The Colas c29.16

c29.16

The Anbil plates of Sundara Cōḷa record the gift as an *ēkabhōga-brahmadēya* of ten *vēlis* of land by the king. The adjective *ēkabhōga* implies that, unlike the usual *brahmadēya* shared by a number of donees, this gift was meant altogether to benefit the one individual named, in this case Aniruddha Brahmādhirāja. The land given away was marked off in the traditional manner by a public ceremony in which a female elephant was made to beat the bounds. The Tamil part of the grant records in detail the rights and privileges conveyed by the gift which are more summarily mentioned in the Sanskrit part: 'we marked (the boundaries of) the land thus defined by erecting mounds of earth (*karu*) and planting cactus. The several objects included in this land—such as fruit-yielding trees, water, lands, gardens, all upgrowing trees and downgoing wells, open spaces,⁴³ wastes in which calves graze, the village-site, ant-hills, platforms (built round trees), canals,⁴⁴ hollows; rivers and their alluvial deposits, tanks, granaries (*kōṭṭagāram*), fish-ponds, clefts with beehives, deep ponds (*kōṭṭagam*) included; and everything else on which the iguana runs and the tortoise crawls; and taxes such as the income from places of justice (*manṟu pāḍu*), the *kūlam* on (betel) leaves, the cloths from looms, the *kāṇam* (of gold) on carriages, the *pāṭṭam* on shops, *kārāṇmai* and *mīyāṭci* included, the old tenants being evicted (*kuḍinīkki*); everything that the king could take and enjoy—all these shall be made over to this man. He shall be at liberty to erect halls and upper storeys with burnt bricks; to dig wells, big and small; to plant southernwood and cuscus; to dig channels in accordance with watering requirements; not to waste *śennīr*,⁴⁵ but to dam such water for irrigation; no one shall employ small piccotahs or baskets⁴⁶ (for lifting such water). In this wise, was the old order changed, and the old name and old taxes removed, and an *ēkabhōga-brahmadēya* under the name of Karuṇākaramangalam constituted’.