The Colas c26.46
The Cōḷas c26.46
- Language
- English
c26.46.1
The functions of the assemblies had a wide range. They were as a rule entrusted with the direct charge or, at least, the supervision of all charitable endowments in the village. To judge from the number and provenance of the inscriptions recording such gifts, in no place was this source of public benefaction a negligible item, and in several villages it was in itself sufficiently important to warrant the creation of a separate committee (*dharma-vāriyam*) for its administration.¹⁰² Statistics are of modern origin, and it is no easy thing to venture on quantitative statements relating to a distant past; but the student of Cōḷa institutions often wonders whether for local well-being, the gifts of the rich did not mean more in that period than the taxes levied and collected from the residents of a locality by its assembly. However that may be, the assemblies were not slow to address themselves to the task of enriching local life by additions to its amenities, social and cultural. For one thing, they took good care to preserve the records of older charities and to see that their terms were carried out by the parties concerned.¹⁰³ Altered economic conditions sometimes led to a revision of the original terms, but a genuine effort was made not to allow any of the numerous perpetual endowments to fall into desuetude.
c26.46.2
Most of these centred round the village temple which, from somewhat obscure religious origins, had grown by the time of the Cōḷas to dominate every aspect of social life all over the country. The role of the temple in the secular life of its neighbourhood can hardly be exaggerated, and the temple and its affairs were among the chief preoccupations of the local assemblies; and the temples, and sometimes individual shrines in them, had separate groups who were in charge of their management; but these authorities were subject to the double control of the local assemblies who exercised a general supervision and of the officer of the king who audited the accounts. The temple was the centre of all the institutions of popular culture and amusement. A detailed account of these institutions is given elsewhere. Here the part of the village assemblies in their upkeep may be briefly noticed. The assemblies often set apart land for the maintenance of persons who expounded, in the halls of the temples, the national epics of the *Rāmāyaṇa* and the *Mahābhārata*, and and the *purāṇas*; such land was called *Bhāratap-pangu* (share for Bhārata),¹⁰⁴ and was usually made tax-free. Music and dancing, and theatrical presentations of popular tales and legends, formed part of the ordinary routine of the temple, and received special attention on festive occasions;
c26.46.3
and *Nāṭaka-śālās* were specially constructed for these purposes.¹⁰⁵ There were recitations of sacred hymns in Tamil and in Sanskrit in the course of the daily worship in the temples, and the assemblies sometimes gave shares from the common lands of the village for the maintenance of these services. Schools of higher learning were attached to temples and so were hospitals. The assemblies were found endowing or assisting in the endowment of particular subjects like Mīmāmsā of the Prābhākara school,¹⁰⁶ Vēdānta,¹⁰⁷ Vyākaraṇa,¹⁰⁸ Bhaviṣya,¹⁰⁹ Taittirīya,¹¹⁰ Vājasanēya,¹¹¹ and so on. In the foundation of hospitals and the maintenance of physicians attached to them the assemblies actively assisted and co-operated with the donor.¹¹² They also aided persons who desired to put up rest-houses (*ambalam*) and provide for the supply of drinking water in them.¹¹³ Agrarian rights and tenures, and irrigation of land, of which an account is given elsewhere, were among the most important concerns of the assemblies. In addition to the records relating to such matters maintained by the central government, the villages seem to have kept their own record books including a land-register (*nila-mudal*) and a tax-register (*pottagam*).¹¹⁴ The consent of the *sabhā* was essential to any alteration in the classification of the lands in the village;
c26.46.4
the king simultaneously addressed the local *adhikāri* (official of the government) and the *sabhā* concerned,¹¹⁵ and then they met together and put the business through. The part of the assemblies in the administration of justice has been noticed before. The judicial officers of the village (*niyāyattār*) evidently used the proceeds of the fines levied by them for some common good. In one instance, they presented a golden diadem to the god of a local temple.¹¹⁶