The Colas c28.29

c28.29

Inscriptions recording endowments for charitable feeding often lay down schedules of expenditure calculated to give an idea of the quality of the food supplied and of the prevailing prices of food-stuffs. One record of A.D. 1004 from Tiruvaḍandai⁷⁷ states that it took ⅚ of a *kalam* of paddy for providing one meal to twelve Brahmins, the items of expenditure being: 21 *nāḷis* of rice at 1¾ *nāḷis* per head, (equal to 52½ *nāḷis* of paddy); 6 *nāḷis* of paddy for 1 *uḷakku* and 2½ *śeviḍus* of ghee; 5 *nāḷis* for vegetables and 5 for curds; ½ *nāḷi* for salt; 2 *nāḷis* for the man who supplied fuel, four for the Brahmin cook, three for the potter who supplied earthenware, and two *nāḷis* for betel leaves and nuts. Considering that this allowance of ⅚ *kuruṇi* of paddy per head sufficed for a square meal for an adult, the provision of ¾ *kuruṇi* for each of the junior pupils and 1¼ *kuruṇis* for the seniors in the college at Eṇṇāyiram, and of ¾ and 1 *kuruṇi* respectively at Tribhuvani must be considered fully adequate to their requirements. An inscription of the reign of Kulōttunga I,⁷⁸ dated A.D. 1115, records that an endowment for feeding fifty Brahmins in a Vaiṣṇava *maṭha* on new moon days was made on the basis of one *kuruṇi* per head, and that this included provision for rice, curry, salt, pepper, ghee, curd, earthenware pots, fuel, areca nuts and betel-leaves.