Kingship was attributed to define origin. The kings claimed their
descent from the God Brahma. It has hereditary. Yet, on one occasion a
king was elected. Most of the kings were accomplished scholars.
Mahendravarman I wrote the famous burlesque, Masttavilasa Prahsana. Many
of the vaishnava alvars and saiva nayanars flourished during their
rule.
The kings adopted high-sounding titles like maharajadhiraja,
dharma-maharjadhiraja (great king of kings rulling in accordance with
the dharma), agnistomavajpeya, asvamedha-yaji (he who has performed the
agnithtoma-vajapeya and asvamedha sacrifices) They were assisted by
ministers. History shows that the ministerial council played a great
part in the state policy in the later period.
A hierarchy of officials in provincial administration, the governor ofa
province was assisted by district officers, who in turn worked in
collaboration with automous local bodies. In local administration the
meeting of assembles were frequent, and the administration the meeting
of assemblies were frequent, and the assemblies were of many varieities
and of many levels. Often special meetings were held. As the village
levelthe assembly was the sabha which looked after almost all the
matters of the village, along with endowments, irrigation, crime,
maintaining census and other necessary records, Courts at villages level
dealt with minor criminal cases. The judicial courts of the town and
districts were presided over by government officials, climaxing with the
king as the supreme arbiter of justice. The sabha worked in close
association with the urar, and informal gathering of the entire village.
Above this unit was a district administration. Finally, the head man of
the villages was the link between the village assembly and the official
administration.
Theoretically the king owned the land. The status of a village depended
on the prevalent land tenure. The fist variety was the village with
inter-caste population where in the people paid taxes to the king. The
second was the brahmadeya village in which the entire land was donated
to a single Brahmin or a group of brahmins. A variation of this village
was the agrahars grant which, was an entire village settlement of
brahmins. Both these forms were exempt from royal taxes. In the devadana
village the revenue was donated to a temple, and the temple authorities
in turn provided employment for the villagers in the temple whenever
possible. In the Pallava period the first two categories of villages
were in vogue.
Apart from these major points relating to land there was a special
category of land, the sripatti or tank land. The revenue from such a
land was sent apart for the maintenance of the village tank. The tank
itself was built by the efforts of the entire village. All shared the
water stored in the tank. Very many inscriptions of the Pallavas refer
to the up-keep of tanks.
There are two Points about taxes. The land revenue varied from one-sixth
to one tenth of the produce of the land. This was paid to the State.
The local taxes that were collected in a village were spent for the
needs of the village. As land revenue was necessarily small, the State
revenue was supplemented by additional taxes on draught cattle,
marriage-parties, potters, makers of clarified butter, textile
manufacturers, washermen and weavers. The major source of revenue was
from land, since the revenue from mercantile activity was not fully
exploited.
Regarding expenditure, most to the revenue want for the maintenance of
army. The king preferred a standing army instead of feudal levie. The
army primarily consisting of food soldiers and cavalry along with a
sprinkling of elephants. Indeed the Pallavas developed a navy although
the mercantile activity was not great. Two dockyards were built at
Mahablipuram and Nagabatnam. This pioneeringh effort of the Pallavas
reached its climax during the days of cholas. The navy served a double
purpose. It was meant for defence and also assisted the maritime trade
with sout-east Asia, particularly with the three kingdoms of Kambuja
(Cambodia) Champa (Annam) and Shrivijaya (Malayan peninsula and
Sumatra).
