The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c11.7.3

c11.7.3

This status is expressed in set phrases of which the Madras Museum grant is a good example: ‘பிரம்ம தேயமாகக் காராண்மையும் மீயாட்சியும் உள்ளடங்க ஸர்வபரிஹாரமாக நீரோட்டடிக் குடுக்கப்பட்டது’. *Kārāṇmai* and *Miyātci* are technical terms as can be seen from the Sanskrit part of the Sinnamanūr plates which keeps the terms as such in the phrase ‘*Kārāṇmai mīyātci yutam samastam*’. We have at present no means of fixing the exact meanings of these terms. But as *Kāraṇmai* seems etymologically connected with cultivation and *Miyātci* likewise with supervision and control, we may not be far wrong if we take the terms to indicate the rights of tenancy and landlordship respectively.¹ The clear renunciation of all the rights of the donor contained in the phrase *sarvaparihāramaka* must also be noticed. When the gift has been completed the king generally requests his successors a d every one that comes after him to respect his *dāna* and this request is reinforced in the records by suitable quotations from the sacred laws (*Smṛti*) of the land. One circumstance recorded in the Vēḷvikkuḍi grant is of considerable importance and it is unfortunate that the meaning of the text here should not be clearer than it is. The conditions under which this grant was made are very peculiar. The donee claims that Vēḷvikkuḍi was granted to his ancestors by an ancient Pāṇḍya king Kuḍumi and that this gift was cancelled by the Kaḷabhra interregnum and that this ought to be restored to him.