[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1929) › c19.20.1 # The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c19.20.1 The Pāṇḍyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c19.20.1 - **Language:** English ### [c19.20.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1929.c19.20.1) We have very instructive references to the irrigation arrangements that prevailed in the middle ages in the country under the Pāndyan rulers. A very interesting record from Sarkār Periyapālayam (Coimbatore) dated in the twenty-second year of a certain Sundara Pāndya¹ contains details as to the duties of the person who was appointed to be in charge of an irrigation tank and channel and an anicut at Śūralūr, all of which belonged to a temple. 'The villagers and the temple trustees stipulated that, in consideration of certain income and privileges granted to him, the fisherman Pillaiyān . . . had to look after the said anicut (anai) and the channel, had to see that the water did not escape above the dam but was properly directed into the tank, notice the defects, if any, in the tank and the dam and report the matter to the villagers and the temple authorities and that on this information the village servant (veṭṭiyāl) had to repair the dam, receiving as remuneration for that duty a piece of rent-free land and some payments in grain. Pillaiyān was also to collect the taxes vāykkālpāṭṭam (canal tax) and pāśipāṭṭam (fishing tax) from the temple tenants at Śūralūr.¹ A record (No. 14 of 1909) at Pon Amarāvati (Pudukkottah) contains an order dated in the eighth year of Tribhuvanacakravartin Sundara Pāṇdya Dēva forbidding the temple authorities to take water from Iḍangaḷikāman, evidently for purposes of irrigation. Another record from Pudukkottah (No. - [Previous: c19.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1929.c19.19) - [Next: c19.20.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1929.c19.20.2) - [Up: c19.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1929.c19.20) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1929.c19.20.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1929.c19.20.1) · Pramāṇa