Uttaramerur inscription

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.