Sixteen great gifts

The sixteen great gifts (Sanskrit: षोडश-महा-दान; IAST: Ṣoḍaśa-Mahā-dāna) refers to a category of ritual donations mentioned in the Puranic texts of ancient India.

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).

[4] The earliest known epigraphically-attested donations called the "great gifts" were made by the 7th century Pandya king Jayantavarman (alias Cendan).

[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.

A modern adaptation of the tulapurusha ceremony: the girl is being weighed against the bananas (in place of gold); the bananas would be donated after the ceremony