The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c19.20.3

c19.20.3

Two other records (Nos. 15 and 16 of 1924) of the same king from the same place are dated in the fifth and ninth years of the king; the earlier record mentions some lands as having been sold by the assembly of the village for a certain sum of money ‘with the exemption of water taxes in compensation for the labour involved in reclaiming them from their waste condition’; and the later record registers the resale of the same land for over twelve times the original value at which it was sold by the village assembly, evidently a case of an extraordinarily successful land improvement encouraged by the village assembly. It is to be noted carefully how small a part in all these transactions belongs to the officials of the king, and how much is left to local and individual initiative. It may be noted also that early in the reign of Jaṭāvarman Sundara Pāndya (acc. A.D. 1251) a new flood embankment substantially built on the side of the Coleroon was raised with the aid of funds collected in the form of a special cess from the inhabitants in the neighbourhood.¹