The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c10.s1.t4.2

c10.s1.t4.2

The extraordinary authority which the village assemblies of Chola India possessed in regard to the distribution of rural lands was clearly defined by orders issued from the central government. Râja-râja¹ legislated from Tanjore that the land of those landholders who had not paid the taxes for three years "shall become the property of the villages and be liable to be sold by the inhabitants of those villages to the exclusion of the defaulting landholders". Now, if it was the royal will that conferred the right on the rural communes, it was also the royal officers, the *adhikârins*, superintendents or intendants that looked after the proper use of the right.