History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c15.7

c15.7

The nature of village government at this period.—Whether or not the self-governing village corporation which, from the early Chōḻa times as we are familiar with, prevailed in the early Pallava days we have not the material to judge from the ascertained facts at our disposal. But it appears that this later village organization with the characteristic features of committees, managing general village administration economic, financial, and judicial, existed in the later Pallava days for which we possess good evidence. That the system of government and administration was highly systematic, and even bureaucratic, we learn with the help of certain of the early Sanskrit charters mentioning the minute details of the boundaries of gifted lands and defining its situation—a fact which shows the efficiency of the land survey departments of the Pallavas. The Uruvapalli plates ¹ give a typical example of such detailed-land survey. This is by no means the only instance of the elaborate arrangements and precautions taken in marking the village boundaries in the inscriptions. The Bāhūr plates belonging to the ninth century in recording a gift of the three villages near Pondicherry give similar details. ‘According to the report submitted by the headman of the *nāḍu* the boundaries of the land granted (to the Bahur College) were as follows: Of the two villages of Viḷaṅgāṭṭaṅgaḍuvanūr and Śeṭṭuppākkam, the eastern boundary is to the west of the boundary of a forest and of the boundary of Neṇmalippākkam; the southern boundary is to the north of the boundary of Neṇmalippākkam, of the boundary of Nelvāyippakkām, and of the boundary of Urattūr; the western boundary is to the east of the boundary of Māmbakkam and of sixty rice-fields which form a Brahmadēya near Viḷaṅgaṭṭaṅaḍuvaṉūr; and the northern boundary is to the south of Vagūr.¹ . . .' It will be gathered from these records that the village and the central government of this period took the greatest pains in maintaining a detailed record of all the arable and waste lands, lakes, tanks, wells and rivers, rocks and even trees, for purposes of not only grants of land to temples and Brahmans, but also for revenue purposes.