The sixteen great gifts (Sanskrit: Shodasha-Maha-dana; IAST: Ṣoḍaśa-Mahā-dāna) refers to a category of ritual donations mentioned in the Puranic texts of ancient India.
The most prominent of these donations include the tula-purusha — weighing of a person and the donation of equivalent weight in gold, and hiranya-garbha — the donation of a golden pot.
The earliest inscriptions that mention the sixteen great gifts as a category date from the 8th century onward, but these great gifts have been described in the earlier literature, such as the Matsya Purana.[1] Some of these donations included in the category pre-date the concept of sixteen great gifts. For example, the Atharvaveda-parishishta, composed in the 1st millennium BCE, describes tula-purusha, hiranya-garbha, and gosahasra.[2]
The section of the Matsya Purana that mentions the sixteen great gifts appears to have been composed during 550-650 CE.[3] It states that several ancient kings performed the great gifts.[2] The Linga Purana also mentions the sixteen great donations; according to R. C. Hazara, the relevant portion of the text was composed during c. 600-1000 CE, most probably after 800 CE. The great gifts are also described in the later digests devoted to the topic of charity (dāna), such as Ballala's Dana-sagara, and the Danakhanda section of Hemadri's Chaturvarga-chintamani (13th century).[2]
The Chalukya king Pulakeshin I (c. 540-567) is known to have performed the hiranyagarbha ritual (although not mentioned as a Great Gift) to proclaim his sovereignty.[4] The earliest known epigraphically-attested donations called the "great gifts" were made by the 7th century Pandya king Jayantavarman (alias Cendan). According to his inscription, the king performed three of the great gifts: hiranya-garbha, go-sahasra, and tula-pursuha.[1] The Rashtrakuta king Dantidurga (c. 753 CE) performed a Great Gift (mahadana) ceremony, apparently as a replacement for the Vedic shrauta rituals. By the time of the imperial Cholas (c. 10th century), the Great Gift ceremony had become the principal sign of a king's beneficence, overlordship, and independence.[5]
The inscriptions of the Gahadavala dynasty (11th-12th century) mention three of the great gifts: tulapurusha, gosahasra, and pancha-langala (or pancha-langalaka). The Chandela king Dhanga (r. c. 950-999 CE) and the Kalachuri king Yashahkarna (r. c. 1073-1123 CE) are known to have performed tulapurusha. The Sena king Lakshmana Sena (r. c. 1178-1206) performed the great gift of Hemashva-ratha, otherwise called Hiranyashva-ratha.[6]
In the Vijayanagara Empire of the 14th-16th centuries, the Great Gift ceremonies were used to proclaim the rulers' beneficence and independence.[7] For example, the Nallur inscription of king Harihara II of Vijayanagara Empire mentions that he performed the sixteen great gifts.[5]
The sixteen great gifts, according to the Matsya Purana, are as follows: (names in IAST)[8][1]
The two most-frequently mentioned great gifts in the historical records are tula-purusha and hiranya-garbha.[5] The Matysa Purana mentions tula-purusha as the first and the best among the sixteen great gifts.[9]