The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History c8.385

c8.385

¹ The inscription referred to here (No. 7 S.I.I. iii, pt. I, page 11) is unfortunately in an imperfect state of preservation. Enough of it is however left to catch the purport of the inscription sufficiently clearly to see that it is of the contrary import to what is stated here, and contains in it nothing that smacks of any ‘high-handed injustice’. The village assembly met and apparently distributed the unoccupied lands of the village under certain conditions among those who were willing to take them up for cultivation. For one reason or another several of these lots that were thus allotted remained uncultivated. On a subsequent occasion the same village assembly met and resolved to make a fresh distribution of these lands and arranged accordingly. They were bound to see that the new occupants of these lands were not disturbed in their possession by those to whom they were formerly distributed, as having a previous title. The resolution of the committee therefore threatens very severe penalties upon those who would take it upon themselves to obstruct the new occupants in their peaceful possession of the lands for purposes of cultivation. The heavy fines which are prescribed are also prescribed against the members of the committee who had undertaken the general supervision of the village itself. This is the usual procedure that is adopted and the position does made clear by reference to a number of other inscriptions of a similar import, not exactly all of them of the same kind in all detail. For a mere corroboration, reference may be made to the following inscriptions taken at random from South Indian Inscriptions, vol. vi, only recently published, relating to localities very near Ukkal itself. Nos. 344, 351, 369, 370, 434, corresponding to the Annual Report of the Epigraphist 1898, Nos. 61, 68, 84 and 149. —Editor.