Studies in Cola History and Administration c8.7

c8.7

Although the complex organisation of the *Sabhā* with a number of elected committees, like that typified by the Uttaramērūr inscriptions, was unknown in the early centuries of the Christian era in the Tamil country, still the numerous references to *manram* and *podiyil* in the classical literature of the *Saṅgam* period leave little room for doubt that some form of a primitive village assembly was known at the time. The commentator Nacciṉārkkiṉiyar invariably explains *manram* by the words *ūrukku naḍuvāyellāru-mirukkum maraṭṭaḍi*, meaning the open place in the centre of the village where all people meet under the shade of a tree. And some references in the *Puṟam* to the *manram* (Nos. 46 and 220) make it clear that it was the place where justice was administered. In *Puṟam* 46 we have an interesting situation. The Cōḻa king Kiḷḷivaḷavaṉ doomed the sons of his foe Malayamāṉ to be thrown to an elephant. When the sentence is to be executed, a poet intercedes on behalf of the youngsters and appeals to the king’s mercy saying * that a strange fear has taken possession of those tender youths as they stare in bewilderment at the *manṟu*. Here the *manṟu* is the place where public punishments are inflicted. Again, *Puṟam* 220 is a lament of Poṭṭiyār, a close friend of another Cōḻa king, at the sight of the *manram* of ancient Uṟaiyūr bereft of its king who had for some unknown reason given up his life by starvation. † Here we get a clear indication that the king used to go to the *manram*, apparently to administer justice and to do other public business. It must be noticed that in both these instances it is the *manram* of Uraiyūr, the Cōḷa capital of the time, that is mentioned; and except the employment of the same word to describe the open meeting-places belonging to other towns and villages, we have little direct evidence of the existence, nature and working of local assemblies of a popular character in this early period of Tamil history. Nevertheless, popular gatherings of a social and religious nature in the *manram* of every locality are known to have been a regular feature of rural life, and the *manram* was undoubtedly the scene of song, dance and other social amusements. As the modern distinctions between the political and other aspects of social life found no expression in the organisation of a more primitive age, it seems legitimate to infer that matters which we are apt to consider political or economic, like the settlement of a civil dispute, the punishment of crime, or the purchase and sale of land, must have also engaged the attention of such popular gatherings in each locality.