Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c11.24

c11.24

Now to return to the village sabhā. It seems to have functioned in the gaṇabhōga or samudāyam villages where it acted in the name and on behalf of the village community as a whole. Thus it would appear that these sabhās had their origin in the communal character of the villages, and they exercised full authority over the sale and purchase of lands on behalf of the community. Then the question arises if the individual co-sharer in the village community had any right to sell or dispose of his share of the communal property independently of the sabhā. He does not seem to have had any right to deal with the property except as a co-sharer and hence through the sabhā. However this applies only to a village the whole of which is held in common by the people and where the individual has no independent right of possession of any piece of land in the village. But in a village where only a part of it is held in common by the joint community and side by side with it the individual ryot has got some plots of land of which he is the sole proprietor, he can sell his private lands independently of the sabhā though he may be precluded from disposing of the lands held by the sabhā in the name of the joint community of which he may be a member and hence is bound to contribute to the cost of production and entitled to a particular share of the income from that portion of the village. Thus according to an inscription of A.D. 1370 at Paḷani in the Madura district, one Periya Perumāḷ Nambi, a member of the sabhā of Kalaiyaṇputtūr, made a grant.¹⁵ Here it would appear that part of the lands in the said village of Kalaiyaṇputtūr, was held jointly by the village community while some other lands were held individually by the people, who as members of the joint community had also a place in the village sabhā. Hence it is that Periya Nambi was able to make a grant without any reference to the sabhā; and it has to be inferred that he made the grant only from the property he held individually.