Last weekend was a long one and, with many roads empty owing to the great migration “to the native,” as Chennai says, I decided to visit Uthiramerur. It had long been on my list of must-see places in and around the city. To someone deeply interested in civic history, this was a kind of pilgrimage. In my view, at least in the Indian context, Uthiramerur is where the concept of civic administration was first documented and enshrined in stone. That alone makes it a site of immense historical significance.
The Temples of Uthiramerur
Most visitors head to the main temple dedicated to Sundara Varadaraja Perumal. It is a magnificent precinct, with nine sanctums to Vishnu distributed across three levels, each reached by a narrow flight of stairs. In plan, it resembles the Parameswara Vinnagaram or Vaikunta Perumal Temple in Kanchipuram, which also has three tiers with a sanctum on each level. The Koodal Azhagar Temple in Madurai follows a similar pattern. All three are Pallava in origin, though only the Kanchipuram shrine remains largely as originally conceived.
The Uthiramerur temple bears strong Chola influence, while the Madurai shrine was greatly expanded by the Pandyas and Nayaks. Beyond the main temple, Uthiramerur has several other historic shrines. The Balasubramania and Kailasanatha temples are notable examples, the latter being another Pallava structure restored with care by the REACH Foundation. Yet the temple I most wanted to see was the Vaikuntha Perumal Temple. Unfortunately, it was locked when I arrived, leaving me determined to return another day, and preferably during daylight hours.
The Vaikuntha Perumal Temple and Civic Administration
Managed by the Archaeological Survey of India, the Vaikuntha Perumal Temple is Pallava in origin but was extensively built over by the Cholas. Like the temple at Tiruvottriyur, it serves as a continuous record of successive dynasties—the Pallavas, Cholas, Pandyas, Sambuvarayas and the Nayaks of the Vijayanagar Empire. What makes the shrine truly remarkable, however, is a set of inscriptions dating to the tenth century. These inscriptions provide one of the earliest recorded systems for selecting office-bearers responsible for civic administration.
The Uthiramerur Election System
The eligibility criteria for office were stringent. Candidates had to be between 35 and 70 years old, own property purchased through their own earnings, and have no accusations of misconduct against them. More importantly, the public could remove office-bearers if dissatisfied with their performance. The election process itself was unique. Villagers wrote the names of their preferred candidates on cadjan leaves, known as olai, and placed them in a pot or kudam. The person receiving the highest number of nominations emerged as the winner. The system became known as Kudavolai.
What is especially significant is that the villagers themselves devised this method and obtained the consent of the Chola Emperor Parantaka. It was not imposed from above but emerged from local initiative. The inscriptions therefore provide a rare glimpse into how civic governance functioned at the grassroots level over a thousand years ago. They also reveal a sophisticated understanding of representation, accountability and public participation. These ideas continue to occupy administrators and political thinkers even today, making the Uthiramerur inscriptions remarkably relevant to modern discussions on governance.
From Uthiramerur to the Greater Chennai Corporation
Why dwell on a place that lies outside the city limits? The answer is simple. It is fascinating that the Greater Chennai Corporation, often regarded as the mother of all Indian civic bodies, was established in 1688, almost three centuries after the Uthiramerur system had disappeared. With barely 90 kilometres separating the two locations, this region emerges as a remarkable pioneer in civic administration. Of course, Sir Josiah Child and the East India Company directors who founded the Corporation can be forgiven for believing they were introducing something entirely new.
After all, the inscriptions at Uthiramerur remained undeciphered until around 1905, when the Archaeological Survey of India published them. Until then, the details of this earlier system of administration lay forgotten. Yet once rediscovered, they revealed striking similarities between medieval and modern civic governance. The continuity is particularly interesting because it suggests that ideas of representation, ward-based administration and departmental oversight had deep roots in this region long before colonial institutions emerged and formalised similar structures under British rule.
Administrative Committees and Wards
The elected representatives at Uthiramerur oversaw several departments. These included gardens, tanks, the treasury, revenue collection and overall administration. Each department functioned under a committee known as a Variyam, while the person in charge was called a Variyar. Equally noteworthy is that the town itself was divided into wards, with each ward electing its own representative. Many of these features survive in modern civic administration. Even today, the Greater Chennai Corporation functions through ward representation and administrative boards that continue to bear the name Variyam.
Questions That Uthiramerur Leaves Behind
The Vaikuntha Perumal Temple stands on a high plinth with a stone pavilion in front. A flight of steps leads to both the sanctum, crowned by a circular canopy, and the pavilion itself. Tradition holds that the village administrators met in this pavilion and governed their respective departments from there. They were, in many ways, successors to the janapadas of earlier times. The setting gives a tangible sense of how civic administration may have functioned and how closely governance was linked to the social and religious life of the community.
Yet Uthiramerur raises more questions than it answers. Why was it important enough to have one large temple and several medium-sized shrines in such close proximity? Where are the traces of the town that was once divided into thirty wards? And why did both the settlement and its seemingly efficient administrative system fade away? Was it simply too idealistic to endure? Looking back from the present day, one cannot help feeling that many of its eligibility criteria would themselves struggle to qualify in our times.
This article appeared in The Hindu-https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/the-grandmother-of-all-city-administrations-at-uthiramerur/article71468167.ece
My book, Chennai, A Biography can be ordered–http://My book, Chennai, A Biography can be ordered-https://sriramv.com/2021/12/27/how-to-buy-autographed-copies-of-chennai-a-biography-from-outstation/20.ece