Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s5.t2.74

v1.c10.s5.t2.74

Some more details about the working of the Revenue Department in general, especially in connection with the granting of lands, may be gathered from a stone inscription dated A.D. 1418 of the times of Dēva Rāya II. After recording the grant of certain lands by Peddaṇṇa Nāgaṇṇa's son Mallana, of the *Kāśyapa-gōtra*, to Nāgaṇṇa's son Nāgaṇṇa of the *Viśvāmitra-gōtra*, the inscription proceeds to give the previous history of the lands granted. The lands, which had been received by the donor along with a copper-plate grant from Harihara Rāya II, were situated in Dēviyaka's Haravari at Koppavaḷḷi. When Viṭhṭhaṇṇa Oḍeyar was ruling the Āraga-rājya by order of the king Dēva Rāya, he gave a *śilā-śāsana* or stone grant about the details of the *okkalu* or tenants to the *mahājanas* of the *agrahāra* of Pratāpahariharapura and to Peddaṇṇa Nāgaṇṇa-ayya's son Mallaṇṇa-ayya as follows: "Formerly when śri (with titles) Harihara Mahārāya granted, with pouring of water, as a *sarvamānya*, along with a copper-plate inscription, the *agrahāra* named Pratāpahariharapuram after himself to Peddaṇṇa Nāgaṇṇa-ayya and the Brahmans, he sent an order to Sōvaṇṇa Oḍeyar, who was then ruling over the Āraga kingdom, telling him to make a distribution of the tenants paying assessment to the *dharmasthala* or *agrahāra* so that there might not arise any trouble between the Government tenants and those of the villages constituting the *agrahāra*. Accordingly Sōvaṇṇa Oḍeyar sent for Arasaṇṇa Heggaḍe and Vīra Heggaḍe of Neluvāgilu in the Mēlubhāgi of the Sāṭalige-nāḍu, and having convened a meeting of the residents of the nine *agrahāras* and the 1,005 land-owners of Sātaliġe at the chāvaḍi, or court of Āraga, called upon Arasaṇṇa Heggaḍe and Vira Heggaḍe to distribute the tenants paying assessment to the dharmasthala whereupon Arasaṇṇa Heggaḍe, having distributed the tenants for the Government village Neluvāgilu and separated the tenants for Tumbaravalli which was a dharmasthala, gave a paṭṭe or roll of assessment to Peddaṇṇa Nāgaṇṇa-ayya stating that these tenants were not to be molested either by the king or the nāḍu for any loss that might occur at Neluvāgilu. Then follow the names of the tenants and the amounts of assessment they had severally to pay, as entered in the paṭṭe, together with the names of the witnesses who affixed their signatures to it. This paṭṭe was produced by Peddaṇṇa Nāgaṇṇa's son Mallaṇa before Viṭṭhaṇṇa Oḍeyar, who, observing that it contained the distribution of the tenants according to the order of Harihara Mahārāya, granted a śila-śāsana in confirmation and affixed his own signature to it.¹