1. Land grants recorded mainly on copperplates provide detailed information on land revenues and taxation.
2. Revenue came almost exclusively from rural sources, mercantile and urban institutions being largel unplanned.
3. Two categories of taxes were levied on the village.
4. The land revenue paid by the cultivator to the state varied from 1/6th to 1/10th of the produce, and was collected by the village and paid to the state collector.
5. In the second category were local taxes, also collected in the village but utilized for services in the village itself.
6. The tax money was spent for repairing irrigation works, illuminating the temple, etc.
7. When the state land tax was inadequate, the revenue was supplemented by additional taxes on draught cattle, toddy-drawers, marriage- parties, potters, goldsmiths, washer men, textile-manufacturers, weavers, brokers, letter-carriers, and the makers of ghee.

1. The Bhakti movement which originated in South India found its greatest expression in the songs composed by the Azhwars and Nayanrnars.
2. The poems of the VaishnaviteAzhwars were later compiled as the Nalayira Divya Prabhandam.
3. The Saiva literature was canonized as the Panniru Tirumurai.
4. The Thevaram, composed by Appar (Thirunavukkarasar), Sambandar (Thirugnanasambandar) and Sundarar; and Thiruvavasagarn by Manickavasagar are prominent texts which are read as sacred literature to this day.
5. Periyapuranam written by Sekizhar, in a later period also provides much historical information.
6. The Mathavilasa Prahasanam written by Mahendravarman I in Sanskrit, is an important source for the Pallava period.

1. The temple comprises three shrines, where the prominent ones are dedicated to Siva and Vishnu.
2. The exterior wall of the shrine, dedicated to Vishnu, and the interior of the boundary wall are elaborately carved and sculpted.
3. In southern India, this is one amongst the earliest and most important structural temples.
4. Unlike other structures of the region, the Shore Temple is a five-storeyed rockcut monolith. The monolithic vimanas are peculiar to Mamallapuram .

1. The Pallavas had maritime trade with south-east Asia, where by now there were three major kingdoms: Kambuja (Cambodia), Champa (Annam), and Srivijaya (the southern Malaya peninsula and Sumatra).
2. On the west coast, the initiative in the trade with the West was gradually passing into the hands of the foreign traders settled along the coast, mainly Arabs.
3. Indian traders were becoming suppliers of goods rather than carriers of goods to foreign countries, and communication with the west became indirect, via Arabs, and limited to trade alone.

1. Land ownership was with the king, who could make revenue grants to his officers and land-grants to Brahmans, or else continue to have land cultivated by smallscale cultivators and landlords.
2. The latter was the most common practice. Crown lands were leased out to tenants-at-will. The status of the village varied according to the tenures prevailing.
3. The village with an inter-caste population paid land revenue. The brahmadeya villages were donated to a single Brahman or a group of Brahmans.
4. These villages tended to be more prosperous than the others because no tax was paid.
5. There were devadana villages, donated to a temple, and the revenue was consequently received by the temple authorities and not by the state.