The Colas c26.4

c26.4

The beginnings of the system of village government that we see in full swing under the Cōḷas must be sought in an earlier age. The Pāṇḍya and Pallava inscriptions of the eighth and early ninth centuries show a system, very similar, but not quite so developed, in operation throughout the Tamil country. For our purposes, it is enough to observe that an important inscription from Mānūr¹ in the Tinnevelly district of about A.D. 800 anticipates in several respects the better known inscriptions of the time of Parāntaka I from Uttaramērūr in the Chingleput district. The life and functioning of rural institutions, the ultimate cells that sustained national existence, were clearly little affected by dynastic wars and the shiftings of political power at the top.