The Colas c30.5

c30.5

The inscriptions contain only a limited number of references to the daily occupations and arts of the population, and we have to eke out this scanty information from literature and sculpture. The manufacture of sea-salt was carried on under government supervision and control, and subject to considerable imposts in kind and money, local and central. The salt-pans of Mar-kāṇam, Kanyākumkāri, Variyūr, and Āytuṟai were among the more important centres of salt manufacture, which was a widespread industry all along the sea coast.⁴ Some of the salt pans at Bāpaṭla were lost in 1112⁵ owing to encroachment by the sea.