With regard to Agraharas, which of the following statements are correct? (a) It was a Sanskrit term used especially c mid-first millennium CE onwards. (b) It was a term to designate a category of land grants made to Brahmans. (c) Generally these grants were in perpetuity. (d) Dones were given the right to organise production and collect revenue and other resources from the land. Select the correct answer from the options given below:

With regard to Agraharas, which of the following statements are correct? (a) It was a Sanskrit term used especially c mid-first millennium CE onwards. (b) It was a term to designate a category of land grants made to Brahmans. (c) Generally these grants were in perpetuity. (d) Dones were given the right to organise production and collect revenue and other resources from the land. Select the correct answer from the options given below: Correct Answer (a), (b), (c) and (d)

The agrarian expansion, which began with the establishment of brahmadeya and agrahara settlements through land grants to Brahmanas from the fourth century onwards acquired a uniform and universal form in subsequent centuries.

• The centuries flanked by the eighth and twelfth witnessed the processes of this expansion and the culmination of an agrarian organisation based on land grants to religious and secular beneficiaries, i.e. Brahmanas, temples, and officers of the King‟s government.
• Hence, it is clear that the term 'Agrahara' was used in the context of land or taxes from a village by the king to the Brahmins. It was a Sanskrit term used especially c mid-first millennium CE onwards.
• Lands were given as brahmadeya either to a single Brahmana or to many Brahmana families which ranged from a few to many hundreds or even more than a thousand.
• Brahmadeyas were invariably situated close to major irrigation works such as tanks or lakes. Often new irrigation sources were constructed when brahmadeyas were created, especially in regions dependent on rains and in arid and semi-arid regions.
• When situated in regions of rigorous agriculture in the river valleys, they served to integrate other settlements of a survival stage manufacture. Sometimes, two or more settlements were clubbed jointly to form a brahmadeya or an agrahara. Generally, these grants were in perpetuity. There were carried forward to the next generation.
• These lands donated to the temples and monasteries apart from being used as normal tenancy also carried a right vested with the temple authorities to call for unpaid labour (called Vishti) as a religious service to the temple from the tillers on the donated land. Hence doners were given the right to organise production and collect revenue and other resources from the land.