INTRODUCTION:

This article deals with the background of the historical development of royal hospitality in India.
Chatttrams are primarily pilgrim rest houses which provide temporary housing and feeding to
travelers, religious mendicants and other groups in Indian society. In other words, these
institutions are greater variety of social groups in its progressive and inclusive charitable
mandate, education and traditional and ceremonial hospitality to not only religious pilgrims, but
also to students, staff and European guests.
Scholarly interest on the history of antecedent forms of hospitality is growing1, but in India, it is
limited, as yet there is no systematic survey on evolution of commercial hospitality, nor the
practice of charitable rest houses in pre-modern India.This articles inserts a set of royal chattrams
in its historical context as venue for an adaptive and responsive royal hospitality, also the
diversified social functions in the pre-modern and modern periods. This also focuses on the 20th
century adoption of royal property to commercial use and introduces those institutions as
potential precedents.
The case study done on the chattrams of the Maratha Kings of Thanjavur in South India and the
analyses of archival documents in Tamil literature related to chattrams constructed between 1739
and 1855 CE has revealed the long served purposes of royal charitable hospitality for
generations, various aspects of traditional relationship between ruler and subjects, the systematic
implementation of schemes by the court, the stress on the importance of education in those times,
medical care delivered to the travelers as well as the citizens and the status of the courts and the
ruler under the rise of the British East India Company after 1798.
The entire article is divided into four sub-sections, namely:
 State of field
 Case study: the Royal Chattrams of Maratha Tanjavur
 The Maratha chattrams in historical perspective
 Endowment and constituencies of the Maratha chattrams

About the author:

This research paper was authored by Michael C. Linderman from the Languages, Literature and
Cultures of Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, USA2. This particular article was
revised thrice before its publication in 2012.

1
O’Gorman K.The Origins of Hospitality and Tourism.(Oxford:Goodfellows Publishers,2003)
2
Micheal C Linderman,”Royal accomodations: pilgrim rest houses in early colonial South India”,International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 25,no.2(2013): 187-203.
 CONTENT ANALYSIS:
Though the author has dealt with different sub-sections, I would like to bring the entire content
under The Royal Chattrams of Maratha Thanjavur.

The Royal Chattrams of Maratha Thanjavur (A case study)

The history and institutional structure of the chattrams of the small Maratha kingdom from 1676
to 1855 situated in the Kaveri River delta (now Thanjavur), south-eastern Tamil Nadu.

Historical Perspective:
 The Marathas of Thanjavur first came into power in 1676 when Ekoji, brother of
ShivajiMaharaj defeated Nayaka ruler of Thanjavur3.
 The Southern Marathas of Thanjavur increased the investments in chattrams after the 1720s
mainly due to a socio-religious prescriptions that held free charitable feeding as a supreme
religious virtue.
 These chattrams endowed and maintained by the south Indian court were part of a more
complicated system of inam grants and endowments to temples, village land grants and
facilities that served various functions within the private and public life of the kingdom in the
18th and 19th century.
 According to Modi records, there were 15 chattrams in 1838 and 22 by 1855 which occupied
nodal points on the roads linking towns and cities of the kingdom to Rameshwaram.
 Marathas innovation involved the establishment of chattrams as memorial monuments to the
queens or concubines and most impressive step was the establishment of schools at several of
the largest Maratha chattrams.
 Court records in the late 18th century and early 19th century indicates hospitality of three
types namely,
 that to pilgrims, travelers and poor
 that to students and teachers
 that to Europeans
(All combined in a single institution)
 In other words, these Maratha kingdom represented amalgam of institutional types, namely the
rest houses, the school/monastery and guesthouse respectively.
 In addition to the traditional feeding of pilgrims, other services in the form of food, money or
small grants for funerals and other Hindu ceremonies were provided to the poor.

3
Dirks N,”From little king to landlord: property, law, and gift under the Madras permanent settlement”,Comparative
Studies in Society and History 28, no.2 (1986): 401-434.
 Out of the 22 chattrams built, the largest was Serfoji’s Muktambal Chattram, built in 1802 and
named after Serfoji’s lover Muktambal4. This chattram’s was modeled on the Yamunambal
Chattram of his adoptive grandfather Pratap Singh which was built in 1761.Both were bold
architectural projects which has variety of functional and ceremonial spaces in their campuses 5.
 The guests of the Maratha chattrams included an estimate of 40,000 pilgrims annually
according to Serfoji’s letter (1801) explaining the chattrams in the administration of the court6.

Endowment :
The bulk of monumental chattram construction by the Maratha court happened under three
kings.

PRATAP SINGH (r. 1739-1763)

Constructed four chattrams

TULAJAJI II (r. 1763-1786)

Constructed five chattrams

RAJA SERFOJI II(r. 1798-1832)

Constructed four chattrams

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Raju C.Tancai Marattiya Kalvettukkal (Thanjavur: Tamil University, 1987).
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 ENDOWMENTS

Devadayam Matappiram(that given to

Manya monasteries)
(that given at or for temples)
(that given to honored
subjects of the kingdom)

Chattrams granted to the leaders

Chattrams for pilgrims of monasteries
There were 51 income sources (papattu) associated with the chattrams, which included small
businesses that leased, rented from or worked out of some of the spaces of the chattrams such as
tobacco and pon/betel shops.
In order to establish a Chattram, not only building structures are required, but also grant
productive farm lands which would supply the products and support charity7.The lands
belonging to to the 22 Maratha chattrams consisted of 76 tax-free villages, 11 Brahmin
settlements and numerous tracts of groves and gardens covering a total of 40,000 acres of land8.
Generally, the administrators of the chattrams leased the lands to tenants for cultivation9.

Rights of the Produce

Melvaram rights Kutikani rights

(Right of the first produce (Right belonging to the tenants)
belonging to the landlord that
was reinvested in the charities)

Chattram constituencies:

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 There was a three-fold distinction among the recipients: strangers, the king’s own servants
and students. Most of the king’s retinues enjoyed an open-door policy to come and go.
 In case of the Muktambal Chattram in Orattanadu, an average of 4020 persons per day
received food ration.
 Pilgrims and the indigent poor:
 Feeding charities in the Maratha chattrams were socially inclusive and a bell was
rung after midnight to help organize the distribution of food at the chattram.
 Local chattrams were assisted to provide wedding gifts to the poor families.
 Each chattram had a doctor to take care of those who fell ill during pilgrimage and
special care was given to the pregnant women and children.
 Poor specially abled children were given particular focus10.
 Orphans (no discretion on caste or religion) were equally benefited from charitable
programs and a huge segment of chattram school population under the care of the
schoolmaster and once they finish schooling and were of age, the expenses of their
marriage were provided out of the chattram fund11.

 Students and staff of the chattram schools:

 Thanjavur Maratha kingdom was a major educational center of that period.
 Most of the chattrams built supported Tamil-medium primary schools open to all
castes12.
 The most progressive aspect of the Maratha chattram was their multi-language
curriculum which includes English, Persian, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit.
 There were two types of students, “free” students and “day” students13. Students in
the chattram school whose homes was far were given financial assistance to travel
home.
 There was also a Christian school in Kannanthagudi supported by the kingdom as a
branch of chattram where 50 Christian students were taught14.

 European guests:
 During the early colonial period, Europeans found chattrams convenient when
travelling15.
 Jacob Haafner, in his Reise in einem Palankin described chattrams as uniquely
convenient and functional institutions16.
 Serfoji’s hospitality to British officials was more a strategy of self-representation.

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COMMERICAL HOSPITALITY:
 The roots of tourist consumption of royal tropes of hospitality lie in the late-nineteenth
century17.
 The first princely hotelier in India was Maharajah Man Singh II of Jaipur whose
guesthouse was converted to a hotel in 195818.
 Gaj Singh II of Jodhpur converted one of his palace to a hotel in 1970s19.
 “Palace on Wheels” (1982) was inaugurated to promote tourism in Rajasthan by creating
entire trains out of the personal cars of Indian royalty20.
 The justification that scholars find for this royal adaptation is the strategy of fantasy
involved21 and also driven by nostalgia as in case of Gaj Singh II of Jodhpur22.

CONCLUSION

 This article analyzed the administration of Maratha chattrams and of Indian hospitality before
commercialization.
 Such practices of hospitality were always strategies of self-representation even when the
East India Company gained more control of revenue system in 1798.
 Raja Serfoji II saw chattrams as more significant venues of representation and as a central to
his “reputation and happiness” which pratices both traditional and progressively modern
forms of hospitality in India.
 Their inclusive and social functionality made them unique icon of Indian history and
enduring legacy of royal Indian hospitality that finds expression even today.
 The idea of chattrams was the precursor of expanding forms of economic and social
activity23.

SYNOPSIS OF THE PAPER

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