A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.79

c14.79

The most striking feature of the Chola period was the unusual vigour and efficiency that characterized the functioning of the autonomous rural institutions. A highly developed committee system (vāriyams) for the administration of local affairs was evolved and the sabhā of Uttiramērūr which revised its constitutional arrangements twice at short intervals in the reign of Parāntaka I is only the leading example of a number of similar attempts going on everywhere to evolve improved methods of administration in the light of experience. Besides the staff of village officials engaged in the routine affairs of village administration, there were special arrangements by which a local chieftain or a powerful official undertook to protect life and property in a particular area in return for a separate police tax (pāḍikāval kūli) paid to him and the need and importance of this system increased with the weakening of the central government.