Local Government in Ancient India c12.14

c12.14

A tank with a sluice is mentioned in an inscription in North Arcot district which records a gift of land, the income from which was to be spent in removing silt from a second tank in the same village. Those who look after the gift are assured of acquiring the merit of performing a horse sacrifice! One of the Ukkal inscriptions (Hultzsch, *S. I. Ins.*, vol. III, Part I, p. 9) has the following: 'We, the assembly, shall close (the sluice of) the tank (to collect water for irrigation) and shall cause 500 *kāḍi* of paddy to be supplied as interest every year on these 1000 *kāḍi* of paddy. The great men elected for the year shall cause (the paddy) to be supplied.' The rate of interest in this record is 50 per cent. per annum. Nos. 82 and 84 of 1887 mention gifts of sluices for tanks. No. 295 of 1909 (a Cola epigraph) relates how the assembly and the temples jointly excavate a tank with a sluice, the former giving land and the latter money.