A History of Agriculture in India v1.c38.s3: The Constitution of Villages
A History of Agriculture in India v1.c38.s3
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The Constitution of Villages
v1.c38.s3.1
Broadly speaking, we come across the following types of villages in the South in accordance with the inscriptions in southern India: the joint villages, in which the controlling power was exercised by the community of the Brahmanas, besides whom there were people of the lower castes mostly Vellalans; joint villages belonging to Vellalan or farmers with subordinates of the same or lower castes; and villages assigned to single individuals. So far as local affairs, and especially transactions relating to land, were concerned, these villages acted on most republican lines through the assemblies known as Sabhai, Maha-sabhai, Perunguri-sabhai, Parudai or Paradai or Mula-parudai in the case of the Brahmana villages, and ur in the case of the Vellalan villages. Though the king occasionally interfered in the affairs of the villages, they seem to have had no headman of the type familiar in North India who acted as an intermediary between the community of the village and the government. Some of the inscriptions speak of a kilan or kilavan, who appears like a headman, but who really seems to be a senior burgess of a Brahmadeya. His functions are not like those of the village headman of the North. A record of Kaviripakkam mentions a gentleman, named Arumbakilan, who was a kangani or government supervisor, along with the so-called ‘administrator of the town’ (Ur-alkinra), acting jointly with the executive committee of the township in affairs which affected the interests of both the crown and the burgesses.
v1.c38.s3.2
Besides these officials, the village body politic, according to the South Indian inscriptions, contained an astrologer, a vetti who swept public buildings and kept them in order, a constable, a potter, a smith, a carpenter, a tanner and, sometimes, a physician. The assemblies and their executive committees, called the variyam, were intimately connected with the land-system.