Matha

A matha (मठ, IAST: maṭha) is a Sanskrit word that means "cloister, institute or college", and it also refers to a monastery in Hinduism.

Monastic life, for spiritual studies or the pursuit of moksha (spiritual liberation) traces it roots to the 1st millennium BCE, in the Vedic tradition. The earliest Hindu monasteries (mathas) are indirectly inferred to be from the centuries around the start of the common era, based on the existence of Sannyasa Upanishads with strongly Advaita Vedanta content. The matha tradition in Hinduism was likely well established in the second half of 1st millennium CE, as is evidenced by archeological and epigraphical evidence.

Mathas grew over time, with the most famous and still surviving centers of Vedanta studies being those started by Adi Shankara. Other major and influential mathas belong to various schools of Hindu philosophy, such as those of Vaishnavism and Shaivism. The monastery host and feed students, sannyasis (monks, renouncers, ascetics), gurus and are led by Acharyas. These monasteries are sometimes attached to Hindu temples and have their codes of conduct, initiation and election ceremonies. The mathas in the Hindu tradition have not been limited to religious studies, and historical evidence suggest that they were centers for diverse studies such as medieval medicine, grammar and music.

The term matha is also used for monastery in Jainism, and the earliest monasteries near Jain temples are dated to be from about the 5th-century CE.

A matha (Sanskrit: मठ) refers to "cloister, institute or college", and in some contexts refers to "hut of an ascetic, monk or renunciate" or temple for studies. The root of the word is math, which means "inhabit" or "to grind".

The roots of monastic life are traceable in the Vedic literature, which states Jacobi likely predates Buddhism and Jainism. According to Hermann Jacobi, Max Muller, Hermann Oldenberg and other scholars, the Jainism and Buddhism traditions adopted the five precepts first developed in the Vedic-Brahmanical traditions for monk life:

However, in 20th century, scholars such as Richard Garbe suggested that the pre-Upanishad Vedic tradition may not have had a monastic tradition, and that the Upanishads, Jainism and Buddhism may have been new movements that grew, partly in opposition, on the foundations and ideas of earlier Vedic practices. The asceticism and monastic practices possibly emerged in India in the early centuries of the 1st millennium BCE. Johannes Bronkhorst has proposed a dual model, wherein monastic traditions and matha began in parallel, both in Vedic and non-Vedic streams of traditions, citing evidence from ancient Hindu Dharmasutras dated to have been composed between 500 BCE to about the start of the common era. Other evidence of mathas is found in the Brahmanas layer of the Vedic texts, such as in chapter 10.6 of Shatapatha Brahmana (Yajurveda) as well as in the surviving Aranyaka layer of the Vedas such as in chapter 15 of Shankhayana Aranyaka.

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