Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s5.t2.97

v1.c10.s5.t2.97

Here it may reasonably be objected that these temple people were not government servants, and that, therefore, the assertions of Nuniz are not invalid. But it must be remembered that in Vijayanagara times, temples were under the direct control of the State, and that the officials of the temples must have been authorized to issue receipts to persons who gave them taxes, on behalf of the temples as well as the Crown. That the State had a definite voice in the management of the temples is evident from epigraphs. An inscription dated Śaka 1291 expired, Saumya, (A.D. 1369) records that three men were made over to the temple of Śiva at Tiruppaṅaṅgāḍu, under orders from the ruler Kampaṇa Oḍeyar, son of Bukkaṇa Oḍeyar, to look after the lamps in the temple.³ Another inscription dated only in cyclic year Sādhāraṇa (i.e., Śaka 1293) [A.D. 1371-72], informs us that three men were likewise made over to the same temple by Aḍaipattu Ilakkappar and Anaikuṇḍi Viṭṭappar under orders from the king.⁴ In Śaka 1304 Durmati (A.D. 1381-82), in the reign of Harihara Rāya, under orders from Kampaṇa Oḍeyar, four new pillars were placed to support the broken beams of the Channakēśava temple at Bēlūr.¹ The famous general of the same monarch, Guṇḍa Daṇḍanātha, according to an inscription dated about A.D. 1397, laid down rules for the performance of all the ceremonies (sixty-seven specified) formerly ordained by Biṭṭi Dēva Rāya; (i.e., Viṣṇuvardhana Hoysala); and rebuilt with seven storeys the gōpura over the doorway of the same temple.² We may also recount here the evidence from two inscriptions cited elsewhere in this treatise, referring us to the time of Dēva Rāya II. That dated only in the cyclic year Sādhāraṇa tells us that a copy of the rāyasa, or royal revenue order, was deposited in the custody of the sthānikas or temple managers of Tiruppukuḷi, Chingleput district.³ In another inscription dated Śaka 1326 (A.D. 1414-15) we are informed that the Central Government ordered the fixing of the amount of consolidated taxes from the commercial classes of Perunagar, Chingleput district, in return for their burning a perpetual lamp in the local temple of Brahmapurīśvara.⁴ According to an epigraph dated Śaka 1471 (A.D. 1549-50), in the province under the jurisdiction of Jaṭilavarman Kulaśēkhara Parākrama Pāṇḍya Dēva, under the orders of Prince Vīravēṇbāmālai, a gift of land together with a house in Kuṇṇakkuḍi was made to a private individual for looking after the accounts of the temple of Viśvanātha at Teṅkāsi.⁵ As we shall relate in a subsequent chapter, Mallarasayya, the minister of the Queen Bommarasiammā, who ruled over the Kuppaṭur-Bhāraṅgi-sime, in about A.D. 1500, "in the course of his enquiries from village to village, coming to Beṇṇagere, he stopped the daily allowance at the Nārāyaṇa temple", for some fault not stated in the epigraph.⁶ A record dated Śaka 1482, Raudri, (A.D. 1560-61) conclusively proves that in the reign of Sadāśiva Rāya temples were directly managed by the State. For, it states that Jñānaprakāśapaṇḍāram of Tiruvārūr was appointed supervisor of Sikkal, Vadakudi, Vōḍāchchēri and other temples under orders from Kṛṣṇamarāsayyan, son of Aḷiya Rāmarāsayyan.⁷