Practically every inscription from the Pallava period pertaining to the rural affairs refers to the upkeep of the tank. Next in importance came wells. Water was distributed by canals, which were fitted with sluices to regulate the water level and prevent overflowing at the source. The distribution of water for irrigation was supervised by a special tank committee appointed by the village.
Water taken in excess of allotted to a particular cultivator was taxed. Revenue and Taxation Land grants recorded mainly on copperplates provide detailed information on land revenues and taxation. Revenue came almost exclusively from rural sources, mercantile and urban institutions being largely unplanned. Two categories of taxes were levied on the village.
The land revenue paid by the cultivator to the state varied from /6th to /10th of the produce, and was collected by the village and paid to the state collector. In the second category were local taxes, also collected in the village but utilized for services in the village itself. The tax money was spent for repairing irrigation works, illuminating the temple, etc. When the state land tax was inadequate, the revenue was supplemented by additional taxes on draught cattle, toddy- drawers, marriage-parties, potters, goldsmiths, washermen, textile-manufacturers, weavers, brokers, letter-carriers, and the makers of ghee.
The loot and booty obtained in war added to the revenue of the state. Pallava considered war greater significance when in later centuries the temples became the centres of rural life. During the Pallava period the first two types of villages were predominant. In , eleven plates held together by a ring of copper, its two ends soldered and stamped with a royal seal depicting a bull and a lingam (the Pallava symbol) were discovered in Urrukkattukottam, near Puducherry.
It records a grant of a village made in the twenty-second year of the king Nandivarman ( CE). The inscriptional text commences with a eulogy of the king in Sanskrit, followed by the details of the grant in Tamil, and a concluding verse in Sanskrit. Village Life In the village, the basic assembly was the sabha, which was concerned with all matters