Kaniyalar old and new: Landholding policy of the Chola state in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

There are two twelfth-century Chola inscriptions recording the royal orders concerning public auctions of land and prohibition of land purchase in the lower Kaveri valley. By analysing these two and other related inscriptions* of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the authors clarify the politico-economic conditions of the Chola state, which caused the emergence of big-scale landholders from among the military and other privileged people towards the latter half of Chola rule. These big landholders carved out chiefdoms for themselves in some localities, and finally brought about the demise of the Chola state, preparing the region for the emergence of a feudal state formation in the fourteenth century and after.