The Colas c27.14

c27.14

Besides the regular taxes and dues, occasional contributions were also levied for particular purposes by local authorities. An inscription at Erode, of the year A.D. 922, records that the people of a whole *nāḍu* undertook to pay some new cesses for providing for the worship of Kṛṣṇa in a Viṣṇu temple at Erode. These new cesses were: half-*paṇam* on each household (*kuḍi*); an eighth (of a *paṇam*) each from either party to a marriage; and one *mañjāḍi* and one *kunṟi* of gold as due (*pāṭṭam*) from each crematorium,—indeed a strange assortment.²¹ In the 22nd year of Kannaradeva (c. 962) the *manṟāḍis* (shepherds) of Bāhūr-nāḍu undertook to give one sheep to the Perumāḷ (Viṣṇu) of Śrī Mūlaṭṭānam of Bāhūr (town) whenever any one among them consummated a marriage—*kāṭṭilērappōmpōdu*. This rule applied also to those who came and settled in Bāhūr from outside. If any one failed to give the sheep, the *gaṇapperumakkaḷ* (executive committee) and the *dēvaraḍiyār* (lit. servants of gods—either temple officials or dancing girls or both) were authorised to take two sheep by force. Again, at Talaiccangāḍu in Tanjore a sum of 100 *kāśus* was raised from the professional and religious groups of the locality for making certain necessary endowments in the local temple in the reign of Rājarāja I.²² In 1096, the people of Kāmarasavalli (Trichinopoly district) provided for a festival and for certain offerings in the temple by requiring the following collections to be made and remitted to the temple: one *kuruṇi* of paddy per *mā* of all the fields growing paddy, millet (*varagu*) or gingelly (*eḷ*); one nut from each areca tree and one *uḻakku* of oil from the house of every cultivator (*veḷḷān*).²³ In the 43rd year of Kulōttunga I (A.D. 1113) the shepherds of Tiruvāyppāḍi-nāḍu undertook to present each a sheep to a Viṣṇu temple, Jalaśayanam in Karur, on the occasions of nuptials (*kaṭṭil-ēṟudal*) of their sons, of their daughters setting up separate families, and *talaimani* (?)