A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c12.49

c12.49

The *sabhā* or *manram* of the king in the capital was the highest court of justice. The sons of Malaiyamān were tried and sentenced, and later released by the intercession of Kōvūr Kiḷār, in the *manram* of Uraiyūr; and Pottiyār, after the death of his friend Kōpperunjōḻan, could not bear the sight of the same *manram* bereft of him. The elders are said and were doubtless expected to have laid aside their personal quarrels when they attended the *sabhā* to help in the adjudication of disputes. We may infer that the assembly was used by the king for purposes of general consultation as well. The *Kural*, clearly a post-Sangam work, definitely regards the *sabhā* as a general assembly dealing with all affairs. Even less specialized, and more entangled in the social and religious complex of village life, was the *manram*. Each village had its common place of meeting, generally under the shade of a big tree, where men, women and children met for all the common activities of the village, including sports and pastimes. There may also have been a political side to these rural gatherings, the germ out of which grew the highly organized system of village government which functioned so admirably in later Chola times.