Studies in Cola History and Administration c9.35

c9.35

We notice that the assembly did not have a fixed meeting place and that it met in different places at different times. The place of meeting is not always recorded; but two inscriptions * tell us of two meetings in the twenty-fourth regnal year of Rājarāja I, one held at the temple called Vaṇṇakkaṉār-ambalam and another in a hall called after the king in front of the Śamaparēśvara temple. One is tempted to imagine that the hall called after Rājarāja was built in front of perhaps the largest temple in the village—this temple receives a gift from a neighbouring village †—to serve as a permanent meeting place for the assembly.