Local Government in Ancient India c15.35

c15.35

It may be noted that this record of rural heroism and public spirit has come down to comparatively later times. There is a Madura taluk record of about 1705 a. d., which registers a rare and singular case of self-sacrifice. It seems that some officers of Government tried to make undue collections of taxes from some villages belonging to a temple which were tax free. Hopeless of any effective remedies against this unjustifiable extortion, a devout servant of the temple determined to sacrifice his life as a protest in a spirit of extreme passive resistance, which will put to shame many a modern follower of the creed. The man went up to the top of the tower of the temple, from which he let himself fall down as a sacrifice at the altar of his religion. The State officials were of course brought to their senses after this extreme protest. Another record of the same place relates that when a regiment of Europeans, after destroying the temple, had seized the town and were advancing further, a certain Kutti was persuaded by the managers of the temple and the local people to throw himself down from the tower. After his death, the grateful public made a free gift of some lands to his descendants and also granted them a share in the food offerings to the temple.