The Colas c26.28

c26.28

Of the constitution and working of no other *sabhā* do we have such detailed knowledge as of that of Uttaramērūr. By their references to the *vāriyams* in other places, however, the inscriptions lead us to suppose that the method of entrusting details of executive work to committees was generally followed by the other *sabhās*, when they found such details too much for a single executive committee. The work was honorary, no payment for it being suggested in any of the records, and no one could be expected to give more than a part of his time and energy for such work; the division of labour among a number of committees, the number being varied from time to time, was the most natural device to adopt, and so it was adopted.⁵² Two inscriptions from Tennēri of the eleventh year of Rājarāja I, a.d. 996, show the gradual spread from one place to another of these expedients of rural administration. One of these inscriptions records a resolution of the *sabhā* of Uttamaśōḻa-Caturvēdi-mangalam that only members learned in the Mantra-Brāhmaṇa were eligible for service on the *vāriyam* and for drafting the resolutions of the assembly,⁵³ and that any one who contravened their resolution should be liable to the same punishment as those who disobeyed the king's orders (*tiruvāṇai-maruttār-paḍum daṇḍam*). Less than two months after the date of this resolution, the same *sabhā* took another resolution calculated to exclude from the privileges of serving on the *vāriyam* and drafting the resolutions of the assembly, persons who had been found guilty of theft of a Brahmin's property and other offences of a more serious nature (*mēl-paḍu-kuṟṟam*). The simple and piecemeal nature of these resolutions, and their dates, are proof, if proof were required, of the uneven pace kept by the numerous *sabhās* in the development of their constitution and administrative practice. And no official of the king's government attended the sessions of the *sabhā* of Uttama-śōḻa Caturvēdi-mangalam when these resolutions were taken. In fact the *sabhās* were left largely to themselves, and each *sabhā* was free to make the arrangements that best suited its own peculiar conditions. No fewer than nine *vāriyams* are enumerated, for instance, as having been set up by the *sabhā* of Amani-nārāyaṇa Caturvēdi-mangalam in the third year of Pārthivēndravarman;⁵⁴ while only four *vāriyams* are mentioned in a record of a.d. 919 from Tiruppāṟkaḍal.⁵⁵