Tulabhara, also known as Tula-purusha (IAST: Tulāpuruṣa) or Tula-dana, is an ancient Hindu practice in which a person is weighed against a commodity (such as gold, grain, fruits or other objects), and the equivalent weight of that commodity is offered as donation. The Tulabhara is mentioned as one of the sixteen great gifts in the ancient texts, and is performed in several parts of India.
The Atharvaveda-parishishta uses the name "tula-purusha-vidhi" to describe the ceremony. The Matsya Purana calls it "tula-purusha-dana", while the Linga Purana calls it by various names such as "tula-purusha-dana", "tuladhirohana", "tularoha", and "tulabhara".
Majority of the ancient inscriptions that record the ceremony are written in Sanskrit language; some of them are in Tamil and Kannada, and some later inscriptions also feature Telugu language.
The early Sanskrit-Tamil inscriptions from Tamil Nadu and Sinhala-Tamil inscriptions from Sri Lanka used the name "tula-bhara" (literally "weighing on the scales") to describe the ceremony.
The Sanskrit inscriptions from other regions, the Kannada inscriptions, and the Puranas generally use the name "tula-purusha" and its variants. "Tula-purusha" is the most common name for the ceremony in the historical records. The longer forms are "tula-purusha-dana" or "tula-purusha-mahadana", which are sometimes abbreviated as "tula-dana" (the words "dana" and "mahadana" mean "donation" and "great donation" respectively).
The 13th century inscriptions from Tamil Nadu also use the terms "tularohana" (or "tularoha") and "tuladhiroha-vidhi" (or "tuladhirohana") for the ceremony.
The Matsya Purana provides several requirements for a tula-purusha ceremony, including directions for constructing the mandapa (pavilion) required for the ceremony. It states that the weighing scale (tula) should have two posts and a crossbeam, made from the same wood, and should be ornamented with gold.
The text further states that the ceremony should be officiated by eight priests (rtvij), two for each of the four Vedas. A man knolwedgable about the Vedanta, the Puranas, and the Shastras, should be appointed as the preceptor (guru). Four homas should be offered to the deities, accompanied by the recital of Vedic hymns. After the homa ceremony, the guru should invoke the Lokapalas (deities associated with directions) with flowers, incense, and recital of mantras. Next, the brahmanas should bathe the donor, and have him wear a white garment. The donor should wear garlands made of white flowers, and circumambulate the weighing scale with flowers in his folded hands.
Finally, the text states, the donor should step into one of the pans of the weighing scale, and the brahmanas should place pure gold pieces of equal weight in the other pan. After invoking the Goddess Earth, the donor should give half the gold to the guru, and the rest to the brahmanas. The donor may also grant villages to the priests. The donor should "honour the brahmanas, other respectable people, and the poor and the helpless with gifts".
The Linga Purana gives a similar description, and adds that the gold pieces should be dedicated to the god Shiva.
The Atharvaveda-parishishta, composed in the 1st millennium BCE, describes tula-purusha, besides other sacrifices such as the hiranya-garbha (the donation of a golden vessel) and gosahasra (the donation of a thousand cows). A section of the later text Matsya Purana mentions the tula-purusha ceremony as the first and the best among the sixteen great gifts (maha-danas). According to scholar R. C. Hazara, this particular section was composed during 550-650 CE.
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. These donations 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).
Several legendary performances of Tulabhara are mentioned in the ancient Indian texts. For example, in the Mahabharata, King Shibi, a descendant of King Bharata of the Lunar dynasty, was tested by Indra and Agni. They approached Shibi in the forms of an eagle and a dove. The dove sought Shibi's protection from the eagle, who asked Shibi to give his flesh measure for measure in exchange for the dove's life. Shibi, ready to offer anything to save the dove, began slice off bits of himself. Even after much cutting, the balance scales did not move, and when at last when Shibi himself stood on the scale of the balance, the gods appeared to him and blessed him.[1]
Another legend of the Tulabhara relates to Krishna and his queen-consorts, Rukmini and Satyabhama. In the Bhagavata Purana, Satyabhama is described to have often attempted to prove her superiority over the other wives of Krishna, especially his principal wife, Rukmini. The sage Narada once incited Satyabhama into undertaking a vrata (vow) in which she had to "donate" her husband to the former, and pay the latter's weight in gold to regain him. She had Krishna sit upon one side of the weighing scale, and poured all of her gold jewellery upon the other end. The scale did not budge. Swallowing her pride, Satyabhama sought the assistance of Rukmini. Rukmini placed a tulasi (basil) leaf upon the other end of the scale, regarded to represent her love for Krishna, which immediately balanced the scales.[2]
Several inscriptions of India mention the historical performances of the tula-purusha. The earliest of these inscriptions are from the present-day Tamil Nadu (7th-8th century) and Maharashtra-Karnataka region (8th-9th century). It is possible that the tula-purusha ceremony traveled from the southern Pandya kingdom of Tamil Nadu to Maharashtra-Karnataka, which was ruled by the Rashtrakutas. It may have subsequently spread to other neighbouring areas, such as Madhya Pradesh (from Maharashtra), Andhra Pradesh (from Karnataka), and Sri Lanka (from Tamil Nadu).
Notable performers include:
The Islamic Mughal rulers also appear to have borrowed the tula-dana practice from the Hindu rulers. According to emperor Akbar's courtier Abu'l-Fazl, Akbar was weighed against gold and other valuable items twice every year. English visitors such as Thomas Coryat and Thomas Roe mention that the custom was followed by his son Jahangir as well. Jahangir's successor Aurangzeb discontinued the practice for himself, but his sons were apparently weighed against objects to be donated, upon recovery from illness. This is suggested by the writings of the European travelers Niccolao Manucci, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, and François Bernier.[5]
In 2015, the Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickramasinghe participated in a tulabharam ceremony at the Guruvayur Temple, and offered 77 kg of sandalwood worth approximately 850,000 to the temple.[6]