The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c11.11
The Pāṇḍyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c11.11
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The grāmam was the unit of local administration as pointed out before, and there are enough indications to show that as a rule it was well able to take care of its affairs and that it inspired confidence in the king of the country by efficiency and rectitude in its conduct of affairs. An inscription from Tiruccendūr (26 of 1912) tells us that the king Varaguna Mahārāja distributed among sixteen villages a large endowment he made to the local temple for meeting the cost of service in the temple throughout the twelve months of the year. The total endowment consisted of 1,400 gold *kāśus* and these *kāśus* were to be a permanent endowment, only the interest being spent for the purposes specified. The rate of interest is fixed at two kalams of paddy per annum on each *kāśu*. The penalty for default strikes us however as severe. It is that interest is doubled during the period of default and in addition a heavy fine of twenty-five gold *kāśus* is to be paid to the temple. Again a sum of 290 gold *kāśus* was, in the sixteenth year of the same king, placed in the hands of the assembly of Ambāsamudram (*Varaguṇa-mahārājar Toṇḍaināṭṭu ppeṇṇaikkarai Araiśūr Viṛrirundu Iḷangōkkuḍi ccavaiyār kaiyirkkuḍutta kāśu Irunuṛruṭṭoṇṇūru*) to be utilized likewise as a permanent endowment ; the interest on the endowment was fixed at the same rate as in the other gift viz., two kalams of paddy per annum per *kāśu* ;
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the proceeds comprising 580 kalams of paddy per annum to be given by the assembly were to be devoted to meet the cost of offerings (*tiru amudu*) to be made four times a day in the temple of Tiruppōttuḍaiya Bhaṭārar at Iḷangōkkuḍi according to a detailed schedule of offerings given in the inscription ; and it was made the duty of the servants of the temple and a committee of the assembly to see that the expenditure was properly incurred from day to day (*Bhaṭārar paṇimakkaḷum Iḷangōkkuḍi ccavai vāriyarum uḍaninṛu . . . nāngu kālamum-tiruvamidu-śeluttum-paḍi*).¹ Again the Trichinopoly inscription of the eleventh year of Varaguṇa records another endowment of 125 kalanjus of gold for the regular supply of ghī for the burning of four perpetual lamps and five other lamps in the temple of Tirumalai Bhaṭārar. This endowment was placed in fixed deposit with the Nagarattār of Śirrambar, and its proper administration was vested in the Pati of Śirrambar and the servants of the temple as trustees—(இவ்வொட்டின பரிசுநெய் அட்டுவிப்பதற்கு அமைந்து புணைப்பட்டோம் சிற்றம்பர்பதியும் பாதமூலத்தோமும்).¹ It may well be that the Nagarattār of Śirrambar were a corporation of merchants in the place; but it is not possible to say who the Pati was. He might have been the head of the corporation of merchants or a royal officer. The analogy of the Ilaṅgōkkuḍi-ccavai vāriyam points to the former alternative.
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It is very interesting to see that the kaḷanju mentioned in this record is the same as the gold kāśu, the coin being apparently described by its weight here;² we cannot however be sure of the exact weight of the kaḷanju itself in those days. A record in some respects more interesting than these comes from Mānūr in the Tinnevelly district and it is dated in the thirty-fifth year of Māranjaḍayan. If this Māranjaḍayan were the same as Varaguṇa Mahārāja, as probably he is, then the record may be assigned to about A.D. 800 and would thus precede the famous Uttiramallūr records of the time of Parāntaka I by well over a century. This fact deserves to be stressed a little as this inscription contains a record of rules for membership in the Sabha of the village which have been summed up¹ as follows by the official epigraphist (Madras) in the *Annual Report for 1913*: ‘It is stated that the children of shareholders in the village, only one, who is well behaved and has studied the *Mantra Brāhmaṇa* and one *Dharma* (i.e. Code of Law) may be on the village assembly (*manru*) to represent the share held by him in the village and only one of similar qualifications may be on the assembly for a share purchased, received as present or acquired by him as *strīdhana* (through his wife); (2) that (shares) purchased, presented or acquired as *strīdhana* could entitle one, if at all, only to full membership in the assemblies;
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and in no case will quarter, half or three-quarter membership be recognized; (3) that those who purchase shares must elect only such men to represent their shares on the assembly, as have critically studied a whole Veda with its *pariśiṣṭas*; (4) that those who do not possess full membership as laid down by rule (2), cannot stand on any committee (*vāriyam*) for the management of village affairs; (5) that those who satisfy the prescribed conditions should in no case persistently oppose (in the proceedings of the assembly) by saying “nay, nay” to every proposal brought up before the assembly and (6) that those who do this together with their supporters will pay a fine of five *kāśus* on each item (in which they so behaved) and still continue to submit to the same rules.’ It is a pity that twenty years after the discovery of this inscription, its text should not be available for scholars. But even the abstract given above contains enough to show the importance of the record. Other inscriptions which have been reviewed here tell us generally of the existence of village assemblies and of their carrying on their work through committees. And this Mānūr record may be taken perhaps as giving a type of the constitutions of village assemblies in this period in the south of the Pāndya country. Membership in the assembly was regulated by qualifications of property and learning very much as in the well-known inscriptions from Uttiramallūr (Chingleput) of the early tenth century A.D.
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There seems to have been no election to the assembly, but all important property interests were represented on it. This seems to have made the *sabha* a rather unwieldy body in which the transaction of business with reasonable despatch could only be secured by somewhat drastic rules against organized obstruction on the part of sections of the members. We learn nothing however as to the method of appointing the committee (*vāriyam*) of the assembly which formed the executive of the assembly, each in its respective sphere of work.