Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s5.t2.37

v1.c10.s5.t2.37

A permanent lease of cultivation was distinct from a permanent grant of land under a tank called *daśavaṇḍa*. *Daśavaṇḍa* was rent-free land granted for building or repairing a tank, on condition of paying one-tenth (or a small share) of the produce.⁸ The granting of a *daśavaṇḍa* of a tank, as in Śaka 1450 (A.D. 1528-29), was very common throughout the Vijayanagara Empire. In that year the permanent grant of *daśavaṇḍa* of the tank at Doṇḍavaṭe to a certain Maleśāṇi was made by the people of that village with the permission of Muddaṇṇa Nāyaka, who was enjoying the village as an *umbali* or rent-free gift.¹ This enables us to conjecture that land which belonged to a government official as *umbali* estates, was given by him as a gift to a person for agricultural improvements obviously in the presence of the village people. Rent-free lands granted to Brahmans below a tank were called *brahmedēya*, and those granted to temples, *dēvadēya* lands.² These sometimes came under the general designation of *sarvamānya* lands.