The Colas c28.10.3

c28.10.3

It is also understood that only those who, during their congregational meetings to settle communal disputes, display the *birudas* of horn, bugle and parasol shall belong to our class. Those who have to recognise us now and hereafter, in public, must do so from our distinguishing symbols—the feather of the crane and the loose-hanging hair. The horn and the conch-shell shall also be sounded in front of us and the bugle blown according to the fashion among the *Iḍangai* people. Those who act in contravention to these rules shall be treated as the enemies of our class. Those who behave differently from the rules (thus) prescribed for the conduct of *Iḍangai* classes shall be excommunicated and shall not be recognised as *Śrutimāns*. They will be considered slaves of the classes who are opposed to us.’ This record was engraved at Ūṭṭattūr and Tiruppaññili by the *Śrutimāns* of the area. The ninety-eight sub-sects of the *Iḍangai* are again mentioned in a later inscription from Āḍutuṟai,²³ which records the hardships to which these sub-sects were exposed at the hands of the Vanniye tenants and the Brāhmaṇa and Veḷḷāḷa landlords, backed by government officials. In 1227 the *nāṭṭavar* of eleven *nāḍus* of Milāḍu (which comprised 79 *nāḍus* in all) met in Tiruvalañjuram-uḍaiyār temple at Varañjuram (Kallakurichi tq. S. Arcot dt.) to admit into the *Iḍangai* group the two classes of people known as Malayamakkaḷ and Nattamakkaḷ, and take an oath to keep to this settlement for ever;