Thread by @SaamaanyaJ

A Long Thread: On Uttiramerur Temple, Tamil Nadu.

Importance: World's 1st Record of a Democratic Process

Time Period: 10th Century AD
Kingdom: Chola
King: Paranthaka

This will cover
- Essentials of the Inscription
- Elements of the Inscription
- Insights & Conclusions

1/n

Where is Uttiramerur?
- Small Village in Chengalpet District.
- Part of Kanchipuram earlier, now split.
- Culturally, still Kanchipuram

Claim to glory?
- Has a Vaikunta Perumal Temple
- With an Inscription carved on its Walls
- Records a Democratic Process in the Village

2/n

What is the Context?
- Paranthaka Chola I was the ruler
- Villagers wanted to elect their representatives
- The King readily allowed

What was the result
- A system called Kuduvolai
- Volai means Palm Leaf (Person's Name written on it)
- Kudam means Pot, in which they put

3/n

Why is this such a big deal?
- A stunningly detailed Democratic Process
- A fascinatingly sophisticated design & thought process

The Inscription itself
ifih.org/UttaramerurIns…

Scholars who have studied it?
- R A Nilakanta Shastri
- S Krishnaswami Iyengar
- Dr. R. Nagaswami

4/n

Now, the beauty of the Design

- Presiding Officer: Karanjai-Kondaya-Kramavitta-Bhattan
(An Officer working for the King)

- Frequency: Once every year
- Area organized into 30 Wards
- Election of 3 Committees
- Annual Committee
- Garden Committee
- Tank Committee

5/n

- Well thought through Qualification List
- Realistic/Practical Disqualification List
- Crystal Clear/Unambiguous Electoral Process
- Good Composition of each Committee
- Indirect kind election for Panchavara, Gold Committees
- An Accountant of sorts to verify Accounts

6/n

Now some interesting facets
- The Letter is written as 'We the Villagers'
- With the Royal authority granted
- Name of the Scribe mentioned
(Kadadippottan Sivakkuri Rajamallamangalapriyan)
- Officer of the King also mentioned
- Corrections also mentioned (Removal of guilty)

7/n

Lets look at the Qualification of the candidates
- Tax paying
- Owning a house
- Age 35-70 (Experienced but Active)
- Must have taught Mantra-brahmana (With perspective)
- Should not be on Committee last 3 years
- Soft Guideline: with Virtue, Honest earnings, Pure Mind

8/n

Lets look at the Disqualification Rules
- Anybody on previous committees who didnt submit accounts
- that person's entire extended family
- People who have performed certain sins
- Who has stolen Property
- and their extended families

9/n

Now some Questions.

Could such a Design & Process
- have existed in isolation
- have suddenly sprouted from nowhere

What approach to Life, Philosophy and Concern could have driven them to it?

Why did the King allow? Did he not think of it as an erosion of his authority?

10/n

Important
- Not a very strict Election, its more of a Selection
(Read the Electoral Process)
- A Brahmana Sabhas & other Communities Urs

Uttiramerur
- A Brahamana Chaturvedi Mangalam Settlement
- Largely SriVaishnavite
- Around 25 Inscriptions are found in Uttiramerur

11/n

- Semi-Democratic, Semi-Lottery Electoral System
- Definitely a Written Constitution
- An absolutely Self-Governance System
- Functioning of Each Committee Detailed
- Judicial, Commercial, Agriculture, Irrigation, Transportation Functions detailed
- A Method to recall Reps

12/n

Every single person in the Region had to be present during the Elections. Only the sick were exempted.

know-your-heritage.blogspot.com/2014/07/uthira…

Not a huge temple. A simple temple but TN standards - as you can see in the link

This Sabha system mostly prevalent in all of Chola Kingdom

13/n

Outside of this Temple Inscription, some important aspects of the Sabha system
- Accepted Endowments to run Temples
- Accepted Gifts from Kings, recorded every thing
- Became a Centre of Village Economy and Village Welfare

Lets Govt control of temples & choose this model

14/n

Coming to the Electoral System
- Every eligible candidate got an opportunity
- Final Lottery eliminated hatred arising out of Pure Vote
- Simple, Sustainable, Sufficient System
- Law of Probability (Lottery) everybody got chance
- 1 Year Term: Nobody could dig heels long

15/n

wanderingheritager.blogspot.com/2019/12/sri-va…

Some more Temple Photographs can be found here

Interestingly, this temple is studied by every UPSC candidate as part of Exam preparations. Wonder why curiosity does not go beyond.

rediff.com/news/special/t…

Some more photos

15/n

Who all have written about it.
- The Hindu, The Rediff have all written
- Dr. Nagasamy has written but cant find the book
- Shri. S. Gurumurthy - a fantastic Twitter Thread
- TN Govt too goes gaga about it
- Former PM RG referred to it in 1984
- Travellers & TN pride folks

16/n

This is a fine article on myindmakers on the Democratic culture in India. Refers to Uttiramerur.

myind.net/Home/viewArtic…

@pburavalli @ask0704 @DimpleAtra @myindmakers

What this establishes is
- A Democratic Culture in India
- A Sense of adequacy of Democratic Process
- A deep concern for Self-Governance
- A Royal appreciation for Self-Governance
- A Sophisticated System Design perspective for Social Systems
- A 360 Degrees thinking

18/n

The Political Design in Bharatamandala?
- Justice, Security at the Sovereign Level
- Decentralized Communities for general life
- Aristocracy for Scholastic, Elite aspects
- Democratic Process for Point Needs

Practical/Balanced System. Not Ideologically Loaded.

@nkgrock

19/n

Questions: Why is Uttiramerur
- Not famous yet?
- Not part of our Text Book?
- Not being proudly proclaimed by us?
- Not influencing the design of Temple Laws?
- Not declared as National/World Heritage?
- Not having enough books on?

Lets tell this to kids

@punarutthana

n/n

Clarification. Uttiramerur is not World's first democracy. I did not mean it that way either.

- Greece is famous , part of our text books.
- We now know of our own Janapadas of BC

Meant it as World's First recorded Democratic System/process in detail

Thanks all who responded.