Concept of Dāna and Nature of Donee Brāhmaṇas

The practice of giving is globally recognized as one of the most considerable human virtues, and it is a quality that testifies to the depth of one’s humanity and one’s capacity for super-excellence. Historical records and the ancient Indian literature and scriptures indicate that dāna is an ancient practice in Indian traditions, tracing back to vedic traditions. Making a gift of land to an individual or institution was regarded to be highly meritorious during the later vedic period. In ancient times,in the early period,the beneficiaries of land gifts were mainly brāhmaṇas. Donating land to brāhmaṇas and temples for the propagation of vedic dharma and conducting various services to the gods respectively was a common practice in society during the period under study. In India, most individual contributions are made to religious organizations and institutes. According to a survey conducted by the Sampradaan Indian Center for Philanthropy in 2001, 96% of upper and middle-class urban households donated to charitable causes for a total of $338.6 million. The dominant sector of giving is for disaster reliefs, receiving 21% of exchequers.^[1]

Dāna also known as Philanthropy, Generosity, Charity or Donation has the broader and long-term connotation of social investing. The shift towards social investing signifies that philanthropy would move beyond charity towards building human and social capital: it should invest in education, in enhancing social and economic opportunities for those who are less privileged, and in building influential organizations to address social ills. Though ‘religious purposes of generosity’ and ‘charitable purposes of generosity’ carry similar meanings, they can be different in terms of their motives. A religious generosity is one, which has for its object the establishment, maintenance, or worship of an idol or deity, or any object or purpose subservient to religion. Religious generosity may be public or private. A public religious charity is the dedication of property for the use or benefit of the public. A private religious charity is the dedication of the property for the worship of a family god in which the public is not interested. A charitable generosity is one, which has for its objects the benefit of the society or humankind. The concept of dāna arose from two entirely different historical currents, a strong tradition of religious charity and history of patronage practised by the kingship and the wealthy individuals. India’s rich culture of voluntary action and philanthropy needs to be appropriately tapped by civil society organizations committed to building a world for all citizens of the country. India’s indigenous philanthropists include both individual (sovereigns,feudalkings, wealthy persons, business class) and corporate givers (religiouseducational institutions and others), who have donated money, goods or time for the benefit of others.

The present chapter deals with the land endowments especially made by the kings during the early and early medieval period in northern India. At that period, as mentioned above, philanthropy and voluntary action took a different form. They led to the establishment of various organizations with the object of dedicating themselves to the larger public good. It may be debated that this is the period when philanthropy and charity took different routes as it was before. The inscriptions found in northern India discuss two forms of voluntary action, namely, for ‘charitable purposes’ and ‘religious purposes.’ Although In the Indian tradition from ancient times, philanthropy has been strongly linked to religion, here, religion indicates ‘duty’. That religion and religious purposes are quite different in this case.

Interestingly the kings of high fame can be seen donating acres of lands and among others to the upper and prosperous section of the society who were already wealthy and hardly they needed those dānas. The basic rule of dāna, as discussed in almost every scripture, which is ‘charity must be done with a lot of love, warmth, and affection, expecting nothing in return for them who need,’ but the philanthropists at that period were found doing precisely the opposite in practice. In almost every inscription in northern India (perhaps all over India), we may notice the kings were donating for their religious merits and fame; hence it was no longer selfless. But the scriptures and even, quite contemporary epic and purāṇic literature were saying something else. In the present study, we will discuss the Indian tradition on dāna as presented in the scriptures and contemporary works of literature; however, it is not possible to follow strict chronology as the scriptures were composed over a longspan of time. The research will also attempt to have a glimpse of the social background of dāna from the living sources: the inscriptions following a chronological table of North Indian Sanskrit inscriptions documenting gift of land to the vedic brāhmaṇas to secure their (the donor kings’) own religious merit and fame.

Each culture has its characteristics and manners of setting the parameters for the occasion for donating, the purpose of the donation, the donor, and the receiver of the gift. Dāna as found in the inscriptions under study is prescribed in a wide range of circumstances and for various purposes. Donation is defined in traditional texts as any move by someone to give uphis or her ownership and accept and invest the same in the recipient without expecting anything in return. Although donations are usually made to a person or family, in brahmanical fold, the charity works for public benefit are also discussed. From the earliest times, dāna was considered a virtue conducive to the accumulation of merit.From 4^th to 12^th century CE, India was a land ofa prosperity whose economic, religious, and cultural influence extended across Asia. Empires and kingdoms controlled most of India. Towards the end of this period, more regional powers emerged gradually. Indian traditional culture, Sanskrit language, and imperial tradition united India in this era. The 4^th century text of Viṣṇupurāṇa describes India as a country that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains.This country is called Bhārata as it is inhabited by the descendants of Bharata.^[2] It is the land of works, in consequence of which people go to heaven, and ultimately attain oneness with the Supreme Being. Ancient Indians regarded the subcontinent as one country.

The villages were usually surrounded by agricultural land. Each community generally had a pond or water reservoir, wells, grazing grounds, educational institutions, and at least one temple. Land grant charters from northern India belonging to a period between the 4th to 12th centuries CE record the grant of land mainly by the ruling families and other wealthy people to the brāhmaṇas and the religious institutions. Naturally, this long period of eight centuries saw many changes in the social status, professional qualifications, and requirements of the recipient brāhmaṇas. In the beginning, these recipients used to be ordinary village brāhmaṇas and the purposes of the grants were to help them perform their daily religious rites or to settle down in a village by providing only the required amount of land. But there was a change in this attitude. Local and regional powers were gradually gaining importance in early and early medieval period in India. To legitimize their power and proclaim themselves as rulers to the subjects, they needed the brāhmaṇas. In this situation, a land donation to brāhmaṇas assumed a more considerable significance. In their charters, one or more villages were granted to the recipients together with many other privileges. In return, the rulers expected legitimization from the priestly class. In early period the donees used to appeal to the administration for a gift of land to perform some religious rites of their own. Later the situation changed and the charters concerned show that many brāhmaṇas held royal posts and appropriate titles along with them. The king used to grant them lands as fees for officiating at sacrifices are performed by them or on auspicious occasions.

Here are presented the opinions of some scholars in this matter and we may examine the inscriptions in terms of their contexts which included generosity, the donor king, the recipients of these grants, their religious affiliations, and other features. Before entering into that discussion we may briefly deliberate on the Indian tradition of dāna. Through this we may form a concept about the diversity of grants and its brief history during the times of the Vedas , Dharmaśāstras, Mahābhārata, Purāṇas, and others. This current chapter deals with six different sections interconnected to each other.

A man is not born good or bad. The surrounding environment largely controls human behavior. We find people with generous nature and there are also people who are miserly and lowly. What we see or hear around usaffects our lives, directly or indirectly. A recent study conducted in 2018,^[3] has shown that the mentality of giving when needed is a special part of Indian culture.^[4] It is in the genes of Indians, and the genetic code does not change in a day or two, a trait is perpetuated in humans by generation after generation. If we look at the ancient Indian scriptures and literature, we may observe that this ancient tradition has been going on for ages.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Simon Scott, “Philanthropic Foundations and Development Co-operation,” in Off-print of the DAC Journal, vol. 4, no. 3, p. 68.

[2]:

Viṣṇupurāṇa, 2.1.31, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_India.

[3]:

Allen Summer, The Science of Generosity, 2018 (A white paper prepared for the John Templeton Foundation by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley) greatergood.berkeley.edu.

[4]:

In this study, parents in the United States and in rural India modeled either a generous or a stingy donation in front of their three-to-eight-year-old children. When asked to perform a similar task as their parents, children from both cultures were influenced by the stingy modeling, whereas only the Indian children responded to the generous modeling. A second part of this study asked people from three countries—Canada, Uganda, and India—to remember a time they had spent money on themselves or someone else. The participants from all three countries who were told to recall spending money on someone else reported greater happiness than those assigned to recall spending money on themselves, and this effect appeared to be independent of the role that the spending could play in fostering a social relationship (which in itself could lead to more happiness). In the end, it is said that even though the parents showed them the wrong way, the Indian children did the right thing. It may be understood from this study that later, the bad mentality of the children while growing up fall under the pressure of their own home, the surrounding environment, and the situation, however, the Indian gene generally indulges and nurtures generosity.