Studies in Cola History and Administration c12.76

c12.76

‘B’ ll. 11-12: *ikkoṇḍa muppadu.....karai kāṭṭi-kkoḷ-vadāgavum*: These clauses deal with the personnel of the committees to be constituted from the thirty representatives of the *kuḍumbus* elected by lot in the manner prescribed in the preceding clauses. (1) The annual committee was to include persons who had served on the garden and tank committees and those who were notable for their age or learning. No statement is made as to the number of members of this committee; but we may infer that it was twelve from the way the next two sentences mention ‘twelve people out of the rest’ and ‘the remaining six’ as constituting the (2) garden committee and (3) the tank committee respectively. By its name, and by the special stress on previous experience in the committees and on pre-eminence in age or learning among its members, the annual committee appears to have been considered the most important among the committees. What the exact nature of its work was and how it was more important than that of the other committees can be ascertained only by a more detailed study of the working of committees in Uttaramerūr and elsewhere than can be undertaken here.