Religious Endowments in Ancient India and the Institutionalization of Brahmin Caste Status.

The article focuses on the role of endowed religious foundations, particularly land grants known as brahmadeyas, in institutionalizing Brahmin caste status in South Asia. It explains how royal charters granting tax-exempt land and juridical autonomy to Brahmins legally recognized their sacred professional status, fusing religious, social, and legal identities over centuries. These endowments supported Brahmin enclaves (agrahāras) and reinforced hereditary privileges, creating generational wealth and political influence that extended beyond individual beneficiaries. The practice, paralleling similar grants to Buddhist and Jaina monastic orders, contributed to the widespread acceptance of Brahmins as a high-status caste and shaped the development of the caste system as a formal social hierarchy.