support contentious. Rulers had to balance
criticism for patronage they typically gave Hindu groups, following
established precedent.
• Devotees of Vishnu and Shiva could be equally unforgiving. As
bhakti travelled north along Shankara’s tracks, competing Hindu
sectarians not only wrote poems like Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda, but also
raised armies to fight for sectarian control of pilgrimage sites and
temple festivals. Armies of Shivite and Vaishnava ascetics fought to
protect sectarian wealth against raids from competitors and to capture
revenues from popular religious gatherings like the kumbh mela in
Hardwar and Prayag (Allahabad).
Importance of Temples and Monastic Institutions
Hindu Temple Complex
ABSORPTION OF LOCAL DEITIES AND CULTS
The Hindu temple as a ritualist and architectural complex appeared in full
form in the later Gupta period. Its development and spread from the sixth
to the fourteenth century provide a glorious medieval legacy, from
Mahaballipuram to Khajuraho. The absorption of local deities, rituals,
symbols and spiritualism into Puranic literature and related myth, folklore
and artistic representation constituted Hindu worship by enhancing the
cultural potency of local deities, their devotees and their patrons. Local
cults were woven into Puranic traditions and temple rituals as local
communities came under royal authority.
Representation of Social Geography by Distribution and Contents of
Temples Rich centres of temple worship combined many of the technical
skills—controlled by brahmins—that were needed to develop agrarian
territories, from architecture and engineering to law and financial
management. Building a great temple attracted brahmins and established a
theatre of royal grandeur. Great kings built great temples and supported many
learned brahmins. The distribution and content of temples and inscriptions
thus maps medieval social geography. Lands rich with temple inscriptions are