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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XXII.
Pingalam gives for the word āvanam the meaning of right (to property).' Speaking generally, frāvanai like āvanam may be taken to denote right to property, and 'Srāvanai pugu' to mean, 'to enter upon and exercise the right of ownership'. The words kachcham(agreement) and kuttukkal (obstruction) may also be noted as perhaps interesting colloquialisms of the time.
The object of the inscription is to record a resolution of the sabhā of Māṇanilainallür. The resolution is called vyavasthai in Sanskrit, and kachcham in Tamil. The resolution fixed the procedure to be followed in future meetings of the sabha by laying down the minimum qualifications in terms of property, education and character, that would entitle persons to take part in the work of the sabha. It also stated that no kind of variyam was to be assigned to a person who did not possess a full share in the lands of the village. This is one of the earliest uses of the term väriyam known to South Indian Epigraphy. The Ambasamudram inscription of the sixteenth year of Varaguna-Mahārāja mentions the vāriyar of the sabhā of Iļangõkkudi. It is not easy to decide if these terms in these Pandya records refer to committees of the assembly in the same manner as the Uttaramērür inscriptions of Chāļa Parāntaka I belonging to a later century and another part of the country. It is not improbable that the earlier records only imply the choice of particular individuals for the performance of specified tasks, and that the vāriyar were individual officers carrying out the orders of the sabha rather than an executive committee with wide discretionary powers such as the committees of Uttaramērür undoubtedly were. However that may be, it is clear that the present resolution of the sabhā of Māpanilainallur forbade any responsible executive duties being entrusted in the future to persons who did not satisfy a minimum property qualification. Lastly, the resolution lays down the penalty of a fine of five kāśus per head for failure to observe its terms and for wilful obstruction, and avers that, even after the penalty is enforced, the original terms of the resolution shall be acted upon.
This inscription is unique in the insight it gives into the actual working of the autonomous village assembly in brahmadēya villages under the early Pandyas. The existence of such sabhās is known from other records of the time like the Ambāsamudram inscription mentioned above, and an inscription from Tiruchchendür. But the inscription edited here is the only early Pandya inscription giving particulars of the constitution and working of the sabhā. A meeting of the general body is summoned by the beating of a large drum-perunguri bārri (11. 9-10)". The assembly, mahāsabhā, met at the stated hour in a public place fixed beforehand,-here it was Govardhana, apparently signifying a Vishņu temple of which there seem to be almost no traces left at present. The rules made on this occasion by this sabha show that while in the assembly, generally speaking, all land-owners were represented, still an active part in the deliberations of the assembly was allowed only to those persons the extent of whose property did not fall below a prescribed minimum and who, in addition, had attained a certain standard of education and possessed good character. The work of the assembly when it was not in session, including the carrying out of its decisions in particular matters, was apparently entrusted to väriyar of its choice. Of the number and duties of the väriyar, we derive no knowledge from the inscriptions of the time.
1 Kittel notes in his Kanarese-English Dictionary that Kan. kajja is a derivative of Skt. karya, and our kachcham may be the same word in another form. The expression vilai-pramanak-kachchatta occurs in South Indian Inscriptions Vol. I, No. 52, 1. 4. the Rita. aveny vazduct i ve Administration. DD. 82-3: 133-134.
* No. 28 of 1912 and No. 156 of 1903 of the Madras Epigraphical collection, : A Chola inscription (00.1997) kna the phrase: dharmi-vüdin peruguri lntti. . Cf. 64 of 1898 from Uttara märür saying: emmúr ári-govardhanattu Mahaviai puickajukku.
The foundations of a low old buildings may be traced in the paddy fields to the west of the village, but it is now impossible to account for the 1008 Brahman houses which, according to local belief, onoe existed on the site."--Tinnevelly Gazetteer, p. 476.
