In this paper, the author closely examined two hundred Cōla inscriptions concerning land donation to Hindu temples. The purpose is twofold: firstly, to clarify the socio-economic meaning of the land donation of the time, and secondly, to throw a side light on the state of the village community, especially its land-holding and social stratification.
The points of examination are: 1) purpose of the donation, 2) area and nature of the land donated, 3) donors and offerers of land, 4) taxes on the donated land, 5) whereabouts of the land and its management by the temple, and 6) socioeconomic effects of the land donation.
As the socio-economic effects, the author emphasizes two points. First: local development in agriculture. The money obtained by local temples and village communities through the land donation was often utilized for extension of cultivated areas and increase of agricultural facilities such as irrigation. Second: growth of private land-holding. Before and in Cōla times, private land-holding appears to have been restricted to certain people who had been granted their holdings by the king in most cases. As the temple lands were often leased out to individuals on mild terms, the land donation had probably brought about actual increase of private holdings. Those effects might have caused a change to the village community of later times.