Śālā

[2] In other contexts śālā – also spelled calai or salai in South India – means a feeding house or a college of higher studies linked to a Hindu or Jain temple and supported by local population and wealthy patrons.

In South India, the term was spelled as salai or calai and referred to boarding colleges where students were fed and received education in the Vedas or other religious traditions, military arts and other subjects.

[3] According to Hartmut Scharfe, these schools were attached to many Hindu and Jain temples in the 1st millennium CE, and sometimes they were alternatively referred to by other terms such as a kalari (focusing on military arts) or ghatika (Vedic studies).

For example, the Huzur Office Plates of south Kerala include a major inscription from 866 CE of the Ay Dynasty Hindu king Karunantadakkan who sponsored a Vishnu temple with a salai for Vedic studies for ninety five students and scholars.

It provides details of the annual state financing and operations of a Rigvedic, Yajurvedic and Panchratra boarding salai (college) for 60 students, a hostel, a hospital (atular-salai) with 15 beds, and local community's festival celebrations all managed by the temple.

[22][23] The chapters 150 and 151 of the Kuvalayamala – the Jain text in Sanskrit dated to about 778 CE by Uddyotana Suri of Jalor (Rajasthan) describes a Vijayanagari with a matha (monastery) and sala attached to a temple where students from distant lands would enroll.

These student, states Suri, learned painting, singing, musical arts, dancing, drama, archery, fighting with swords, debating, grammar and various subjects related to Hindu and Buddhist philosophies (Nyaya, Mimamsa, Lokayatika, Baudha).