Brahmadeya

Brahmadeya (given to Brahmin) was tax free land gift either in form of single plot or whole villages donated to Brahmans in the early medieval India. It was initially practiced by the ruling dynasties and was soon followed up by the chiefs, merchants, feudatories, etc. Brahmadeya was devised by the Brahmanical texts as the surest mean to achieve merit and destroy sin.

Brahmadeya helped the expansion of agrarian economy and the emergence of urban settlements. It also helped the Kings to gain the ideological support for their rule. Brahamdeya sometimes also resulted in alienation of peasant land rights and created social tension and clash leading even to death between peasant, Brahmans and the Kings.

Brahmadeya represented the grant of land either in a single plot or whole villages donated to Brahamans by making them land-owners or land-controllers. It was also given to more than one Brahmana (ekabhoga), to several Brahmana families (ganabhogam) which is estimated to be from few to several hundreds or even more than thousands, particularly in the South India. The gift of land were mostly selected around the irrigation facilities such as tanks or lakes and were supposed to be operable to fulfill the needs of the donees. In the absence of facility, new means of irrigation system were created near the brahmadeyas. The Kings and feudatories were to lost their right over donated lands and could not take it back even in the absence of heir. In the absence of heir, brahamdeya was transferred to some other eligible person of the same caste. Though, mostly lands, other objects such as food, grains, paddy, gold, money, cow, oxen, ploughshare, etc. were also given away as a gift.

The historical evidence of the practice of donating lands in return of spiritual favour is traced back to 3rd-4th century A.D. in South India. The earliest royal land grant inscription that mentions brahmadeya is discovered from the 3rd century A.D. of the reign of Brihatphala yana King Jayavarman. Brahmadeya soon developed into a systematic attempt to avail subsistence to Brahmans and a common practice onward 4th century A.D. The registration of donated land that included cultivable land, garden, residential plot were recommended by the Smrities and Puranas of the Post-Gupta period and were recorded on the copper plates. The tradition of land grants through the history of practice took the shape of a legal form governed by the law book called, Dharmaśāstra. The Anushasana Parva, a part of the great epic Mahabharata has a complete chapter dedicated to Bhumi-dana-prasamsa, commending the gifts of land.

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