The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c35.s2.49

c35.s2.49

The political history of Travancore was seriously investigated for the first time by the scholar named above, who collected over a hundred inscriptions, mostly recorded in the ancient Vatteluttu alphabet,¹ by the aid of which he was able to trace back the royal family to a. d. 1125, and to compile a nearly complete list of the Rājas for two centuries from that date.¹ The records published show that at the beginning of the twelfth century Travancore, or Southern Kerala, formed part of the Chola empire of Rājendra Chola-Kulottunga,² and to all appearance was well governed and administered. The details of the working of the ancient village associations or assemblies are especially interesting, and prove that the government was by no means a mere centralized autocracy. The village assemblies possessed considerable administrative and judicial powers, exercised under the supervision of the Crown officials.