Hindu Administrative Institutions c12.s5.48

c12.s5.48

Reclamation of waste and uncultivated lands by means of digging tanks, and thus introducing cultivation is definitely mentioned in a South Indian inscription.² There were periodical settlements.³ Here the reshuffling of new boundaries, of holdings, of expropriations of previous owners and the recording of new proprietors were done and recorded in the document called *vyavasta* or *araiyaolai*. The Tanjore inscriptions which are interesting in more than one respect speak of the smallest unit of the land of Rājarājadeva's time. 1/52428800000 of a *veli* was measured and assessed to revenue. Students of economics may say that there were uneven and uneconomic holdings in ancient times. But this is to judge the tenth century fact by the twentieth century standard.