The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c19.6

c19.6

We find mention in these records of numerous dues levied upon cultivated lands which formed the subject of the transfers and gifts mentioned above. It is not possible to ascertain the exact nature of most of these, but the names of the most important among them may be mentioned: Kaḍamai, antarāyam, viniyōgam, accu-vari, kāriyavāracci, veṭṭi-pāṭṭam, pañju-pilî, sandiviggiraha-ppēru, vāśalpēru, ilāncinaippēru, uḷudānkuḍi, pāḍikkāval, ponvari and others. We also hear of tari-irai; śekkirai, taṭṭāra-ppāṭṭam, inavari, idaivari and others. It is clear from the records that some of these dues were paid in cash, but most of them in kind. Occasionally we get an idea of the rates of those dues especially in connection with dēvadāna lands. We learn, for instance, from an inscription dated in the eleventh year of a certain Sundara Pāndya (No. 409 of 1914) that the kaḍamai on some temple lands¹ was fixed at three kalams on each mā of land or one half of what prevailed among other dēvadāna lands, and that for the assessment, crops of full yield alone were taken into consideration, those that had suffered damage or failed altogether being left out of account. It is interesting that another record (No. 39 of 1924) mentions the same rate of kaḍamai on temple lands,² viz. three kalams on every mā, but adds that each mā should yield forty kalams in order to be assessed at that rate. These inscriptions also contain other particulars which show that the rates of the dues varied according to the nature of the soil and the crops raised--thus the viniyōgam on every mā of land was one tūṇi (four kuruṇis or marakāls) of paddy if wet, and half tiramam (dramma coin) if dry; again, the *vaḍakkaḍamai* was half *paṇam* on every *mā* of garden land growing plantain, ginger, turmeric or betel. We are not in a position to say much regarding the kinds of taxes raised besides the dues from land. A record of Jaṭāvarman Sundara Pāndya of about the end of the thirteenth century A.D. from Tirukkāccūr (Chingleput), No. 300 of 1909—states that a tax of six *paṇams* per annum was levied on each shop-keeper, on each loom of the *kaikkōḷar* and the *śaliyar*, and on each oil-monger.¹ It is interesting to note that a king, Parākrama Pāndya, whom it is not yet easy to identify, confers on a certain individual in the South Arcot district the right of collecting certain taxes as a remuneration for his duties of *pādikkāval* (village watch). The collections were ‘at the rate of one *kalam* of paddy on every *mā* of wet land and one *paṇam* on the same area of dry land, 1/16th *paṇam* on every areca palm, five *paṇams* on every *mā* of land which produced sugar-cane, *koḷundu*, ginger, gingelly and plantain, and two *paṇams* a year for every house (*vāśal*).’²