While I agree with most of what you say, I do take exception to this line :
> It would be highly unlikely that vedic community were serving king as > servants. :-)
The word Servant can be used in the sense of being in the employ of (not necessarity doing household duties), for e.g. public servants are people employed by the Government.
So it is more than probable that people belonging to "vedic community" as you put it, were serving in RR's household, govt etc. If he paid for their services, then they were his servants in the broad sense of the word.
This is what the book says.Kaimal padma (1992)refers to this aspect in the book as follows
"In chapter 10 ,Venkatrama notes that Rajaraja I recruited male servants only from brhamadeyas(Bhramin communities to which the king had alloted his share of agriculture profits).This fact enhances our understanding of how such villages functioned as nodes of kingly influence throughout the empire..."
reference:
Kaimal,Padma "South Asia-Art of imperial cholas by vidya dehija/Rajarajeswaram:The pinnacle of chola art by B.venkatraman"The journal of Asian studies,May 1992,51:2 "
Sampath. All I wanted to say was that the conclusion of Venkatraman could be wrong. First of all, no one of us know on what basis did he arrive at the conclusion that Rajaraja recruited male servants only from Brahmadeyas. Next, there could be some misinterpreation on Kaimal Padma's side (ayyo Sampath, appadi paakkaadheenga. idhuvum "could be" dhaan. Hypothesis illai, just a possibility.)
venkatrama compiles the list of male servants of rajaraja from many records and inscriptions.In a long list all of them come from bhramdeya.So he concludes so.This process is accepted by his peer reviewers.He got lot of appreciation for doing this.
kalki must have faced the question of bramhin employees also
some reader must have pointed out to him that aniruththar and alwarkadiyan as bramhins were not supposed to cross the seas so in a later chapter he gives the explanation
in one chapter of ps where alwarkadiyan says something about bramhins ( the pm included) travelling across the sea
the pm says there are many people who want us to be kinatru thavalaikal. ( well frogs). we should not be like that."