The matha like the temple was a religious institution of much importance in the development of Indian

The matha like the temple was a religious institution of much importance in the development of Indian religions like the Monasteries in Christian Europe.

The Buddhists and the Jains were the earliest to think of mathas as predominantly religious institutions presided over by leaders whose functions were to keep the torch of (that) religion aloft and spread its tenets among the people.

The Saivas and the Vaishnavites among the Hindus were inspired by this example and after Sankara of Kaladi a large number of Hindu mathas came into being and they were mostly centres of sectarian instruction and religious propaganda. They became the focal points of particular orthodoxies.