The Colas c28.10.1

c28.10.1

No picture of the social divisions in South India under the Cōḷas will be complete without a reference to the broad division of the industrial population of the country into the Right-Hand and Left-Hand, *Valangai* and *Iḍangai* divisions. The quarrels among these divisions often threatened to fill the streets of Madras with blood in the days of the East India Company. The origin of this division is unknown.¹⁸ Legend ascribes it to the design of Karikāla Cōḷa and also, with more plausibility, to a famous occasion when the two sections of the population laid their disputes before a Cōḷa king, one party standing on the right hand side of the monarch, the other taking a position on the left.¹⁹ Several regiments of the army were counted as of the *Valangai* in the reign of Rājarāja I,²⁰ and this section is also mentioned in an inscription of the third year of Rājēndra I from Tiruviśalūr.²¹ In the second year of Kulōttunga I, a clash between the Right and Left hand castes resulted in the burning of the village (Rājamahendra-caturvēdimangalam, Papanasam tq. Tanjore dt.), the destruction of its sacred places, and the looting of the temple treasury by robbers. The property left was not safe in the temple. For the rehabilitation of the place, the *sabhā* borrowed 50 *kalañjus* of fineness half *māttu* less than that of *Rājēndraśōḷan-māḍai* which with interest for one year amounted to 75 *kalañjus*.