Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c11.s2.t1.3

v1.c11.s2.t1.3

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.