Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s8.39

v1.c10.s8.39

We may now consider questions relating to rent. An inscription of A.D. 1229 mentions rents, shares, and other details of a sameya-śāsana. Shares of a particular kind were called ōhala.² The rental in the Vijayanagara times was known as sotta (sūtra) guttige, and the grant which embodied it, sotta-guttigeya-kallu-paṭṭe (stone roll of the rental). This we gather from an epigraph dated A.D. 1533.³ Yereme Nāyaka in A.D. 1498, gave to Nañjaṇa Seṭṭi and Rāma Seṭṭi of Maṭhakere, for the boundary erected by the Oḍagere sub-tenants, on the south side of Horanahaḷḷi, seven gadyāṇa as a sūlla guttige.⁴ This same donor, who is called in an inscription of the same year, Yarama Nāyaka, together with Narasaṇṇa Nāyaka, granted to Gaṇāchari Liṅga a sūtra guttige of thirty gadyāṇas.⁵ The hereditary nature of the holding of a sotta guttige is made clear in an inscription dated about A.D. 1560 which informs us that a certain Ara . . . . bemalā Dēva of Agara, the immemorial Durgga agrahāra gave for the (?) carpenters, potters, goldsmiths, and barbers, . . . .whoever is in enjoyment of the guttige land granted by our father. . . . Timmayya, will pay rent as follows for that guttige . . . ? carpenters, five gadyāṇa; goldsmiths, eight; potters eight; barbers, eight;