Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c11.s2.t2.1

v1.c11.s2.t2.1

The assumption that the Vijayanagara government was "brilliant and imposing" only in external appearance while it was "utterly rotten at the core" makes us inquire whether a government that came into existence on the ruins of the great empires in the Karṇāṭaka and Chōḷa lands could really have had no redeeming features in its administration. The fact that the Vijayanagara rulers successfully withstood foreign aggression for at least two centuries is in itself sufficient to make us believe that it must have been conducted on lines approved by the people both in the southern and in the western parts of the Empire. To these regions good government was not entirely an unknown thing; and all trustworthy records agree in ascribing to pre-Vijayanagara rulers both in the Chōḷa and Karṇāṭaka lands much of the wealth which characterized southern India in the early ages of her history. It is profitable to note that in the dark days which preceded and followed the Muhammadan invasions of the south in the fourteenth century, the government of the Hindu monarchs was capable of dealing with minute questions relating to land and administration of justice. We shall not set ourselves to the task of examining in detail how government was conducted in pre-Vijayanagara days; but we shall give one or two facts that tell us how careful the rulers were, prior to the rise of the sons of Saṅgama, in exercising governmental authority. Under Rājarāja Dēva III, in about A.D. 1230, according to an inscription of that date found at the dēvadāna village of Kulōttuṅga-Sōḷanallūr, the lands of certain persons, who were declared enemies (drōhin) of the State, were sold by public auction (rajarājapperuvilai), and the price for them being fixed by eight officers of the king, the lands were purchased by some private individuals on payment of 33,000 kāśu to the royal treasury.¹ In pre-Vijayanagara times, at least so far as Chōḷamaṇḍala was concerned, the king went on a royal tour through his dominions, and thus acquired first-hand information about the actual state of affairs in the country. On one such circuit Rājarāja III paid a vist to the Tiruvorriyūr temple on the occasion of a great festival when, as we shall relate presently, he was present at the muscial performance given by one of the dancing-girls of the temple.² Grants were made on such or different occasions to persons of approved merit or to institutions; and these endowments were recorded on stones placed within the precincts of the temple. When such lithic records were wanted or had to be renewed, they were copied, obviously at the instance of the Government.³