Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c10.s8.57

v1.c10.s8.57

We may likewise surmise that the people must have been slack in the matter of paying their rent, and that on being pressed by the officials of the government, they must have raised the necessary amount to pay their landlords or the government. For, as regards the question of their withholding the rent, the people could refer to the precedent set by the inhabitants of the earlier times. An inscription dated A.D. 1139 tells us how the ancient government sent a reminder to the people. "These hon you should pay without opposition and without keeping back, with the first payment of rent. The payment should be made from the first day of the order. (patthale-paḍiya-devasam.)"² That in Vijayanagara times, too, rents were in arrears we gather from the following inscription dated A.D. 1524 which deals with a grant from the head of the Śṛingēri Maṭha, Rāmacandra Bhārati, to Sūrappa Sēnabōva, a Brahman of Kārkaḷa. "The village of Keḷa Bellūr which, on account of the rent from the proprietors (named) being in arrears, was granted free of tax to the Śrī-maṭha, do we give you as a share, through love of the god Vidyāśaṅkara."³