The Colas c26.41

c26.41

The procedure that was followed in the conduct of business at the meetings of the various bodies so far mentioned is not described in any of the inscriptions. Even the method employed in the choice of the executive of the assemblies remains obscure except in the case of Uttaramērūr. Regarding the executive bodies of other villages, we learn something of their qualifications and tenure of office, but nothing of the actual mode of their appointment. We must assume that membership in the general assembly was unrestricted and open to all the residents of the village; the inscriptions sometimes state expressly that the meeting was fully attended, everybody young and old being present. There is no evidence that the idea of a quorum was known; but definite methods of summoning meetings and giving notice of them were prescribed, and the expression often employed, *kūṭṭakkuraivaṟa-kūḍi irundu*, indicates that importance was attached to the presence of all the members of the executive for the time being. There is also no evidence that votes were taken; as each question came up, there must have been a general discussion in which the leading men took part in accordance with their social status, and if the matter was one affecting any class in particular, the representatives of that class had every chance of explaining their point of view; the final decision was reached by common agreement. Rules were sometimes made, as in the Mānūr assembly, against factious opposition and attempts to hold up business by obstructionism; obviously the enforcement of such rules depended on the support of public opinion. The procedure at meetings seems on the whole to have been rudimentary, and the assemblies had, but for their executives, hardly outgrown the stage of folk-gatherings.