Studies in Cola History and Administration c10.39

c10.39

Agriculture was naturally the primary concern of the *Sabhā*. Not only was it the mainstay of the economic life of the country in which every peasant was interested, and they were all peasants then, but the *Sabhā* itself was, in one way and another, a great landowner, perhaps the greatest in the locality, and was as such interested in the proper maintenance of facilities for irrigation, transport and so on. And it is a remarkable fact that private charity often came to ease the work of the *Sabhā* by adding considerably to the financial resources at its disposal. Thus the large irrigation tank of the village, the Vairamēgha-taṭāka, was kept in good repair by the silt being removed once a month with endowed funds ear-marked for the purpose and placed at the disposal of the *Sabhā* by a private donor.*