A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c13.51

c13.51

Above the *grāma* was the administrative division called *āhara*, *rāṣṭra*, *nāḍu*, *kōṭṭam*, or *vishaya* at different times and places. *Rāṣṭra* and *vishaya* often figure as two categories, one larger than the other. In the Tamil country the larger division was often called *vaḷanāḍu* or *maṇḍalam*. The size of these units often depended on accidents of history, e.g., Bānarāja-vishaya of the Bādāmi period. In this division also there was an assembly of elders and a chief executive official known as *deśabhōjaka*, *nāṭṭukkōn* and so on.