Studies in Cola History and Administration c10.28

c10.28

The inscriptions furnish much valuable information on the history and the functions of the *Sabhā*, and these may now be briefly discussed. In the earliest inscriptions in our collection of the reign of Dantivarman, the *Sabhā* comes before us as a mature and well-established institution apparently exercising all the powers that it ever exercised in later times. It sold land, accepted and undertook the administration of an endowment for dredging a tank, and made an important settlement (*vyavasthai*) * in which the *Ūr* was assigned some duties with regard to lands deserted by poor tenants who could not pay the dues on them; a little later, under Nandivarman, it laid down the qualifications and the tenure for the place of *arcaka* in the temple of Tirup-pulivalam-uḍaiyār. These early records also contain noteworthy references to *vāriyar* and *vāriyapperumakkaḷ*. In one instance † the *vāriyar* are clearly officers subordinate to the *Sabhā*, and take their orders from it. There is nothing to show whether they were individual officers or members of a committee; and we have no information on the period for which the office was held. Another record ‡ of about the middle of the ninth century mentions the *vāriyapperumakkaḷ*. The phrase may mean ‘great men doing *vāriyam*’ and may be only another form of the term ‘*vāriyar*’; but it looks very much like meaning “members of the *vāriyam*,” the last being understood as a committee. But it should be noticed that there is no reference whatever to the *Sabhā* in this record, and possibly the *vāriyam* of this record had nothing to do with the *Sabhā*. Further, even if the omission to mention the *Sabhā* be neglected, and the *vāriyam* understood as a committee of the *Sabhā*, it should still be observed that the *vāriyam* would then be a general committee of a non-specialised character, unlike the specialised ‘tank’, ‘garden’ and other committees of later times. The inscriptions of Vijayakampavarman,