Local Government in Ancient India c12.19

c12.19

¹ *kalam* = 12 *marakkāl* or *kuruṇi*; 1 *padakku* = 2 *kuruṇi*. Thus the supervisor, carpenter, and blacksmith received less wages than the labourers. Inscriptions of the Cola king Rājarāja I (A.D. 985–1018) give the rates of wages paid to the various kinds of labourers employed on the temples at Tanjore. ‘50 *kalam* of paddy was given annually to each drummer and barber; 75 to each under-carpenter and under-accountant; 100 to each of the following, viz. watchmen, dancing girls, washermen, tailors, braziers, and superintending goldsmiths; 150 to a master carpenter; 175 to a lute-player, 200 to the accountant and dancing master. Brāhmaṇa servants got 1 *padakku* of paddy per day, and a *kāśu* annually, while vocalists who had to sing hymns were paid 3 *kuruṇi* per day. Paddy seems to have been sold at the rate of 2 *kalam* per *kāśu*, while the rate of interest was, as we have seen above, 12½ per cent. For 1 *kāśu* 3 sheep could be bought, while 1 she-buffalo was exchanged for 3 cows or 6 ewes; 1200 plantains could be had for 1 *kāśu*.’ In another inscription (*S. I. Ins.*, vol. II, pt. III, p. 259) the wages are indicated in shares of land: thus, a jewel-stitcher got 1½ share, brazier 1 share, master-carpenter 1½ share, superintending goldsmith 1 share, and so forth, and the comparison of these rates with the above will show that 1 share of land probably yielded 100 *kalam* of paddy annually.