History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s24.1

v3.c41.s24.1

In the peculiar condition of South India i. e. in Kerala and Tamil countries, unlike the rest of India, popular assemblies existed and enjoyed executive and judicial powers. In these countries, the anciant Dravidian population was not only preponderant but probably more advanced than in the rest of India; while the superimposed Aryan people were in a great minority and they considered themselves so pure that they lived in almost repellant aloofness. Yet there were village Panchayats everywhere and district popular assemblies and assemblies for the whole state as is evidenced by inscriptions. These inscriptions being in Tamil and Malyalam, we are precluded from studying them in the original; but we take the following extract from a note on K. P. Menon's History of Malabar, in the Journal of Indian History (April 1925). We have already referred to the body of Six Hundred which supervised the working of temples (p. 204) mentioned in Mr. Pillay's article in I. A. XXIV.