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No. 4.]
A NOTE ON THE PANCHAVARA COMMITTEE.
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Of such committees, the Panchavāra-vāriyam' is one. Beyond the mere mention of the name Panchavāra vāriyam we have not as yet been able to understand the object for which it was formed. And this is the case with the other vāriyams as well. Neither does the designation of this committee give us a clue as to the probable sphere of its work. In the compound Panchavara-vāriyam, the latter part, viz., vāriyam, has been understood to mean a committee as in the case of the other groups, the first part, viz., Panchavāra, like toltam, ēri, kudumbu, kalani, with which the other committees were connected, may denote the object of prime concern of this body. Panchavāra, however, is not a simple word like tõllam, ēri, etc., but is a compound in itself with a qualifying particle. Literally, it may be rendered into five shares' (pancha-five, vāra=share).
There are a few inscriptions which throw some light on the interpretation of the term Panchavāra-vāriyam. We give below extracts from these, with translations and short notes, from which it will be seen that it was a committee concerned in the realisation of the revenue in kind due to the king on certain class of lands amounting to five shares (pancha-vāra) out of the six of the entire assessment.
EXTRACT I. LI. 54-61 ...aļa[n]du araiyēy=oru-mā=chcheyyum olu[kkavi]ppuramum-olukkuppuramum a[r*]chchanābhogamum-āga i·nni[la*]ttāl pañchavāramum echchöfum nēr[v]āyamum vettivedinaiyun-chenyir-podivi........
TRANSLATION For olukkavi, olukkus and archanābhoga, (the incomes from) this land, viz., pañchavāram, echchoru, nērvāyam, vetti, vedinai, and chennirpodivi....
NOTE.-The earliest use of the word panchavāra occurs in this extract from an inscription dated in the 21st year of the reign of the Pallava king Nộipatunga (circa A.D. 865), found at Tirukkandiyūr in the Tanjore District. Here, it will be noted that the word pañchavāra is used as the name of one of the dues on land, being grouped with echchoru, nērvāyam, velti, vedinai and others, all of which we know from numerous epigraphs to be the names of taxes or fees.
1 Line 10 of the first Uttaramallur inscription published in the A. 8. R. for 1904-05, pp. 131 ff., describes the method of selection of the members of the committees of Paichavara-variyam and Pon-vatiyam in the following words :
Panchavāra-vāriyattukkum pon-váriyattukkum muppadu kudu[m]b[i]lum mup[padu) kuda[v-ö]lai ittu höriyal o[ru]ttarai-kkudav-olai pari[t]tu panniruvārilum [a]ruvār pañche(vāra*]-vāriyam-avid(ävad)-agavum [1] apuvár p[on]-vāriyam=avid (āvad)-agavum [ll].
This means : "for the Panchavira committee and the gold committee, thirty pot-tickets shall be put in for the thirty kudumbu and one man for each chiri shall be taken: and of the twelve persons (so taken), six shall constitute the Panchavara committee and the other) six shall constitute the gold committee". The second Uttaramallūr inscription describes more clearly how the members for these two committees were selected. Lines 13 and 14 of its text run as under
Panohavára-v[ariyajt(tukkum] pop-vāri]yattukku-muppadu (k)kudum bilum kudav-olaikku pēr titti mappadu valy-6]lai-kattum puge [it]tu muppa Jdu kudav-ol[ai) parittu muppadilum (pang Jirandu për (pa)rittu-kkolvad-agavum [l*) paritta pappirandilum Aruvar pop-väriyam apuvár panchavara-variyamum ávanavāgavum [ll].
passage means : " for the Pachavira committee and the gold committee, names shall be written in the thirty Ludumb for pot tickets and thirty bundles with covering tickets shall be put in and thirty pot-tickets shall be taken: from (these) thirty, twelve persons shall be drawn. Of the twelve (80) taken, there shall be constituted six for gold committee and six for Pasichavira committee ".
* It will be unnatural to take váriyam in panchavāra-tariyam in a sense different from what it connotes (vis, committee) in other places in the same inscription.
.8. 1. I., Vol. V, No. 572. .ofukku and ofukkavi seem to be some kinds of oblations,
