relating to the village, including endowments, land, irrigation, cultivated, punishment of crime, the keeping of a census and other necessary records. Village courts dealt with petty criminal cases. At a higher level, in towns and districts, courts were presided over by government officers, with the king as the supreme arbiter of justice. The sabha was a formal institution but it worked closely with the urar , an informal gathering of the entire village.
Above this was a district council which worked with nadu or district administration. Villages populated entirely or largely by Brahmans preserved records of the functioning of assemblies and councils. The link between the village assembly and the official administration was the headman of the village. Tank Irrigation A special category of land, eripatti or tank land, was known only in south India.
This land was donated by individuals, the revenue from which was set apart for the maintenance of the village tank. Rainwater was stored in the tank so that land could be irrigated during the annual long, dry spell. The tank, lined with brick or stone, was built through the cooperative effort of the village, and its water was shared by all Vaikunta Perumal temple - Kanchipuram XI History - Lesson - - Cultural Development in South India Maritime Trade Unlike in the Ganges plain, where large areas were available for cultivation, the regions controlled by the Pallavas and the Chalukyas commanded a limited income from land. Mercantile activity had not developed sufficiently to make a substantial contribution to the economy.
The Pallavas had maritime trade with south-east Asia, where by now there were three major kingdoms: Kambuja (Cambodia), Champa (Annam), and Srivijaya (the southern Malaya peninsula and Sumatra). On the west coast, the initiative in the trade with the West was gradually passing into the hands of the foreign traders settled along the coast, mainly Arabs. Indian traders were becoming suppliers of goods rather than carriers of goods to foreign countries, and communication with the west became indirect, via Arabs, and limited to trade alone. Society Brahmins as learned scholars in literature,