Chola Provincial Administration, Local Self-Government and the Uttaramerur Inscription

Chola Provincial Administration: Mandalam, Valanadu and Nadu

The Tiers from Mandalam to Ur

From the ninth century, the imperial Cholas divided their empire into mandalams, or provinces. Each mandalam was subdivided into valanadus, or districts, each valanadu into nadus, or groups of villages, and each nadu into individual villages. At the height of Chola power there were eight or nine mandalams, including Sri Lanka. Their names and boundaries changed repeatedly over the period, while the order of the tiers stayed the same.

Some mandalams carried royal names. After Rajaraja I conquered the Pandya country, it was recognised as "Rajaraja Mandalam", and the territory around Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, conquered in 993, was recorded as Ila-mandalam. Thanjavur and, later, Gangaikonda Cholapuram were the imperial capitals. Rajendra I founded Gangaikonda Cholapuram to commemorate his expedition to the Ganga. Kanchipuram and Madurai were regional capitals where occasional courts were held.

Rajaraja I and the Valanadu Reorganisation

Rajaraja I (985 to 1014) reorganised the administration of the provinces. Before his reign, large parts of the Chola territory were ruled by hereditary lords and local princes in a loose alliance with the Chola kings. In 1000 Rajaraja began a survey and assessment of land, which led to the reorganisation of the empire into valanadus. From his reign until 1133, in the reign of Vikrama Chola, the hereditary lords and local princes were either replaced or turned into dependent officials, and the king exercised closer control over every part of the empire.

The royal family was drawn into government as well. From Rajaraja's time the crown prince took part in active administration, and minor princes were appointed regional governors. When Vengi became a Chola province, Kulottunga I administered it through his sons, whom he sent there as viceroys. Closer royal control did not weaken the villages: Rajaraja strengthened local self-government and installed a system of audit and control by which the village assemblies and other public bodies were held to account while keeping their autonomy.

Nadu, Kurram and Kottam: The Tier Between Village and Valanadu

The nadu was the working link between the village and the province. Several villages made up a kurram, nadu or kottam, depending on the part of the country, and several of these made up a valanadu. A taniyur was a village large enough to form a kurram by itself, and it was therefore a unit of administration and revenue in its own right.

The officials above the village were under constant audit and scrutiny. An inscription from the reign of Uttama Chola records how some officials neglected to record a grant in time, which led to a dispute over who should benefit from it. The king, as head of the civil administration, occasionally toured the country and inquired into local administration. A careful balance between central control and local independence was maintained, and non-interference in local government was treated as sacrosanct.

Chola Local Self-Government: Ur, Sabha and Nagaram

Chola Village Administration Under the Ur

The village was the smallest unit of the Chola empire and was largely self-reliant. Village assemblies settled disputes and were responsible for all local administrative functions, such as revenue collection, land management, irrigation, road construction and the keeping of records. They worked as independent institutions and did not depend on the government for patronage.

The ur was the assembly of a common village. At Uttaramerur, which had two assemblies, the ur was made up of people of all classes, while the sabha was an exclusively Brahmin assembly. The administration of an ordinary village therefore differed from that of a village given to Brahmins. Even in the Pallava period the sabha at Uttaramerur assigned some duties to the ur, such as managing land deserted by tenants who could not afford to pay their taxes.

Ur and Sabha: Ordinary Village and Brahmadeya Village

A brahmadeya was a tax-free grant of land, either a single plot or a whole village, made to Brahmins. Brahmadeya lands were mostly chosen near irrigation works such as tanks, and where none existed new irrigation was created. The Pallavas (c. 275 to 897), who ruled the region before the Cholas, made such tax-free grants of land and villages a striking feature of their rule. Uttaramerur itself began as a Brahmin settlement that the Pallava king Nandivarman II formally made a brahmadeya village around 750.

The sabha was the assembly of a brahmadeya village. It was the most developed of the three bodies because it worked through committees, and its rules are the ones that survive at Uttaramerur. Already in the Pallava period the sabha there managed land sales and an endowment fund for dredging a tank. It met in the hall of the local temple, and its meetings were summoned by the beating of drums.

Nagaram: The Merchant Assembly of the Towns

The nagaram was the local organisation of merchants in a trading town. Nagarams existed in major centres of trade such as Kanchipuram and Mamallapuram. In the Chola economy these market towns acted as redistribution centres for goods brought from outside for local use, and as sources of goods made by their own artisans for international trade. An inscription of the reign of Sundara Chola (957 to 973) at Pillayarpatti refers to the formation of a nagaram named Raja Narayana Puram by the Ainnurruvar merchant community.

The Uttaramerur Inscription: Place, Date and Contents

Uttaramerur and the Inscriptions of Parantaka I

Uttaramerur (also written Uthiramerur) lies in Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu, about 90 km south-west of Chennai. A tenth-century inscription gives the village's name as "Uttaramerur Chaturvedi Mangalam". About 25 inscriptions from the Pallava period, spread over several reigns, have been found there. The earliest surviving ones, of Dantivarman (795 to 846), show the sabha as an already mature institution. The Cholas captured the region in the later ninth century.

The two inscriptions that describe the elections are in Tamil and are engraved in the Vaikunta Perumal Temple, a Vishnu temple and a monument now administered by the Archaeological Survey of India. They belong to the reign of the Chola king Parantaka I (c. 907 to 955). The first, dated 919, lays down the rules for electing committee members. The second, dated 921, amends those rules to make them more practical.

Wards, Qualifications and Disqualifications

According to the inscription of 921, the village had 30 wards, called kudumbus, from which the members of the committees were selected every year. A nominee had to meet four conditions:

• Landholding: Own tax-paying land of at least one-fourth of a veli (about an acre and a half, or 0.6 hectare), reduced to one-eighth of a veli for a man who had learned at least one Veda and one Bhashya (a commentary).
• Residence: Live in a house built on his own land.
• Age: Be between 35 and 70 years old.
• Learning: Know the mantras and the Brahmanas (Vedic literature).

Several categories of persons were excluded. Anyone who had served on any committee in the previous three years was ineligible, as was a former member who, or whose relatives, had failed to submit accounts. Those who, or whose relatives, had committed incest or one of the five great sins listed in the inscription were excluded, as were those who had stolen the property of others or taken forbidden food. Such persons were barred from the draw for the rest of their lives. The inscription also asks that candidates have honest earnings and be pure of mind.

A member held office for a year of 360 days, and anyone found guilty of an offence was removed from office at once. The Uttaramerur inscriptions record parading on a donkey as a punishment for offences such as incest, adultery, theft and forgery.

The Kudavolai System of Election by Lot

The kudavolai, literally the pot of palm-leaf tickets, was the method of selecting committee members from the qualified candidates of each ward. The steps were:

1. The names of eligible candidates were written on fragments of palm leaf.
2. The leaves were placed in a pot, which was sealed.
3. On the selection day the pot was opened in full view of the community.
4. A young boy drew the leaves one by one, as many as there were places to fill.
5. A respected person, after showing his empty hands to the public, read out each name drawn.
6. The candidates whose names were read out were selected.

The draw gave every qualified man an equal chance, while the qualifications limited the pool to men with land, learning, clean accounts and a clean record. Selection by lot also prevented a few families from monopolising the committees. Because the pool was restricted by property, learning, age and caste, the system is better described as an early form of participation than as a modern election with universal franchise.

Variyam Committees and the Working of the Sabha

From Variyar to Variyam: Committees Replace Officers

The Pallava-period inscriptions of Uttaramerur refer to variyars, executive officers who were individuals and served under the sabha. By the time of Parantaka I the executive powers had passed to committees called variyams, each with 6 to 12 members depending on the importance of its functions. Authority thus moved from individual officers to small groups that were chosen by lot, held office for a year and could be removed.

Across the Chola country the variyams looked after specific tasks such as irrigation, gardens and temples, and the committees of village assemblies also administered justice and collected taxes. The tank committee carried special weight, because brahmadeya villages were mostly set near tanks and other irrigation works on which their farming depended.

The Committees Named in the Inscription of 921

Five committees appear in the inscription of 921, three of them with a fixed number of members.

The inscription does not state the size of the standing and gold committees.

Uttaramerur and Democratic Decentralisation

Local Self-Government as Democratic Decentralisation

Local self-government means that the people of a locality decide their own affairs through bodies they choose. It moves power downward, so decisions are taken close to the people they affect, and modern India's panchayats rest on the same idea. The Balwantrai Mehta Committee (1957) recommended a three-tier panchayati raj system, and some States, such as Gujarat and Maharashtra, adopted the system of elected local bodies around 1960. The Chola village shows the idea in practice. Its assemblies held real authority over revenue, land, irrigation and disputes, worked through committees and changed their members every year.

Three contrasts clarify the concept. Federalism is a division of power between the Union and the States, not between the state and a village. Administrative delegation passes tasks down while authority stays with the higher body, whereas the Chola assemblies held authority of their own. Direct democracy would have every member decide every matter, whereas the sabha worked through committees. The Uttaramerur system was not a forerunner of the modern constitutional panchayat in the sense of universal franchise or reserved seats, but it shows that village self-government has a long history in India.

Sources

• NCERT: Class 9 Understanding Society: India and Beyond Book 1, Chapter 5
• NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond Book 1, Chapter 5
• NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond Book 1, Chapter 9
• NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond Book 2, Chapter 3
• NCERT: Class 11 Political Science: Indian Constitution at Work, Chapter 7
• NCERT: Class 11 Political Science: Indian Constitution at Work, Chapter 8
• Wikipedia: Uthiramerur
• Wikipedia: Chola government
• Wikipedia: Chola Empire
• Wikipedia: Chola dynasty
• Wikipedia: Parantaka I
• Wikipedia: Rajaraja I
• Wikipedia: Rajendra I
• Wikipedia: Brahmadeya
• Wikipedia: Ainnurruvar
• Wikipedia: Vaikunda Perumal Temple, Uthiramerur
• Wikipedia: Mahendravarman I
• Wikipedia: Mihira Bhoja
• CBSE: Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Society, State and Polity: A Survey (the Uttaramerur inscription in translation)
• Kancheepuram District Administration: Places of Interest
• Tamil Nadu Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department: Policy Note 2026‑27
• UPSC: Civil Services Examination question papers