Local Government in Ancient India c15.31

Language: English

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Besides their capacity to cope with difficult situations, the indigenous local administrations must also be credited with producing a high level of public spirit in the citizens. We have even some instances in which the public spirit or patriotism becomes a passion leading to extremes. No. 411 of 1912, assigned to the eighth year of Rājarāja I, (about A.D. 992) records that 'a certain Kalipperumān lost his life in the act of affording protection against ruin to his native village. Perhaps he sacrificed his life voluntarily, or in defending the village against an invading enemy. The good residents of the district in which Marudāḍu was situated provided for a permanent lamp to burn in the temple of Perundirukkoyil-Āḻvār at that village in order to secure merit for the martyr' (*Mad. Ep. Rep.*, 1912–13, p. 96). Here the patriotism of the individual has been rewarded by the gratitude and abiding recognition of his community which immortalized, by a monument more enduring than brass, the memory of a man who gave up his life for them. Another notable instance of individual service and communal appreciation is recorded in nos. 119 and 120 of 1908. The temple of Tiruttaliyāṇḍa-Nāyanār at Tirupputūr is stated in those records to have been occupied by the encamped Muhammadans (probably under Malik Kāfūr in A. D. 1310), and to have been consequently ruined and desecrated. The inhabitants of Tirupputūr were therefore very much unsettled.

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At this juncture a certain Viśālayadeva of Kuraikkuḍi, surnamed Avaiyan Periyanāyanār, reconsecrated the temple and saved the people apparently from imminent moral and religious degradation. ‘The villagers of Tirupputūr, of their free will, agreed among themselves to show their gratitude to Viśālayadeva by assigning to him a specified quantity of corn from the harvest reaped by each individual and to confer on him certain privileges in the temple of Tiruttaliyāṇḍa-Nāyanār’ (ibid., 1908–9, pp. 82, 83). Some inscriptions from the Madaksira taluk of the Anantapur district, ranging over a long period from the early ninth century, illustrate the heroic sacrifices of certain ‘village Hampdens’ and the grateful appreciation of the villagers concerned. No. 479 of App. B of 1916 mentions the case of a villager successfully repelling two or three destructive raids for which he was rewarded by a grant of land. No. 753, ibid., mentions the death of both son and father in a battle for their village. No. 17 of App. C of 1916 records the fame of a village warrior who defended his village against attacks. A heroic fight is described in no. 33 of App. C, in which the hero is said to have dispersed the attacking army of 1 lakh (?) infantry and 1,000 horse, and killed 500 men and 100 horse. Nos. 19 and 58 of App. C mention a rent-free grant of land as the reward of blood spilt in the cause of protecting the community or village (all the above inscriptions are in *Mad. Ep. Rep.*, 1916–17).

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In this connexion we may refer to the *vīrgals* or hero-stones of Mysore, which mostly record grants of land in addition to commemorating the deaths of heroes. An inscription on the Begūr stone and also a sculpture found in the Bangalore taluk record the death of the commander of the Nāgattara troops in a battle that was fought between the forces of Ayyapadeva and those of Vīramahendra, and also the appointment of his successor and grant of villages to him (A. D. 908–38; see *Ep. Ind.*, vol. VI, p. 45). A second clause in the supplementary inscription on the Ātakūr stone of A. D. 949–50 (see ibid., p. 57) gives another instance of a grant of villages in recognition of bravery in the battle-field to a hero who fought and survived, and we further learn from this record that grants of this kind were sometimes accompanied by the ceremony of washing the warrior’s sword, just as religious grants were usually accompanied by the ceremony of laving the feet of the priest into whose hands the donation was actually given (Fleet, in *Imp. Gaz.*, 1908, vol. II, p. 60). The Ablūr stone of about A. D. 1219 in the Dharwār district commemorates the death of the brothers Māca and Goma fighting valiantly to repel a cattle-raid against their village led by Īśvaradeva of Belagavatti, modern Belagutti, in the Honnāli taluk of the Shimoga district (*Ep. Ind.*, V, 262). The tablets of Kil-Muttugūr, Ambūr (villages in N.

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Arcot district), Naregal (Dharwār district), and Baṅgavāḍi (Kolār district) similarly preserve the memory of other village heroes who sacrificed themselves in repelling cattle-raids (*Ep. Ind.*, vol. IV, 178, 182, 183; vol. VI, 162; VII. 22). Many other cases might be cited.