Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s8.22

v1.c10.s8.22

Our assumption that Brahmans also, like the agricultural and commercial classes, held contracts is based on another stone inscription dated A.D. 1104 which speaks of bhaṭṭa-guṭṭas. The record relates that Īśvarayya Nāyaka with the knowledge of the townsmen of the great royal city of Baḷḷigāve, of the five maṭhasthānas and of Daṇḍanāyaka Gōvindarasa, having purchased certain land (specified), granted it for the offerings of the god Narasimha in A.D. 1104. And it was agreed on this occasion that "the ministers for peace and war of the Vanavāsi Twelve thousand will give one gadyāṇa a year, the bhaṭṭa-guṭṭa one pa, the king's servants ten vi (maṭṭam Vanavāsi-dvādaśa-sahasrādhikārigaḷa sandhi-vigrahigaḷu varsha prati kuḍuva ga 1 bhaṭṭa-guṭṭaru pa 1 arasāḷgaḷu vi 10).² We are unable to ascertain the official position of the bhaṭṭa-guṭṭas, who are here classed with the king and the ministers for peace and war. Nevertheless it may not be far wrong to assume that the term bhaṭṭa-guṭṭas was obviously used in connection with Brahmans who held some unspecified kinds of guṭṭas.