The Colas c27.30

c27.30

The term *iṟaiyili* (tax-free) so often met with in the epigraphy of the period does not appear to have always meant absolute immunity from all taxes and dues. The nature and extent of the immunity granted was apparently defined in each individual case, the use of the term in respect of any land simply meaning that there were some such immunities to be taken account of in the particular case. This is seen not only from the mention in some inscriptions of an impost called *iṟaiyilik-kāśu*, meaning perhaps *kāśu* due from *iṟaiyili*-lands,70a but from an explicit record of the time of Rājarāja I from Tiruppānmalai in the North Arcot district.⁷¹ From this it becomes clear that the village Kūrakam-pāḍi was an *iraiyili-pallic-candam* in the enjoyment (*bhōgam*) of the Jaina temple in Tiruppānmalai. The Ilāḍa chieftains ruling in the area before the eighth year of Rājarāja, the date of the inscription, levied the *karpūravilai* from the temple, and as a result the temple did not have enough for its expenses;⁷² the wife of the Ilāḍa chieftain Vīra Śōḷa drew his attention to this fact when they went together to worship in the temple, and he agreed thenceforth to cease collecting the *karpūra-vilai*, and another cess, called *anniyāya-vāva-daṇḍa-iṟai*, of which the exact nature is by no means certain.⁷³ An inscription of the reign of Rājarāja III from Tirukkaḍaiyūr⁷⁴ furnishes evidence that even *iraiyili* lands had to make periodical payments of lump sums on a lower scale than usual for the renewal of their *iṟaiyili* status—*iṟaiyili variśaippaḍi-iṟai-mudaṟ-kāśu taṇḍakkaḍavadāna-paḍi-tavira*. The lands dealt with in this record are described as *kāśu koḷḷā ūr-kīḻ-iṟaiyili*.