South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c8.s1.10

c8.s1.10

The left-hand classes under Kulottuṅga III.—Before passing on to a consideration of the reign of Rājarāja III, one or two other special features of the reign of Kulottuṅga III require to be noted. A record of his fortieth year at Ūṟṟattūr relates to a decision that the Śrutimāns recorded, after a meeting held in the hall Uttamaśōḷan of the Siddhāratnēśvara temple on behalf of the ninety-eight sub-divisions of the Iḍangaiyār (left-hand classes). In the words of the record: ‘While, in order to kill the demons that disturbed the sacrifices of the sage Kaśyapa, we were made to appear from the Agni Kuṇḍa (the sacrificial fire-pit) and, while we were thus protecting the said sacrifice, Chakravartin Arindama honoured the officiating sage-priests (rishis) by carrying them in a car and led them to a Brahmana colony (newly founded by himself). On this occasion we were made to take our seats on the hind part of the car, and to carry the slippers and umbrellas of these sages. Eventually with these Brāhmaṇa sages we also were made to settle down in the villages of Tiruveḷḷarai, Pāchchil, Tiruvāśi, Tiruppiḍavūr, Ūṟṟattūr and Kāraikkuḍi of Śennivaḷakkūṟṟam (all of which are places now in the Trichinopoly district). We received the clan-name Iḍangai, because the sages (while they got down from their cars) were supported by us on their left side. The ancestors of our own sect having lost their credentials and their insignia in jungles and bushes we were ignorant of our origin. Having now once learnt it, we the members of the ninety-eight subsects enter into a compact, in the fortieth year of the king, that we shall hereafter behave like the sons of the same parents, and what good or evil may befall any one of us will be shared by all. If anything derogatory happens to the Iḍangai class, we will jointly assert our rights till we establish them. It is also understood that only those who, during their congregational meetings to settle communal disputes, display the birudas of horn, bugle and parasol, shall belong to our class. Those who have to recognize us now and hereafter in public, must do so from our distinguishing symbols, the feather of the crane and the loose hanging hair (?) The horn and the conch-shell shall also be sounded in front of us, and the bugle blown according to the fashion obtaining among the Iḍangai people. Those who act in contravention of these rules shall be treated as the enemies of our class. Those who behave differently from the rules (thus) prescribed for the conduct of the Iḍangai classes shall be excommunicated and shall not be recognized as Śrutimāns. They will be considered slaves of the classes who are opposed to us'. ¹ There are a number of other documents relating to this particular class which go to indicate that their occupation was agriculture, perhaps not of the peasant proprietor variety. A somewhat later record from Āḍuturai ² in the Trichinopoly district relates to an agreement arrived at among themselves between the 'right-hand' ninety-eight subsects and 'the left-hand' ninety-eight, of the Vaḷudilambaṭṭu Uśāvaḍi against the Brahmaṇa and Veḷḷāḷa land owners (kāṇiyāḷans) of the division. While these documents afford evidence of the hardships to which the agricultural labourers were occasionally subjected, these also indicate clearly that these classes were quite conscious of their rights, and were allowed the freedom to 'jointly assert our rights till we establish them'.