The Colas c30.7

c30.7

Of the conditions of transport in internal trade it is not possible to give a detailed account. In South India there was very little scope for the use of natural water-ways for the carriage of merchandise in the interior, and there is no evidence that canals were made for any purpose other than the irrigation of agricultural lands. Roads are mentioned in several inscriptions from all parts of the country, when the boundaries of lands and villages are described. To maintain these roads, great and small, in good repair was part of the duty of local authorities and the villagers were often expected to give freely the labour (*veṭṭi*, *amañji*) required for it. Two classes of roads may be distinguished; the *vadis* were only slightly better than footpaths and apparently not suited to wheeled traffic. One such *vadi* in Uttaramērūr was washed away by the floods and the path became unfit for use even by cattle; in remaking the path, the *sabhā* decided to widen it and purchased the adjoining lands from the ryots to whom they belonged.⁷ The better class of roads is called *peru-vaḷi*, the great road, in the inscriptions. These were the trunk roads leading from one large division of the country to another, as is seen from their names like the Āndhra road, *Vaḍugapperuvaḷi* or *Āndhra-patha*,⁸ the great road to Kongu (*Kongapperuvaḷi*),⁹ the big road to Peṇṇāḍam,¹⁰ the *Tañjavūrp-peruvaḷi* mentioned in an inscription from Āḍuturai,¹¹ and, most significant of all, the great road leading to Kalyāṇapuram mentioned in an inscription from the Tanjore district.¹² The breadth of one of these roads is stated to have been two rods (*kōl*), about twenty-four feet.¹³