Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c11.26

c11.26

The next important function of the village sabhā was that of tax collection. The collection of taxes payable to the imperial government was at times entrusted to the village sabhās or the ūravar. Where the local bodies collected the taxes due to the imperial government, these local tax collecting agents had to be informed by the authorities of any remissions in the taxes or new impositions if levied, and they made the necessary entries in their account books and carried out the order. Thus for instance when one Tirumēni Aḷagiyār alias Śeṇpakarāya, Viśaiyāladeva of Śūraikkuḍi set apart the amount of one hundred and fifty vāḷāl vali tiraṇdāṇ kuḷiśaipaṇams due annually as paccai paṇam from the temple for offerings to God at the service called after his name, the nāṭṭavar (district assembly) subsequently deducted the above amount both from the tax-register and (village) accounts.¹⁶ Then again an epigraph at Tirumakkōṭṭai in the Tanjore district registers an order to the *Mahājanas* of Pālaiyūr alias Bhupatirāya-samudram that the old method of levying taxes in grain for the protection of the country must be revived instead of the then prevailing custom of collecting both in grain and money.¹⁷ It is evident that because the *Mahājanas* were the agents of the imperial government for the collection of the state revenues the order was communicated to them.