The Colas c27.22
The Cōḷas c27.22
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c27.22.1
A brief review of some typical inscriptions will convey a general idea of the nature and number of taxes, cesses and other dues. Though their name is legion, most of them were not general, but occasional and restricted in their incidence. In A.D. 944 the *sabhā* of Ukkal resolved that their executive committees⁴⁵ were to abstain from exacting *Veṭṭi* (forced labour), *Vedilai* and *Vālakkāṇam* from the tenants settled in Śōdiyambākkam, a a hamlet assigned to a Viṣṇu temple in the locality; the temple was moreover granted the right to levy and exact fines (*manṟu-pāḍu*) from the peasants of the village for their faults and sins (*kurṟan-dōṣam*).⁴⁶ The Madras Museum Plates of Uttama Cōḷa record that the older inhabitants of Śōḷāniyamam in Kāñcīpuram, an area belonging to the temple, were excused the payment of all ancient dues;⁴⁷ those residents, however, who had come from other towns and villages and had settled in it, were required to contribute as *iṟai* to the god of Ūragam a quarter measure of oil and two *nāḷis* of rice per household per month; even they were exempt from any other dues levied by the *nagaram*.
c27.22.2
The *kōl-nirai-kūli* and *kāl-aḷavukūli* of Kāñcīpuram which were assigned as income to the temple of Ūragam are explained in the Sanskrit portion of the Museum plates as tolls on articles measured by weight and by capacity.⁴⁸ That this was a very small toll is seen from the rate of half-*nāḷi* per *kalam* recorded in an inscription from Tiruvāmāttur of the time of Rājarāja I;⁴⁹ in this place this *kūli* was given to the *paḷḷis* of the village who measured the paddy due to the temple from its tenants till about A.D. 1010, when as a result of an enquiry into the affairs of the temple, this *kūli* was transferred to the *uvaccar* as remuneration for their services in the temple, including the cost of clothes to be supplied to a *māṇi* (a *brahmacārin*) who officiated at the *śrī-bali* ceremony. Examples of general taxes falling upon the residents of Tiruvallam in the fourth year of Rājēndra I are stated to be: the price of water from wells and tanks and the gold of joyous persons. The latter (*ugappār pon*) seems to be a small payment made by householders on auspicious occasions like marriages.⁵⁰ In the sixth year of Rājēndra I, the Tiruvālangāḍu plates record a formidable list of *parihāras* made over to the temple; all these *parihāras*,—the list is a long one and yet said to be not exhaustive,⁵¹—were thenceforth to be collected by the temple and not by the king. Some years later, in A.D.
c27.22.3
1021, the *sabhā* of Vēmbaṟṟūr received sixty-five *kāśus*⁵² from the Śiva temple of Śrī-Kuḍittiṭṭai, and in lieu of interest thereon, they agreed to forgo the following dues from some temple lands: the *siddhāya-kāśu*, the *pañcavāra*-paddy, gram and dholl, oil and ghee and other *vari* levied by the town (*ūrīḍuvari*), the payment for the tank (*ēri-īvu*) and the forced labour (*vēdanai*) on banks and bunds (*kulai* and *kurambu*) and other smaller dues (*śilvari*). An inscription of Uḍaiyār Sundara Cōḷa-Pāṇḍya from Tiruvālīśvaram⁵³ states that five *vēlis* of land were converted from *brahmadēya* into ryotwari land (*veḷḷān-vagai*) and required thereafter to pay as land-tax (*iraik-kaḍan*) paddy to the amount of 642 *kalams*, 6 *kuriṇis* 2¾ *nāḷis* and 2½ *śeviḍus* as measured by the *nārāyam* equal to five *nāḷis*; besides 35¼ and 3|80 *kāśus* as *uruvu kōl-nilan-kāśu* and 5 *kāśus* as *kāṭci-erudu-kāśu*. Among money-dues (*āyam*) to be collected from some lands in Kīḻūr were: *maramañjāḍi*, *pāḍikāval*, *vēṇḍu-kōl*, *manaik-kāṭci-ppēṟu*, *kūraik-kāśu*, *kiḍāk-kāśu* and others; only these *āyams*, and no other kind of dues, were to be levied from the lands (older *dēvadānas* excepted) set apart by two Malaiyamān chieftains for certain expenses in the temple at Tirukkōyilūr.⁵⁴ Of these cesses *mara-mañjāḍi* seems to have been the levy of one *mañjāḍi* of gold on each useful tree;
c27.22.4
*pāḍi-kāval* was no doubt a payment on account of the village watchman’s fee, and *kiḍāk-kāśu*, a small cess on each head of male cattle; the nature of the other dues is not easily understood. An important record of the reign of Rājādhirāja I from Tribhuvani gives the information⁵⁵ that the annual share of the landlord on 72 *vēlis* of land was 12,000 *kalams* of paddy, giving an average of 166 and ⅔ *kalams* per *vēli*; and that after remitting this amount of paddy, the tenants cultivating these lands were to be held liable only for *ēri-āyam*, *pāḍi-kāval-kūli*, free labour (*amañji*) on the tank, and not for any other customary dues (*marijādi*) of the *piḍāgai* (section of village) such as *veḷḷān-irai*, *uḻavirai*, *āḷ* and *amañji*. In the second year of Vīrarājēndra⁵⁶ the proceeds from the following taxes in several villages named belonging to three *nāḍus* were made over to the temple of Tiruveṇkāḍu towards the expenses on festivals and offerings on the king’s birthdays: all *kīḻ-iraip-pāṭṭam* (smaller taxes) including *ūrk-kalañju*, *kumara-kaccāṇam*, *mīnpāṭṭam*, *āṟṟup-pāṭṭam* and *taṭṭārp-pāṭṭam*; *tarip-puḍavai*, *daśa-vandam*, *vēlik-kāśu*, *śēvakak-kāśu*, *valangai-iḍangai-mahanmai*, *tingaḷ-mōham*, and ten *kāśus* per head on account of the *panmai* and *paṇḍa-veṭṭi* (free supplies?) dues from these villages.
c27.22.5
Another record of the same reign dated three years later gives a very similar list of taxes and dues from places in the Chingleput district made over to the temple of Accarapākam for a like purpose.⁵⁷ In this list the term *antarāyam* is applied to a number of taxes collected by the *sabhā* including *irai-* *yilik-kāśu, panmai, paṇḍa-veṭṭi, ugavaipon, kāval-śēvagam* and so on; and others fall under the heads of *kuḍimai* and *kaḍamai*, though the principle of grouping is by no means easy to infer from the names of the taxes themselves.