The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c5.s1.23

c5.s1.23

A very small percentage of the inscriptions treat of subjects other than the gifts specified above. Sale or exchange of land among private parties, inquiries into temple management made by officers (*adhikāri*) appointed by the king with a view to collect the outstanding arrears of a temple, assignment of taxes by kings or of tolls by merchants for the benefit of a temple, dedication of hereditary servants (men or women), settlements of disputes, specification of caste or communal privileges, memorials to heroes who died either in cattle raids or on battlefields and other public charities, such as the construction of a tank, the planting of a grove, the gift of a water-trough, etc., are also, sometimes, permanently recorded on stone.' It may be added that these records often yield information of value relating to land tenure, public revenues, village administration, and generally the state of social and political life, affairs and activities.