The king divided his territory into a number of administrative units, each called a "Koorram" (Tamil: கூற்றம்). It was further divided into provinces called "Mandalam", which in turn was divided into many sub-provinces called "Nadus", with each Nadu consisting of many villages. A locality inside a town or village was called "Ur" and each neighborhood inside an Ur was called a "Cheri". While the king ruled over his entire territory from the capital, he often placed one or more principalities (Koorram) under the near-sovereign government of some senior member of the royal family or a feudatary. The Cilappatikaram mentions that while Nedunj Cheliyan I ruled from Madurai, his younger brother was placed in charge of the Korkai principality. The villages that come under a principality, were each governed by the elders in the respective villages, almost autonomously. This arrangement can be roughly equated to a central government (the king), under which operated a set of feudal governments (the principalities), which in turn oversaw the local governments (the villages).