Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s5.t2.30

v1.c10.s5.t2.30

The documents relating to the cases arising out of such and other allied transactions in connection with land were called *sameya-patra*. These existed even in A.D. 1263.² This brings us to the question of land which was leased out in mediaeval days. A lease-deed was known as *aḍḍa-ōlai*. An *aḍḍa-ōlai* is mentioned in Śaka 1321.³ Two pieces of land, which belonged to the temple of Arulāla-Perumāḷ in Paḍaiparru alias Tēperumāḷanallūr and which had remained uncultivated on account of their non-irrigable high level, in the days of Virūpāksha, in Śaka 1389 (A.D. 1468-9), were purchased as *ulavakāṇi* by the treasury of Tirumēḷisaiḻvār, reclaimed and brought under cultivation. These were leased out for 200 *paṇam* of gold per year by the temple.⁴ This right of cultivation commonly known as *ulavu-kāṇiyākshi*, was generally granted, in the case of temple lands, by the temple authorities of the locality, as it happened in Śaka 1441 (A.D. 1519-20).⁵ The officer who was responsible for the granting of a lease was the temple treasurer. To Tirumalai Nāyaka, one of the Kaṇṇaḍiya Nāyakas, was granted a lease of certain temple lands, in Śaka 1442 (A.D. 1520-21) in the reign of Kṛshṇa Dēva Rāya, by the temple treasurer Īsāna-Śivāchārya of the Bhikshā Maṭha at Dēvakkapuram.⁶ In Śaka 1453 (A.D. 1531-2) the permanent lease (*ulavu-kāṇiyakshi*) of Dēvarāyaṉpaṭṭaḍai was granted again to a Kaṇṇaḍiya Nāyaka of Guṅgapuram in Paṅgala-nāḍu.⁷