The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c12.50

c12.50

There is a general order of Rāja Rāja I recorded in an inscription of the twenty-fourth year of his reign, i.e., about A.D. 1009¹ which ‘deals with defaulters of land revenue in villages held by Brahmins, Vaikhānasas and Jainas in the Chola, Tondai and Pāndya countries.’² The default in the payment of revenue seems to have been on the part of a special class of tenants who are referred to as ‘காணி உடையார்’ and who seem to have in some manner abused their privileged position; the penalty that is laid down by the royal order is drastic, but it must be noticed that it applied to other territories besides the Pāndya country. The king orders that all ‘காணி உடையார்’ who between the sixteenth and twenty-third years of his reign had failed to pay the dues paid by others in the village (ஊரிடுவரிப்பாடு) and whose default continued after more than two complete years into a third year—all such ‘காணி உடையார்’ shall forfeit their ‘காணி’ lands to the village; and the villagers shall arrange to sell the lands among themselves, but the old defaulters shall not be allowed to buy up these lands again. The same rule was to be observed in all similar cases of default after the twenty-fourth year of the king's reign. The whole record looks like an attempt to regulate the administration of charitable endowments made on behalf of several religious orders and to secure that they did not escape public dues that were laid on them by the terms of the original endowment or the custom of the country. Inscriptions Nos. 327 and 619 of 1916, which are Chola-Pāndya records from Tiruvālīśvaram and Sērmādēvi in the Tinnevelly district, seem to contain interesting particulars of land revenue administration. But the text of these records is not yet available and this is how the official epigraphist summarizes them: ‘This record (No. 327) refers to a gift of land by him (Sundara Chola-Pāndya) after purchasing it from the sabha of Rāja Rāja Caturvēdimangalam i.e., Ambāsamudram. (It should rather be Brahmadēśam). The income from the land included paddy given by the cultivator (vellan) as owner's share and money called uruvukōl-nilan-kāśu and kākshi-erudu-kāśu. No. 619 of the seventeenth year of the same king's reign refers to similar items of income under the heads of alagerudu-katchi-kāśu, katchi-erudu-kāśu and urkkalanju. The order sanctioning the transfer of the land from the Brahmadēya register to the Devadāna register in No. 327, was communicated to the viceroy, the document being signed by not less than twenty-two officers of the emperor.¹ The collection of the dues partly in kind and partly in money and the mention of sundry pecuniary levies under different names deserve special attention. Further study may lead to a clear understanding of the nature of these cesses. Another Chola-Pāndya record which registers a sale of land to the Visnu temple Rājendra Chola Vinnagaram at Mannār-kōvil may also be briefly referred to. The sale in this case was ordered by the members of the sabha of Rāja Rāja Caturvēdimangalam, already referred to; several of these members who ordered the sale were learned men bearing titles like *Bhatta*, *Sōmayājin* and *Kramavit* and they seem to have been resident in the different suburbs (*sēri*) of the village; and some at least among them appear to have been immigrants from other parts of the Chola empire.² The sale deed (விலை ஓலை) is written by the Karanattān (கரணத்தான்) of the village and the sale is referred to by the members of the assembly in the phrase ‘விலை ஓலைசெய்து நீரோட்டிக்கொடுத்தோம்’ (l. 4).