The Colas c25.41

c25.41

As the head of the civil administration, the king himself occasionally toured the country and wherever necessary carried on inquests into the local administration. The royal camp was usually fixed in temples and *maṇḍapas* in places where there were no palaces. The king is also found attending the periodical festivals in some of the bigger shrines such as Tiruvoṟṟiyūr, Cidambaram, Tiruvārūr and Kāñcīpuram. We shall see that besides the taxes collected by the central government, several local bodies and corporations enjoyed the privilege of raising tolls and octroi duties and other miscellaneous dues. It would seem that the exercise of these privileges was subject to general supervision and control from the centre. There is an example of such regulation in a royal order of the time of Rājēndra II by which the right to raise such dues in the village of Vākkūr (Bāhūr) is made the monopoly of the Veḷḷāḷas who are said to have had the *kāṇi* of the place.¹¹⁸