Studies in Cola History and Administration c10.33

c10.33

The inscriptions of the twelfth and fourteenth years of Parāntaka I, discussed in the next study, will be seen to fall in their proper perspective only when viewed on the background furnished by the data gathered so far from the earlier records of Uttaramērūr. The Parāntaka inscriptions would thus appear to be not a ready-made constitution imposed *ab extra* by royal writ, but only to mark a stage, albeit an important stage, in a continuous evolution from within, brought about by the pressure of circumstance and the wisdom born of experience. That the *Sabhā* of Uttaramērūr was the architect of its own constitutional arrangements, that it showed an uncommon readiness to follow the method of trial and error in its efforts to solve the local problems of the time, is rendered clear by another curious record of the fifteenth year of Parāntaka I, the year following that in which Parāntaka is generally supposed to have finally fixed the constitution of Uttaramērūr. Published only three years ago, this inscription † has long escaped the attention that is due to it. It is a *vyavasthai* of the *Sabhā* which regulated the procedure to be followed for testing the fineness of the gold that was in current use in the village, ‘*emmūril parimārum poṉ samañjasaṉ-gaṇbadakku.*’ By this resolution, a committee was set up consisting of nine persons neither too old nor too young, from those among the tax-paying citizens who had a reputation for testing gold (irai-kuḍikaḷil poṉ-kāṇa vallāreṉappaḍu-vārai). These were to be chosen by the method of pot-tickets, four from the māḍavīdi; two from śēṉai (?), and the remaining three from śaṅkarappāḍi. They were to test gold for all people impartially, and to adopt certain methods laid down for the test; they had to hand over to the tank committee the entire quantity of the meḷuku on which gold was rubbed (for the test) and to take an oath, once in three months, before the saṃvatsaravāriyam (year-committee), in the prescribed manner, that they would discharge their duties truly and honestly in accordance with the resolution of the Sabhā inscribed on stone. Though it is not expressly stated, it seems very likely that in this decision the Sabhā was reconsidering arrangements implied in the constitution of the ‘gold committee’ (poṉ-vāriyam) by the inscription of the preceding year. The new committee either superseded the old one, or was probably intended only to assist it in the discharge of its duties. One important qualification insisted on for membership of the new committee is competence in the assaying of gold; it may have furnished the technical assistance required for the work of the poṉ-vāriyam for which no provision had been made before. Although, therefore, every act of the Sabhā was in form an act for all time, for ‘as long as the sun and moon endure’ or something to that effect, nothing was immutable, and there was no lack of readiness to make fresh adjustments to meet new situations as they arose.