Medieval Religious Movements as seen in South Indian Inscriptions

人们对10至14世纪期间在南印度进行的宗教运动知之甚少<th><th>。为了澄清这一宗教运动，我们收集了当时泰米尔语中提到mathas（寺院）的铭文，并研究了这些mathas的活动。我们的研究表明，在10^<th>和11^<th>世纪，mathas活动是由来自北方的婆罗门领导的，得到了Chola皇家和上层社会阶层的支持。与此相反，群众在12和13世纪开始参加matha活动<th><th>，因此，他们所珍视的传统宗教观念对它的活动产生了影响，最终导致了一个新的宗教学校的建立，称为Saiva Siddhanta。关于matha的铭文的时间分布表明，在12<th>和13世纪，我们对那些世纪参加matha活动的社会群体进行了考察<th>，这清楚地表明，这场通过数学进行的宗教运动，与12 - 14世纪导致下层社会权力上升的社会变革密切相关<th><th>。我们已将这一新发现发表在国际知名研究期刊上的两篇文章中。我们也曾在外国专家参与的研讨会上讨论这个问题，向世界各地的学者介绍我们的研究结果。

Not much was known about the religious movement carried out in South India during the period from the 10^<th> to 14^<th> centuries. In order to clarify this religious movement, we have collected the Tamil inscriptions of that period referring to mathas(monasteries) and examined the activities of those mathas.Our examination has revealed that in the 10^<th> and 11^<th> centuries the mathaactivities were led by Brahmanas, who had come from the North, supported by the Chola royal family and people of the upper social sections. Contrary to that, the masses began to join the matha activities in the 12^<th> and 13^<th> centuries, and consequently the traditional religious notions held dear by them gave influence on its activities, causing finally the establishment of a new religious school called Saiva Siddhanta.The fact that chronological distribution of the inscriptions referring to mathas shows the concentration in the 12^<th> and 13^<th> centuries, together with our examination of the social groups, which joined the matha activities in those centuries, clearly shows that this religious movement carried out through mathas was closely related to the social change which caused the power increase in the lower social sections during the period from the 12^<th> to 14^<th> centuries.We have published these new findings in the two articles published in an internationally well-known research journal. We have also discussed the issue in the seminars joined by foreign specialists to impart our findings among scholars in the world.