Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s8.11

v1.c10.s8.11

If "Farming had become established as the mainstay of the Hindu agrarian system in the south by the end of the thirteenth century", one fails to see how it could ever have been "a new system" introduced by the Muhammadans.³ Without entering into the question whether farming had become established as the mainstay of the Hindu agrarian system prior to the rise of the sons of Saṅgama, we may note a few facts about the futility of asserting that farming was an innovation brought by the Muhammadans into southern India. Farming or contract system existed in the south—if not also in the north—when the newcomers came to the land. This is proved by the measures which Ghyas-ud-din Tuglaq, Muhammad Tuglaq, and Firūz Shāh took to stabilize their revenues. We have to add to this the testimony of epigraphs which speak of the *guttige*, *guttage*, *gutta*, or *guttu*, and of four different names in connection with it, as distinct from the fixed rent or *siddhāya*, in pre-Muhammadan times in southern India. From both these sources it is clear that farming or contract system was also indigenous to the country.