Studies in Cola History and Administration c12.40

c12.40

The gold committee (*poṇ-vāriyam*) is generally taken to have regulated the currency. As it is not possible, however, to imagine how village committees can undertake this general function of administration, we must try and find a more satisfactory explanation. ‘*Poṇ*’ in the inscriptions of South India often means a coin of specific weight; but the standard of fineness seems to have varied with different types, and there are clear references in the records of money endowments to the fineness and weight of the gold made over by the donors for specified purposes. There must have been some person or persons to take charge of such endowments or at least to testify in a public manner to the weight and fineness of the gold in such instances. It seems probable that the ‘*poṇ-vāriyam*’ performed these functions.