Local Government in Ancient India c12.12

c12.12

Much interesting evidence is supplied by South Indian inscriptions as regards one branch of public works, viz. the irrigation works. For this purpose compulsory labour seems to have been employed by the assemblies in the interests of the community.¹ The indigenous irrigation system comprised generally tanks and channels, which were built partly by individual benefactions and partly by communal enterprise. In any case, the duty of maintaining and keeping them in repair came to be recognized by custom as falling upon the village community. Accordingly most of the inscriptions deal with the means employed for repairing them and keeping them in proper condition after they were constructed. The commonest kind of repair which we find mentioned as being necessary was the removal of accumulated silt. Towards this provision was made for the supply of boats, of baskets in which to lift the earth, of labourers, of skilled workmen to take care of the boats, and of fishermen to provide certain kinds of necessaries. As regards actual examples of such works of olden times, we find two tanks in the Chingleput district of the Madras Presidency mentioned in inscriptions of the eighth and ninth centuries A. D. There is other epigraphic and literary evidence which carries back the existence of irrigation works to still more remote times. An interesting summary of the facts set out in the inscriptions is given by Mr. Venkayya in the *Arch. Surv. Report* for 1903–4. The most famous tank seems to have been Vayiramega-taṭāka at Uttaramallūr in the Chingleput district. An inscription (ibid., p. 204) records the provision in the form of an endowment made by a private individual for removing silt in the tank, which was accepted by the village assembly. Another states that, certain ryots having failed to pay the dues on their holdings, the village assembly paid the amount for them and took over their land for the benefit of the tank for three years. If at the end of that period the defaulters should return and pay up all their dues, they were to get back the land; otherwise it would be sold for the benefit of the tank. If any man of Uttaramallūr objected to this course, his land was to be sold similarly and the sale proceeds credited to the tank, while the man himself was to be dealt with as an enemy of the village (*grāma-kaṇṭaka*). If an arbitrator objected he should be banished from the village. There are seven more records which relate to the same tank and express the care of the community for it and the widespread appreciation of its value. The earliest of them registers a transaction relating apparently to another tank, and imposes on those who violate it a fine to be credited to the funds of the Variyamega tank. The next records a gift of land, and the third a gift of gold accepted by the assembly for the removal of silt during three months of the year. The fourth registers a gift of gold and paddy by a private donor, from the interest of which the assembly had to meet the cost of removing silt for two months. The next two refer to a gift of 200 *kalañju* of gold, the interest from which, amounting to 30 *kalañju* per year, was to be spent annually in removing silt from the tank and depositing it on the bund by the village assembly, who expressed their gratification at this charitable act of the donor, and exempted him from payment of certain taxes. It is interesting to note that the rate of the interest is definitely stated in this record, viz. 15 per cent. per annum, which is higher than the rate usually stated in the inscriptions mentioned above. The last, but not the least interesting, record registers a permanent deposit of 100 *kalañju* of gold with the assembly, from the interest of which they had to provide for the up-keep of a ‘second boat’ on the tank to be employed in removing silt. Every day a certain specified extent of the tank was to be cleared and the mud deposited on the bund.