Our Agamas prescribe that temples should have a Vidyapeetham—a library meant to preserve and house important books/ texts. They also specify that Devi Saraswathi should be installed in such libraries. The Bhojsala Vagdevi temple at Dhar had one such library.
In Tamil Nadu, the Vidyapeethams attached to temples were known as Saraswathi Bhandarams. These functioned as centers of learning, preserving vast collections of manuscripts and making them accessible for study.
For instance, an inscription of Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan at Chidambaram temple describes the functioning of such a library at that temple along with officials associated with it.
Another inscription of 1369 CE records that Kampanna Udayar of the Vijayanagara dynasty established a Saraswathi Bhandaram in the Kanchi Varadharaja Perumal temple, ensuring its upkeep. Likewise, a Nayak-period inscription from Srirangam mentions a Saraswathi Bhandaram and details a donation of one lakh (100,000 kasu) for the installation of the images of Saraswathi, Hayagriva, and Veda Vyasa in the temple library, with regular offerings dedicated to these deities.
Hence, Tamil Nadu has been “Kalviyil Sirantha”—renowned for its tradition of learning—for thousands of years, and not because of any recent “Model”.