Uttaramerur inscription

Subject: History

Section: Art and Culture

Concept :

Greeting Tamilians on the occasion of Puthandu, the Tamil New Year, Prime Minister of India mentions an over 1,100 year old inscription from Tamil Nadu.

About the inscription:

The Uttaramerur inscription is dated around 920 A.D. in the reign of Parantaka Chola.
It testifies to the historical fact that nearly 1,100 years ago, a village had an elaborate and highly refined electoral system and even a written constitution prescribing the mode of elections.
The details of this system of elective village democracy are inscribed on the walls of the village assembly (grama sabha mandapa).

What is inscribed?

On the walls of the mandapa a variety of secular transactions of the village, dealing with administrative, judicial, commercial, agricultural, transportation and irrigation regulations are inscribed.
The villagers even had the right to recall the elected representatives if they failed in their duty.

About the Uttaramerur village:

Uttaramerur is situated in Kancheepuram district in Tamil Nadu.
The Pallava king Nandivarman II established it around 750 A.D.
The Pallavas, the Cholas, the Pandyas, the Sambuvarayars, the Vijayanagara Rayas, and the Nayaks successively ruled it.
The village has three important temples,
the Sundara Varadaraja Perumal temple,
the Subramanya temple, and
the Kailasanatha temple.
The three temples have a large number of inscriptions, notably those from the reigns of Raja Raja Chola (985-1014 A.D.), his son Rajendra Chola, and the Vijayanagar emperor Krishnadeva Raya.
Rajendra Chola as well as Krishnadeva Raya visited Uttaramerur.
Uttaramerur, built on the canons of the agama texts, has the village assembly mandapa at the centre.
All the temples are oriented with reference to the mandapa.
At Uttaramerur on the walls of the village assembly (mandapa) itself that we have the earliest inscriptions with complete information about how the elected village assembly functioned.

The practice

The entire village, including infants, had to be present at the village assembly mandapa at Uttaramerur when elections were held.
Only the sick and those who had gone on a pilgrimage were exempt.
There were committees for the maintenance of irrigation tanks, roads, to provide relief during drought, to test gold, and so forth.
The village assembly drafted the constitution for the elections.

The salient features were as follows:

village was divided into 30 wards, one representative elected for each.
Specific qualifications were prescribed for those who wanted to contest.
The essential criteria were age limit, possession of immovable property, and minimum educational qualification.
Those who wanted to be elected should be above 35 years of age and below 70.
Only those who owned land that attracted tax could contest elections.
A person serving in any of the committees could not contest again for the next three terms, each term lasting a year.
Elected members who accepted bribes, misappropriated others’ property, committed incest, or acted against the public interest suffered disqualification.