NOTE 43 system was still in vogue. Gold was also used to buy lands to be converted into Devadana, to make jewels and ornamental articles to be donated to the temple. Gold and gold coins were lent to corporate bodies on interest. Many inscriptions of the Cholas bear evidence to this fact. The surplus gold from the King's treasury was donated to the temple. A record of the 29th year of Raja Raja gives a list of jewels donated to the Big temple by Raja Raja. After physical verification of the articles and determining the weight of each one of them,8 they were recorded. The intention of the record is stated "^/TLD erQuiSl^y ^(^ssppG^i ^tnr^qQs-'FSrQjir (ye^L^iuirirs^ jBirii (9)®j£^£/S€i/ii fBUb Q U SSST ®S WT (S)Q j£j£SST Qeuil.Qs eresr^p/ jS^euiruj QLGIT ^1 ^v (r^eifl An instance of how each item of the inventory was described for purpose of identification is given below. ^tuiressr® Q^uUjS^SfrfTyeu^j fsrrwr ufE)(ss) All the items of the inventory clearly state the name of the donor, the date on which the gift was made, and its weight by an accepted standard weight. All these records refer to the period from 26th year of Raja Raja to his 29th year. It is not precluded that donations might have been made to the temple even before the earliest record in the 26th year. The earliest record only points to the earliest date on which the inventory was made and the date on which the order to inscribe it on stone was issued. The inventory includes articles like jewels, idols, pattams, vessels, lamps etc. Most of these articles are stated to have been made of pon (Qusressr) It is a moot question to ask if pon means gold. A few scholars suggest that pon must be interpreted as copper, panchaloka or some other base alloy. But on reading carefully through the relevant records, we can conclude thatj& ^QeFLbiQ^es)^ Qflu^ Qsiri^. u^iry Q^u^Lf^ ^Qs-LLlQfSS)^ Q^lUjS QL-ITTLL^9 Further we may note that whenever the article is said to be made