The Colas c30.14

c30.14

On customs and octroi duties in this period we have little direct evidence. Kulōttunga I is celebrated in contemporary literature and epigraphy for abolishing the *śungam*. We seem to have no detailed account of this most important transaction of the reign, and there is no means of knowing how this was managed, and what steps, if any, were taken to fill the gap in the revenues of the government caused by the remission. The word *śungam* is explained generally as including all the imposts on articles of merchandise imported in ships and carts, that is to say, from across the seas or the interior.³⁵