The primary concern of this chapter is to place the Śrī Pārtasārati Svāmi Temple in the ethnohistorical context of South Indian society from 1350 to 1700. This task entails two separate, though interlinked, kinds of analyses. The first, of a general and schematic sort, presents a general model of the ways in which kings interacted with temples in this period, with some historical examples. The second function of this chapter is to account, within this general ethnosociological framework, for the sectarian development that ultimately affected the politics of the Śrī Pārtasārati Svāmi Temple.

The general framework that underpinned the relationship of kings, sects, and temples during this period can be described in terms of four propositions:

1. Temples were ritually essential to the maintenance of kingship.

2. Dynamic sectarian leaders provided the links between kings and temples.

3. Although the day-to-day management of temples was left in the hands of local (generally sectarian) groups, the responsibility for solving temple conflicts that resisted local resolutions was vested clearly in the human sovereign.

4. In a particular ethnosociological sense, kingly action regarding temple conflict was not legislative, but administrative.

Temples and kingship

In classical Indian thought, generosity to Brahmins, codified in the “law of the gift” (tānatarmam), was an important element of the role of kings.