made difficult any mechanical incorporation of temples into the state's structure and have given a significant twist to temple administration. The HRCE has the advantage of high stateness, but in practice its administration is shaped by the struggle for jurisdiction among state agencies, by the specific issues involved (economy, governance or religion), and by the changing shape of political ideologies and opposition.
At the outset of the nineteenth century, most south Indian temples were embedded in and circumscribed by their respective localities. Each temple drew on local history, geography and memory to create for its village or town a sacred history, sacred geography and sacred story which were distinct and unique. These local traditions were based on regional and great Hindu traditions, but were altered and given special meaning in their local variations. The local temple was also organizationally specific. Authority and management were shaped by local distributions of power and wealth, by the special ways its priests and trustees were selected, and by other factors such as certain conditions attached to whatever inam lands the temple enjoyed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Religion under BureaucracyPolicy and Administration for Hindu Temples in South India, pp. 155 - 165Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988