The Colas c26.49

c26.49

The village assemblies sometimes stimulated the flow of private charity for the general benefit of the community by giving suitable public recognition to their benefactors. The *sabhā* of Tiruppēr recorded in an inscription, A.D. 1129, their gratitude to a certain Bhaṭṭa whose prayers and benefactions were believed to have been of great use to the village in a troublesome period when its fortunes had sunk low and the people were deserting it.¹¹⁷ The *sabhā* of Uttaramērūr conferred some hereditary privileges on a courtesan who carried out extensive repairs and additions to the Viṣṇu temple in the locality.¹¹⁸ The *sthānattār* of the temple and the residents of Tirumalavāḍi adopted an interesting method to express their gratitude to a benefactor; he had greatly improved the temple and by slightly diverting the course of the Coleroon, averted the danger of inundation which threatened the village; in appreciation of these and other services, the *sthānattār* petitioned the deity on the occasion of a festival that a free house might be granted in perpetuity for the residence in the village itself of this great benefactor, and then, ostensibly with the sanction of the deity, a house was set apart for the purpose from the properties of the temple.¹¹⁹ This was in 1223. Other examples can be easily gathered from the inscriptions.