The Colas c27.13

c27.13

honoured standards in particular matters. In an age of active municipal life conscious imitation is necessarily one of the methods by which the practice of different towns tends to become uniform. One of the most conspicuous examples of this process in the Cōḷa period is furnished by the adoption of the 'ancient standard of Nandi-puram,' in the levy of *manṟu-pāḍu* in the towns of Mēlap-paluvūr and Tiruccengōḍu in the reigns of Sundara Cōḷa and Rājarāja I.¹⁹ Nandipuram, also known as Āyirattaḷi,²⁰ was a flourishing town in the Tanjore district often mentioned in the inscriptions. A verse preserved in the commentary on the *Vīra-śōḻiyam* calls Sundara Cōḷa the king of Nandipuram.