Studies in Cola History and Administration c8.12

c8.12

The essential duty of the Sabhā was to administer justice. It is worth noting that almost every inscription in Southern India which mentions a village assembly also makes reference to a madhyastha of the village, and that administration of justice formed one of the principal duties of the assembly. It would thus appear that the village assembly of later historical times in the South was, far from being the result of a single line of development, northern or southern, the complex product of the interaction of both southern and northern, Tamil and Sanskrit, influences.