Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s5.t3.28

v1.c10.s5.t3.28

The principle of differential taxation, common over many parts of the country, is best seen in the history of the Tamil lands. The *māhēśvaras*, *sri-rudras*, *dēva-kanmis*, and the temple accounts of the Kaikōḷanātha temple at Tiruk-kaḷākkuḍi, Ramnad district, in the nineteenth year (?A.D. 1296) of the reign of Jaṭāvarman Sundara Pāṇḍya, granted certain temple lands as the *kāṇippiḍipāḍu* to one Sundara Pāṇḍya Narasingadēvaṇ, stipulating that he should enjoy them after repairing the tanks in disuse and bringing under cultivation such of the lands as were covered with jungle; and that while the lands were being enjoyed in this manner, he should pay to the temple for the *pasāṉ*, a *mēlvāram*⁴ of one in three : for the cultivation of திணை, வரகு etc., as well as the trees பலா, மாவு . . . etc., one in five should be given; for cocoanut and areca palms, one in seven, and for dry crops according to the yield, one in seven. In the case of lands which were brought under cultivation by clearing the jungle, he should have to pay one-tenth in the first year, one-ninth in the second year, one-eighth in the third year, one-seventh in the fourth year; and that for all subsequent years a permanent mēlvāram of one in three should be paid.¹ We are also told, in an inscription of the eleventh year of his reign, (A.D. 1287), that the kuḍumi assessment, which the Naṭarāja temple at Chidambaram was to receive, was 100 kāśu in money, and that the vīrabhōga was six kalams of paddy on each vēli of land.² The fixed rate in the Karṇāṭaka about the same time, according to an inscription of A.D. 1284, was one-seventh.³