South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c8.s1.24

c8.s1.24

In the same year the king sanctioned the removal of Tiruvorriyūr and dependent villages from the register of tax-paying villages. Tiruvorriyūr and the villages included in the group (*dēvadānamaṇḍalam*) had gradually been transformed into temple lands (*dēvadāna*). The point was raised whether the taxes should be paid into the royal treasury or the temple treasury. The matter had to be brought to the notice of the king who declared that these villages ought to be treated as *niṅgal* (i.e. villages which ought to be removed from the state-register of tax-paying lands). Accordingly, some *puravuvari* (taxes) which had been uncollected for a time, viz. *veṭṭi*, *puḍavai-mudal*, *tiraikkāśu*, *āśuvigal-kāśu*, *kuḍi-kāśu*, fee levied on *uvachchars* (drummers) and on looms, *inavari-kāśu*, *kāttigai-kāśu*, *vēlichchinnam*, *veṭṭi-kāśu* and *śiru-pāḍikkāval* on lands growing gingelly and cotton, grain for supervision (*kaṇkāṇi*), *kuṟṟa-daṇḍam*, *paṭṭi-daṇḍam*, *kārtigai-kāśu* on oilmongers, fee on dyes and *ariśi-kāśu* on salt-pans were collected.¹ This order was issued through the royal officer Vīra-Narasimhadēva Yādavarāyan, Governor of Puḷarkkōṭṭam, otherwise Vikrama-śōḷavaḷanāḍu formerly known Rājēndra-śōḷavaḷanāḍu. It looks as though these taxes were held in abeyance because of the dispute as to the party to whom payment had to be made; but whether it would have made any change if the king's order were otherwise is more than can be stated from the record as it is available to us at present.²