30 SOCIAL SCIENTIST provide evidence of movements refusing to pay taxes; of action for the reduction of taxes; of campaigns in opposition to certain taxes; and of cultivators themselves fixing the tax rate. In the third year of the reign ofKulothunga I (1070-1120), the people decided not to pay taxes, in protest against the imposition of unprecedented taxes on cows and buffaloes.5 Although there was great traditional hostility between the castes of the 'right hand9 and the 'left hand', the toiling people belonging to both camps got together in times of trouble. Opposing the exorbitant taxation that had no reference to the quality of the land, the two camps assembled in a great meeting and themselves fixed, according to the quality and yield of their particular plots of land, the rate of Rajakaram (dues to the king) and the rate of taxes due to temple. The Vaikavur inscription provides evidence on this.6 The Korukkai inscription of the Thanjavur region tells us of an assembly of the '98 divisions of the right hand' and the '98 divisions of the left hand9 which resolved to oppose improper or arbitrary taxes.7 Several inscriptions suggest that the movement for the reduction of taxes was conducted with militancy. Struggles took the form of refusing to sow until the objectionable taxes were lowered,8 or taking shelter in other villages and refusing to enter their own villages until the taxes were lowered.9 Brahmin and Velala landlords had their lands cultivated. In the case of Brahmin landlords who did not have even the semblance of direct connection with the cultivation of the land, their role as parasites was directly and immediately identifiable. In the Ur and Sabhai, the dominance of the Brahmins and Velalas prevailed. Landless agricultural labourers were denied any place in these organizations.10 Apart from the king and the governors, the Ur and the Sabhai were vested with the authority to levy taxes. As a result, the relations between the Brahmin and Velala landlords on the one hand and the masses of the peasantry on the other were greatly strained. The peasant masses rose in revolt against the oppression, corruption and immorality of Brahmin and Velala landlords. Discovering the fraud perpetuated on the state by the Brahmins, Velalas and officials— who had ganged up, collected a penal tax from the people of the 'right hand5 and 'left hahd' and appropriated it themselves—the people developed a strong movement against such oppression. They resolved that homesteads should not be provided to those who had defrauded them and the state; that nobody belonging to the 'right hand' and the 'left hand9 should write accounts for them; and that their acts should not be supported or connived at in any way. They decided that if members of the 'right hand or left hand' transgressed or violated this sanction and helped Brahmins, Velalas or officials, such persons should be "stabbed to death in the place they were caught in the act.'511