Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/82

Rh palanquins, only with the permission of the King. Noblemen prided themselves on special privileges such as the cloth spread on the ground for them to walk upon, ornamental arches and awnings to be erected on the roads on which they travel, and the flourish of trumpets and drums to announce their arrival and departure. There were no less than seventy-two rights claimed by great landholders, but the nature of these rights does not appear from the deed.

Another deed issued during the reign of the same King Bhâskara-Iravi-Varmman records an endowment made to the Vishnu temple at Tirunelli (in the Wynad) by Porai Kilan or the Lord of Porayûr Nadu. The endowment was placed under the control of the “five hundred” of Poraiyûr. The five hundred were doubtless an assembly of the heads of 500 families of the Nadu. It appears therefore that in this ancient period, although the Kings had apparently unlimited power over the lives ard properties of their subjects, much of the local administration remained in the hands of the people themselves.