The Colas c28.32

c28.32

Some variations are recorded in the price of paddy and the rate seems to have generally differed with the fertility of the area concerned. Often these rates are not temporary prices prevalent at the time of the record, but some standardised average rates to hold good for all future time. At Tiruvallam in North Arcot we find the rate 40 *kāḍis* or 13⅓ *kalams* per *kalañju* recorded in A.D. 992;⁷⁹ and this is repeated in A.D. 1015 in another inscription from the same district.⁸⁰ Yet another record of A.D. 1012 from Kāḷahasti equates one *pon* to seven *kalams*, and the *pon* was the same as the *kalañju*.⁸¹ Differences in the measures employed often make close comparison difficult. An inscription of Vīrarājēndra's reign from Tirumukkūḍal (Chingleput) states that 16 *kalams* of paddy by the *Rājakēsari* measure was the equivalent of one *kalañju*.⁸² At Tiruppugalūr (Tanjore district) eight *kalams* per *kāśu*, i.e., sixteen to the *kalañju*, was the price in A.D. 1006.⁸³ At Cidambaram the spurious inscription of Rājakēsari Rājēndra gives the rate 8½ *kalams* per *kāśu*,⁸⁴ or seventeen *kalams* to the *kalañju*. A Rājakēsari record gives 15 *kalams* per *kalañju* for Paṇḍāravāḍai (Tanjore);⁸⁵ the rate of ten *kalams* at Tribhuvani in A.D. 1048 is high, though not the highest price recorded in the inscriptions of the early period as the basis of a permanent endowment of charities.⁸⁶ Twelve *kalams* per *kalañju* is found at Nattam (Chingleput district) in A.D. 1018.⁸⁷ Early in the reign of Kulōttunga I, the *kāśu* still equal to half a *māḍa*, fetched only 2¾ *kalams* of paddy at Kōlār and 4 *kalams* at Tiruvoṟṟiyūr;⁸⁸ the relatively high price must have been due to scarcity consequent on the disturbances which caused the death of Adhirājēndra and led to the war between Cāḷukya Vikramāditya VI and Kulōttunga. At the end of Kulōttunga's reign, the *kāśu* paid for thirteen *kalams* of paddy in the Tanjore area;⁸⁹ but even the *māḍa* fetched only eight *kalams* at Emappērūr (South Arcot) in A.D. 1136.⁹⁰