Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s5.t2.49

v1.c10.s5.t2.49

From the above it is clear that the Hindu State in mediaeval days bestowed careful attention on the question of land administration, since a happy solution of that problem alone enabled the monarchs to stabilize their resources. They had some definite methods of improving revenue which may be recapitulated before we pass on to the topic of the revenue administration itself. The Government advanced money to the ryots to enable them to provide themselves with cattle, etc.; it repaired broken tanks; it dug wells on high grounds; it invited colonists from foreign countries on easy terms and granted kāvulus to them; it encouraged the manufacture of articles in great demand by supplying seeds etc; and finally, it gave patronage to foreign merchants to settle in new pēṭhas by advancing to them loans.¹ To these activities of the State we should add those of corporate bodies, like the unions of the Vīra Baṇajas, the organization of the Brahmans in agrahāras and the like, which were also instrumental in giving an impetus to the cultivators. In about the year A.D. 1372 all the Brahmans of an agrahāra, the name of which is unfortunately defaced in the inscription, "agreeing among themselves" gave a loan of 150 gadyāṇa from the temple treasury of the god Rāmanātha to the ryots.²