Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c11.s2.t1: Section 1. Verdict passed on Vijayanagara Administration in General
Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c11.s2.t1
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Section 1. Verdict passed on Vijayanagara Administration in General
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The above is a rough sketch of the administrative machinery of the Vijayanagara monarchs. A further examination of the same subject leads us to the interesting question of the problems which faced the rulers and the methods which they adopted to solve them. Before we dwell at some length on them, it may not be improper to note in passing the adverse criticism which has been passed on the Vijayanagara system of administration. Wilks wrote the following: "The external appearance of the general government was brilliant and imposing; its internal organisation feeble and irregular: foreign conquest was a more fashionable theme than domestic finance at the court of Vijeyanuggur".¹ The Rev. Taylor remarked: ".... his (i.e., Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya's) conquests were extensive, and his power, nominally at least, very great. It is not certain that internal good government kept pace with external splendour and conquest: probably not so".² The author of *The Madura Country* wrote: "... showy and powerful as it was in appearance, (it) proved to be utterly rotten at the core; and at once fell to pieces on receiving a few heavy and well directed blows...".³
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¹ Wilks, *The Sketches*, I, p. 20 (1810); I, p. 13 (1869). ² Taylor, *O.H. MSS.*, II, p. 94. ³ Nelson, *Madura Country*, p. 176. ⁴ Rice, *My. Gaz.*, I, p. 471 (1st ed.); p. 578 (Rev. ed.). These words of Rice seems to have guided the Rev. Heras, who writes almost an identical comment on the revenue administration of the two rulers. *Aravidu* pp. 40-1. Rev. Heras also writes about Veṅkaṭa II, thus: "As to the internal welfare of the country, the twenty-nine years of Venkata's reign were years of prosperity and comparative peace". *Ibid.*, p. 511.
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That these remarks, which judged Vijayanagara on the strength of the evidence of the chaotic days of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were the outcome of a lack of knowledge of Vijayanagara history can be seen by citing the opinion of Rice, who writes thus: "It appears that in the time of Kṛṣṇa Rāya and Achyuta Rāya the revenues of the Vijayanagar State were first reduced to a regular form, checked by ordinances, and a system of accounts and management introduced, calculated to improve the revenue of the empire gradually in yearly amount without distressing the inhabitants".⁴ To these remarks of writers on Vijayanagara administration we may add those of Dr. S. K. Aiyangar: "The civil administration was so organised over this vast region that the people carried on the administration themselves more or less completely subject to the supervision and control of the great officers of state, who constituted a comparatively small hierarchy touring the country to set matters right, wherever their attention should be called for. This kind of an organisation left the Imperial revenues almost exclusively for the purpose of organising the military resources for the defence of the northern frontier.
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It was necessary on this frontier to adopt the policy of avoiding war by being ever the most ready for it. Such a policy involved a military expenditure which would have exhausted the resources of an ordinary Empire'.¹
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¹ S. K. Aiyangar, *Some Contributions*, pp. 301-2, 410-11. For the view that Vijayanagara was essentially a military state, see Iswari Prasad, *Med. Ind.*, pp. 424-6.