The agrahara in early India was:

In early India, an agrahara was a specific type of land grant or village settlement given to Brahmins. These grants were typically perpetual, hereditary, and tax-free, exempting the donee from paying land revenue and other dues to the king [2]. The Brahmin recipients, often liturgical and scriptural experts, were frequently granted the right to collect dues from local cultivators, effectively making them land controllers [2]. While similar to 'brahmadeya' grants, agraharas were specifically associated with maintaining Vedic learning or running religious-cum-educational institutions. These settlements played a crucial role in agrarian expansion from the fourth century onwards, particularly during the Gupta and post-Gupta periods, as they often brought virgin land under cultivation or integrated existing agricultural areas into the state's socio-religious framework [1].

Sources

1. [1] History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 7: The Guptas > Other Land Grants > p. 96
2. [2] THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART I, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 2: Kings, Farmers and Towns > Prabhavati Gupta and the village of Danguna > p. 41