The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c19.32

c19.32

¹ A.R.E., 1921, part ii, para 40. The epigraphist adds: ‘It is interesting in this connection to note that, in the assembly that met to decide this question sat, among others, pilgrims from many districts and people from different parts of the kingdom. It is not known whether these outsiders had any voice in the deliberations of the assembly. However, the fact remains that the assembly was not a packed body and that public opinion was invited as a healthy factor in the deliberations of the assembly.’ I am inclined to think that nothing more is meant in the record than that the proceedings of the assembly were public, even as trials take place in open court to-day; but I do not have the text of the inscription. It is, however, extremely unlikely that the assembly had a fluctuating constitution, or that they were directly influenced in their judgment by the ‘public opinion’ of the pilgrims and others