Local Government in Ancient India c13.104.3

c13.104.3

35 and 77 mention the court of the temple as the place of the meeting. Three inscriptions copied at Nattam, a hamlet of Parameśvara-maṅgalam in the Chingleput district, refer to the hall (*catuśśālā*) known as Rājendraśolan in the village where the assembly used to meet (*Madras Epigraphy Report*, 1912–13, p. 98). In no. 653 of 1909 (*Report* for 1909–10) the assembly of a Brahmadeya village meet under a tamarind tree called *Rājendracolam*. In Tamil inscriptions we generally find village assemblies meeting either in a *maṇḍapa* built for the purpose or in a temple. ‘The peculiar circumstances under which the Mahājanas of Pāvaikuḍi met under a tamarind tree reminds us of the village pīpal-tree with the big platform round it found in the centre of almost every hamlet in the Mysore country where questions concerning the village public are decided by the people gathered in the assembly’ (*Madras Epigraphy Report*, 1909–10, p. 90). No. 398 of 1913 (*Report* for 1913–14) mentions an assembly of a Brahmadeya village meeting in a hall called *Tiruvaraṅgadevan*. No. 178 of 1915 (*Report* for 1915–16) mentions the great assembly of Madhurāntaka-Caturvedimaṅgalam including the young and the old meeting together in the big hall called *Śembiyan-* *mahādevīpperumaṇḍapam*, built by Rājarāja I, evidently for the purpose of the meetings of the assembly.