Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s5.t2.64

v1.c10.s5.t2.64

These changes in the rates of taxes payable to government, with the manipulation of other details in connection with them, came under the jurisdiction of the Revenue Department, which was called aṭhavane.² We gather this from an inscription dated A.D. 1416, which speaks of Timmarasa and Tipparasa of the aṭhavane.³ Then again we have under Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya the Great, in about A.D. 1515, Chennarasa of the Revenue Department (aṭhavaneya).⁴ The chief director of this department was called sarvādhikāri or aṭhavaneya-pārupalyagāra, who in vital matters was not allowed to exercise independent judgment without the knowledge and sanction of the sovereign.⁵ The superficiality of some of the observations of Nuniz is apparent when he asserts that such a department never existed at all. "The King has no controller of the revenues nor other officers, nor officers of his house, but only the captains of his kingdom. . . ."⁶