Local Government in Ancient India c13.171

c13.171

Treason against the king is dealt with very severely in the South Indian inscriptions. An inscription assigned to A. D. 1230 records the compulsory sale by public auction of lands belonging to certain declared enemies of the state who were members of the village assembly; the price of the lands being fixed by eight Crown officers (*Madras Epigraphy, Annual Report*, 1910–11, p. 75). In another inscription (No. 125 of 1912) the king selects a Pāṇḍya chief as the headman of a village where a disturbance had been created by certain traitors to the king (*rājadrohin*), whom the new chief apparently expelled from the village. Thus the king could count upon the co-operation of the local bodies in stamping out treason.