The Colas c26.3

c26.3

Until very recently, however, village life engrossed the attention of the richest as well as the most cultured Indians in their daily concerns. The bulk of such persons had their residence in the villages, and exercised a dominant influence in the conduct of their affairs. The encomiums bestowed on the ancient village-republics of India by the observant British Indian administrators of the early nineteenth century, though we may not accept them as literally true, are clear proof that, until then, the village continued to be the real centre of social life and the principal nursery of social virtues. And from the hundreds of Cōḷa inscriptions that have come down to us, we see that under the Cōḷas the villages of Southern India were full of vigour and strength.