The Colas c32.3

c32.3

Little evidence of a direct character is available on the spread of literacy or the extent to which it was generally valued. But one may hazard the conjecture that the percentage of literacy in the population was not lower, it was probably higher¹ than the extremely low level revealed by recent censuses. The village school assembling under the shade of a tree or in the verandahs of temples and *maṭhas* was a common institution, and its teacher (*vātti*)² was among the staff of employees remunerated from the common land held by the village. The free school at Panaiyavaram,³ South Arcot, mentioned in an undated record, belonged, most probably, to this type. Stone masons and copper smiths were to be found everywhere to engrave inscriptions on stone and copper, and the work was often done with remarkable accuracy and art. The corrupt and colloquial forms of words and phrases in several of the inscriptions show that the work was generally entrusted to workmen who were just literate, but were no scholars. The maintenance of the complex records of the government, local and central, and the employment for this purpose of a considerable staff of officers and clerks may have stimulated then as now the resort to scholastic education as an avenue to public employment. There can be no doubt that the elaborate bureaucracy set up by the growing Cōḷa empire perceptibly increased the demand for the services of such men.