Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s8.32

v1.c10.s8.32

We assume that the guṭṭige-piṇḍa-dāna thus derived from areca gardens was related to the kaṭṭu-guṭṭige-piṇḍa-dāna mentioned in the epigraphs. In A.D. 1193 the greater leader Chamūnātha Erega made a grant of Chiyana-Sāliyūru in Muddha-Kunḍāni-vṛitti in the Sāntaḷige-naḍ of his government, with freedom from all imposts, for the first eighteen gadyāṇa payable to the treasury, and freedom from kaṭṭu-guṭṭige-piṇḍa-dāna, to the rāja-guru Vāmaśakti Dēva of the great temple of Kēdāra in the royal city of Baḷipura (Baḷḷigāme).¹ Another record dated A.D. 1252 informs us that the great ministers of the Hoysala king Sōmēśvara Dēva, Kēsirāja Daṇṇāyaka, Billayya Daṇṇayaka, Beṭṭayya Daṇṇayaka, made grants of land for the decorations and illuminations of the god Kēśava of Kēśavapura alias Belugali. One of their sons named Kēśiyaṇṇa granted additional land to the Brahmans enjoining that the latter were to pay forty gadyāṇa a year for the services of the god Kēśavēśvara together with kaṭṭu-guttige.² Our assumption that the guttige-piṇḍa-dāna was related to kaṭṭu-guttige is proved by an inscription assigned to about A.D. 1450 which relates that Viṭṭhaṇṇa and Hariyappa made a grant of land on the terms of a śrōtra-agrahāra kaṭṭu-guttage-vṛtti for the purpose of planting areca trees. And Tammaya Nāyaka with the consent of his relatives (tamma strī-putra jñāti-sāvanta-dāyādānumata aliyaṇdiramakkaḷu sahita sarvavaika matyavāgi), of his own free will, gave the stone śāsana and the copper śāsana and the kaṭṭu-guttage-patra śāsana.³