The Colas c25.37

c25.37

The exact functions of the different grades of the officials named are not easy to define. The term ‘*puravu-vari-tiṇaik-* *kaḷam*’ occurs in so many combinations that it is very essential to get as clear a notion of its content as possible. The term ‘*puravu*’ has the meaning of ‘cultivated land.’⁹⁴ ‘*Puravuvari*,’ therefore, may be equated with ‘land-tax’. The term ‘*puravu*’ by itself is found used in the same sense in several inscriptions and includes obviously all payments due from lands in kind and in money.⁹⁵ In fact in these contexts the term closely resembles the modern revenue term ‘assessment’ as employed by the Indian land revenue officers. It may be suggested that in the expression *varippottagam* we must recognise a contraction of *puravu-varippottagam*, the second member of the compound word for land-revenue, *puravu-vari*, doing duty for the whole. If these interpretations are sound, the expression ‘*puravu-vari-tiṇaik-kaḷam*’ would necessarily mean the Department of land-revenue, and all the combinations in which this phrase is introduced must be interpreted accordingly.⁹⁶ We see clearly that a distinction was maintained between the officers concerned with the maintenance of the records and those engaged in the local areas in the actual task of collecting revenue and carrying on the administration. The central office of control over the whole kingdom was also carefully distinguished from the local offices which were accountable to it, as for instance the officers in the Jayangoṇḍaśōḻamaṇḍalam mentioned in the Tiruvālangāḍu plates.⁹⁷ There are also mentioned in different connections a fair number of *kaṇkāṇis* or supervisors who were the agents of the central department of control and audit, maintained as a check on the officers of the various departments in each locality. An entry in the *varip-pottagam* was known as a *variyilīḍu*, and it is possible that only officers bearing the designation *varippottagam* and *variyilīḍu* could make fresh entries in the books; and to judge from the instances furnished by the copper-plate grants, this was a most elaborate process requiring a considerable measure of publicity at almost every stage of it. The *mugaveṭṭi* of apparently two ranks,⁹⁸ and the *paṭṭōlai* were also minor officers of the land-revenue department,⁹⁹ of whose duties we have no precise knowledge. The suggestion that *mugaveṭṭi* is a contraction of *śrī-muga-veṭṭi*, and that it connotes the duty of writing or engraving, as the case may be, of royal letters, may well be true.¹⁰⁰