Maṭhas and Medieval Religious Movements in Tamil Nadu

<jats:p> Maṭha (monastery) appears in Tamil inscriptions from the early ninth century and appears with increasing frequency from the eleventh century. This increase seems to have been brought about by an influx of Śaiva ascetics from North India. At the same time, maṭhas were closely related to the bhakti movement in South India during the Pallava and Pandyan period and played an important role during the Chola and Later Pandyan period in localising and Tamilising the Brahmanical orthodoxy brought by these North Indian ascetics. This process is well attested by changes in the activities of Gōḷaki-maṭha originating in the North and the establishment of Śaivasiddhānta philosophy in the Tamil country in the thirteenth century. This transformation was caused by the participation of non-Brāhmaṇas, including people of the lower social strata such as cultivators, merchants and artisans, in maṭha activities, which explain the great increase in maṭha inscriptions in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The examination of maṭha inscriptions in this study elucidates the important role played by maṭhas in developing and spreading new religious ideas among common people and reveals the connections between new religious ideas and the social changes that took place from twelfth to fourteenth centuries in Tamil Nadu. </jats:p>