Local Government in Ancient India c14.8

c14.8

(2) The *Iḍaṅgai* community of 98 sub-sects. No. 489 of 1912 (*Madras Epigraphy*, 1912–13, p. 109) registers a compact drawn up on their behalf by the Śrutimans of Uṭṭattūr (who were probably a sect of cultivators of the Iḍaṅgai community) assembled in the *maṇḍapa* of the temple, called Uttamasolan. The compact was to the following effect: ‘We, the members of the 98 sub-sects, enter into a compact in the fortieth year of King Kulottuṅga Cola III, that we shall hereafter behave like the sons of the same parents, and what good or evil may befall any one of us will be shared by all. If anything derogatory happens to the Iḍaṅgai class we will jointly assert our rights till we establish them. Those who behave differently from the rules shall not be recognized as Śrutimans’ (*Mad. Ep. Report*, 1912–13, p. 109). As regards their distinguishing symbols it is stated: ‘It is also understood that only those who during their congregational meetings to settle communal disputes display the *birudas* of horn, bugle, and parasol shall belong to our class. Those who have to recognize us now and hereafter in public must do so from our distinguishing symbols—the feather of the crane and the loose-hanging hair. The horn and the conch-shell shall also be sounded in front of us and the bugle blown according to the fashion obtaining among the Iḍaṅgai people’ (ibid.). A later record from Āḍutarai in the Trichinopoly district (no. 34 of 1913, App. C, in *Madras Epigraphy*, 1912–13) refers again to the Valaṅgai 98 classes and the Iḍaṅgai 98 classes who enter into an agreement among themselves against the Brāhmaṇas and other landlords who oppressed them. Similarly, nos. 59, 361, and 362 of 1914 (in *Madras Epigraphy*, 1914-15, p. 106) register an agreement entered into by the assembly of Parāntakanāḍu and the Valaṅgai 98 and Iḍaṅgai 98 sub-sects regarding payment of certain dues to the king or temple [A. D. 1429-30].