At a time, when different political parties have fielded their respective candidates in the upcoming general elections, it is interesting to learn how elections were conducted in the ancient Tamil society when there were no printed ballot papers and EVMs.
At a time, when different political parties have fielded their respective candidates in the upcoming general elections, it is interesting to learn how elections were conducted in the ancient Tamil society when there were no printed ballot papers and EVMs.
The chapter Andraya Thamizhnaattu Therthal (Elections in the then Tamil Nadu) from the book Thamizhaga Tholliyal Aayvugal throws light on how elections for the members of Gram Sabha (Village Assembly) were held centuries ago. The book has been authored by veteran historian Pulavar Se Rasu, who is also the former head of, Department of Archaeology and Epigraphy, Tamil University, Thanjavur.
“Elections used to be conducted in various parts of the ancient Tamil land even before 1000 years. However, unlike today, there were no political parties, no party symbols, no election campaign, and no poll expenses” says Rasu, who is an author of over 100 books on history and epigraphy.
The historian notes that certain stone inscriptions are found in the districts of Kanchipuram, Vellore, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvallur, and Ariyalur. They speak on such elections held in the bygone era.
Citing from an epigraph found at Uthiramerur in Kancheepuram district, Rasu writes:
“In ancient times, elections were conducted to select members for the kudumbus (wards) and rules were laid down for the candidates to contest in the polls. With Uthiramerur having as many as thirty wards, the election rules mentioned in the epigraph say that a contestant, who wants to get elected as the administrative member of the village assembly, should be the native of the ward he represents.
The essential criteria for a person who wanted to contest in the election are as follows:
1) He should possess an own house built on a legally-owned site
2) He should own a Kaalveali Nilam (A quarter of land measuring 6.74 acres), which attracted tax.
3) He should be a literate
4) He should be a man of good morals
5) His wealth should be from fair means
6) He should have the competence to solve issues
7) He should not have been a member of the vaariyam (Village assembly) in the last three years”
8) The contestant should be aged between 35 and 70
By reading the above eight criteria, one may wonder whether a present-day candidate of a political party can fulfill the fourth and fifth criteria “He should be a man of good morals” and “His wealth should be from fair means”
Rasu says that each member of the particular ward would write the name of a contestant with his consent on a piece of palm leaf and cast it in a pot, which is allotted to that particular ward. In such a way, all the thirty pots of the thirty respective wards would contain names of the contestants written on pieces of palm leaf. The pots would then be sealed and brought to a public place. There, a young boy would be asked to pick one palm leaf from each of the thirty pots. Then the thirty selected palm leaves would be placed in another pot. Finally, the persons of the names written on those thirty palm leaves would become the administrative members of their respective wards. This kind of electing representatives in ancient Tamil land was called Kudavolai Murai (Vote by ballot, as recorded on the palm leaf and cast into a pot)
When one such election was conducted at Uthiramerur in 921 AD, an election officer by the name 'Kondaya Gramavitha Pattan Aana Somasi Perumal' visited the village on Election Day.
Bearing testimony to the existence of the kudavolai method of electing representatives even many centuries before the date of Uthiramerur inscription, the 77th song in Agananuru, a Sangam period classical literary work, employs the act of picking frond ballots from the pots as a strange simile to describe a dreadful scene in the battlefield! Translated by Vaidehi Herbet, the lines in the song from Agananuru read thus:
…Like the public officials who break
the seals of the rope-tied ballot pots
and remove frond ballots, vultures with
red ears remove the intestines of the
fierce-eyed warriors…