The Colas c28.22

c28.22

Work that demanded some kind of skill or special equipment in the workman commanded correspondingly higher rates of wages. A certain Tiruvēḷ Araiccākkai was remunerated at the rate of two *kalams* of paddy for each *kūttu*, some kind of operatic dance, performed by him; and seven such performances were guaranteed to him in a year in one temple in the reign of Āditya II.⁶⁰ Possibly he was free to accept other engagements elsewhere. With this may be compared the permanent endowment of a house and one hundred *kalams* of paddy per annum for each of the four hundred dancing-girls settled by Rājarāja I round the big temple of Tanjore.⁶¹ Three *kuṟuṇis* per day was the wage-rate fixed by the same monarch for each of the fifty persons of the choir established by him for singing *Tiruppadiyam* in the same temple.⁶² The wages mentioned in another Tanjore inscription of the same monarch may also be noted:⁶³ each *māṇi* (*brahmacāri*) serving in the temple got one *padakku* (sixteen *nāḷis*) of paddy per day and four *kāśus* (two *kaḻañjus*) of gold per year;⁶⁴ ten among them who had vowed permanent service in the temple were to get an extra *kuṟuni* (eight *nāḷis*) of paddy per day; twenty others who apparently made garlands were to receive one *padakku* each per day and five *kāśus* per annum. An accountant received 200 *kalams* of paddy per annum, and his assistant seventy-five, which works out at 6⅔ *kuruṇis* and 2½ *kuruṇis* respectively for a day. An accountant of another, perhaps smaller, temple at Periyakoṟukkai, Trichinopoly district, earned 1½ *kuruṇis* of paddy a day in the reign of Rāja-rāja III.⁶⁵ An inscription from Tiruvoṟṟiyūr⁶⁶ of A.D. 1038 states that two garland makers were employed each on a wage of 10 *nāḷis* (one *padakku* and four *nāḷis* for both) per diem in addition to a *kalañju* and a half of gold per annum for clothes; and four Brahmins to recite *stotras* and Vēda at 12 *nāḷis* (*kuruṇi* and four *nāḷis*) each per day together with 1½ *kalañjus* of gold per annum for clothes. At Eṇṇāyiram, about the same time,⁶⁷ the persons who recited *Tiruvāymoḻi* were paid, like the reciters of *Tiruppadiyam* at Tanjore, three *kuruṇis* per day, which is twice what the Brahmins of Tiru-voṟṟiyūr got. The rate of three *kuruṇis* also obtained at Tri-bhuvani for reciting *Tiruvāymoḻi* in A.D. 1048⁶⁸ whereas the officiating priest got only a *padakku* per day. A Brahmin appointed to expound the Śivadharma at Tirunāgēśvaram in A.D. 1054 was also paid seventy-five *kalams* of paddy in a year,⁶⁹ the same as the wage of the Junior Accountants of the Tanjore temple. A *nambi*, officiating priest in a temple, got two *kuruṇis* of paddy per day at Tirumaṇañjēri, Tanjore district, in addition to sixteen *kalams* per annum in lieu of two *kāśus*.⁷⁰