The Colas c12.31

c12.31

Separate places were assigned in the capital town, for each of these assemblies, for their meetings and transaction of business. …The power of government was entirely vested in the king and in the “Five Great Assemblies.” It is most remarkable that this system of government was followed in the three kingdoms of the Pāṇḍya, Cōḷa and Cēra, although they were independent of each other. There is reason to believe therefore that they followed this system of government which obtained in the country from which the founders of the “three kingdoms” had originally migrated, namely, the Magadha Empire.’ Of this string of astonishing assertions, we can only observe that everything in them except the names of the groups is pure imagination, and the reader will search the texts in vain for support for these statements. What is here called ‘the council of representatives’ is described by the vague term ‘*māśanam*’ which at best may mean ‘elders’.^29