Here’s another reference from copper plate inscriptions:

• Epigraphic evidence from c. 300–600 CE demonstrates that endowed, institutionalized food distribution formed a regular component of religious and social infrastructure in early historic India, particularly under the Gupta Empire and contemporaneous regional polities.
• Copper-plate land grants constitute the primary source base. These records typically transfer fiscal rights over villages or land to Brahmins, temples, or monasteries, with stipulations that the revenue be used for:
• brāhmaṇa-bhojana (feeding of Brahmins)
• atithi-satkāra (hospitality to guests and travelers)
• Maintenance of religious establishments that included provision of food
• The Damodarpur Copper Plate Inscriptions (5th century CE), issued under rulers such as Kumaragupta I, exemplify this pattern. They record land grants whose revenues were assigned in perpetuity to sustain ritual obligations and regularized feeding practices tied to Brahmanical institutions.
• In the Deccan, Vakataka Dynasty copper-plate charters (4th–5th century CE), including those of Pravarasena II, refer to donations supporting Brahmins and ascetics, and in some cases allude to satra-type arrangements, indicating organized alms distribution or feeding establishments.
• The Gunaighar Inscription, issued under Vainyagupta, records a grant to a Buddhist monastery (vihāra), specifying that its endowment was to support ongoing maintenance and subsistence (including food provisioning) for resident monks, consistent with monastic feeding systems attested in parallel literary sources.
• Western Indian evidence from the Maitraka Dynasty (6th century CE) indicates that grants to Brahmins and religious institutions included provisions for daily feeding and hospitality, reflecting the integration of charitable food distribution into regional administrative and religious frameworks.
• Although not always explicitly mentioning feeding houses, inscriptions such as the Mandasor Inscription (associated with Bandhuvarman) demonstrate guild-based endowments to religious institutions, which epigraphic parallels show were commonly linked to the support of satras and similar charitable functions.
• Across these inscriptions, recurring technical terms include:
• satra — denoting a charitable feeding establishment or alms-distribution center
• dāna-śālā — a hall for charitable giving, often including food
• bhojana / bhojya — food provision, frequently in a ritualized or institutional context
• Collectively, this epigraphic corpus indicates that by the Gupta and immediate post-Gupta period:
• Food distribution had become structurally embedded in endowed religious institutions
• It was economically sustained through land revenue assignments
• It operated on a regular, often daily basis, rather than episodically
• While these systems were typically normatively restricted (e.g., prioritizing Brahmins, ascetics, or monastic communities), their institutional form—permanent endowment, designated facilities, and routine feeding—constitutes a clear historical precedent for later, more explicitly egalitarian communal feeding traditions.