The "mathas" and attached temples routinely hosted debating, Vedic recital and student competitions, and these were part of community festivals in the history of South Asia. These "mathas" were also the centers where many new texts were composed, as well as the libraries and repository of ancient and medieval manuscripts, where the old texts were preserved and decaying copies replaced over the centuries. The Thiruvavaduthurai Adhinam – a Shaiva matha about twenty kilometers northeast of Kumbhakonam, for example, was a major source of preserved palm-leaf manuscripts of ancient Tamil literature for the colonial era scholars trying to rediscover historic Indian literature. Some scholars such as the 8th-century Adi Shankara who established four major "mathas" in different regions of India, stated in the founding documents that the respective responsibility of the mathas was to preserve one Veda each. Some Hindu monasteries offered hospice care for pilgrims and various forms of assistance to their local communities.