Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s8.17

v1.c10.s8.17

There is every reason to believe that the farming or contract system existed from early times in southern India. Mr. Moreland's conception of farming as given in one of the above passages cannot be applied to the conditions in Hindu India, either during or before Vijayanagara times. The centralized system of revenue administration under the early Tamil and Karṇāṭaka kings,—about which we have mentioned a few details in this treatise,—precludes any idea of supposing that officers, who were appointed to administer provinces, undertook to pay a definite sum representing the net revenue of their charge, in their capacity as holders of contracts. These officers were certainly granted large provinces, or, as in the instance of the smaller officials, small estates; but they were distinct from the holders of the contracts or the guttars or the guttedārs, as they are even today called in many parts of southern India.