The Colas c29.43

c29.43

The *kāśu*, as pointed out elsewhere, underwent a rather steeply progressive debasement, or more probably the term came to be applied in later inscriptions to a new coin of much lower denomination. The price of land as stated in terms of this new coin will not bear any direct comparison with the prices mentioned above. Thus at Tiruppaḷanam, one *mā* of land was valued at 2000 *kāśus*, working to 40,000 *kāśus* per *vēli*, in A.D. 1214,⁸² and the price of one *vēli*, at Kumbakonam in 1220 is said to have been 25,747 *kāśus*.⁸³ About the same time, one *mā* of land which stood in need of reclamation was valued in Tiruveṇkāḍu at 1334 *kāśus*, the cost of reclamation being estimated at 500 *kāśus*.⁸⁴ Again land of the extent of 2 *vēlis* and 19 *mās* was sold at Kumbakonam in A.D. 1221 for a sum of 450,000 *kāśus*.⁸⁵ About the same time, house-site was valued at 40 *kāśus* per *kuḷi* at Nallūr and 16 *kāśus* at Tiruvālangāḍu (Tanjore).⁸⁶ It would seem that the *kāśu* became a coin of somewhat higher value after the close of the reign of Rājarāja III; for the inscriptions of Rājēndra III record prices of landed property that suggest such a conclusion. Two house-sites of the total extent of twelve *manaik-kōl* were sold for 700 *kāśus* at Kuttālam (Tanjore) in A.D. 1261;⁸⁷ one *vēli* and 16 *mās* of agricultural land were exchanged five years later, at Tirukkaṇṇapuram, for 5350 *kāśus*, which, we learn, was the equivalent of thirteen *kalañjus* of gold;⁸⁸ lastly, at Tiruvilimiḷalai, nineteen *mās* of land found a sale for 1000 *kāśus* and a house-site of 10 *kuḷis* for 300 *kāśus*, in 1267.⁸⁹ Rājēndra III made a great effort to resuscitate the Cōḷa empire, and a reform of currency must have been part of his plan. It will be noted also that most of the records of the later Cōḷa period come from the Tanjore district, proof of the waning and disappearance of the direct influence of the central government in the outlying parts.