The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c11.7.2

c11.7.2

The *nāḍu* seems to have been the connecting link between the kingdom as a whole and the smallest unit of local administration which is referred to usually as *grāmam*. The names of *grāmams* usually end in *mangalam*, *kuḍi* and *ūr* and occasionally in *vayal*. The forms observed on the occasions when kings made gifts of whole villages are very interesting and deserve some notice. The gift is always a *dānam* in the religious sense and is expressed usually by the phrase நீரோட்டடிக்கொடுத்தான், which the Sinnamanūr plates render into *ambupūrvam*. The boundary of the village to be given away was generally fixed by following the beat of a female elephant that was let loose for the purpose as is indicated by ‘மன்னவனது பணியால் வடிவமையப் பிடிசூழ்ந்தான்’ of the Madras Museum grant and *karēṇu sañcāra vibakta sīmā* of the Sinnamanūr grant; and the boundary was marked by stones and live fences of *kaḷḷi* (எல்லை யகத்துக் கல்லுங் கள்ளியும் நாட்டி) and also clearly recorded in writing. The grant was invariably engraved on copper plates and a high officer of state was entrusted with the task of drawing up and recording the *āṇatti* or royal order in proper form. It is curious that the scribes are generally the *Perumbaṇaikkārans* of the kings making the grant.¹ All the gifts, when they did not go to temples, seem to have been in favour of Brahmaṇas and the lands so granted to Brahmaṇas had a recognized legal status *brahmadēyam*.