seems legitimate to infer that matters that we are apt to consider politico-economic like the settlement of a civil dispute, the punishment of crime, or the purchase and sale of land, must have also engaged the attention of such popular gatherings in each locality.”4 Our knowledge of the machinery of rural administration and self-governing institutions becomes clear when we pass on to the next period in the history of South India, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 K. A. Nilakanṭa Sastri, Studies in Cola History and Administration, p. 76. |