Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c11.s2.t2.5

v1.c11.s2.t2.5

The concern with which the Government set matters right is seen in an inscription dated in the 3rd regnal year of an unidentified king who ruled over the Koṅgu-dēśa. This epigraph of Parakēsari Tribhuvana-chakravartin Kōṇērinmaikoṇḍān, king over northern Koṅgu-dēśa, deals with the remission of a tax called voṭṭachchu in favour of the Saiva temples of Koṅgu-dēśa. The inscription relates that the tax voṭṭachchu which these institutions were paying (to Government?) in previous days, being found subsequently heavy because of the requirements of daily worship, was altogether abolished. In this connection it was ordered—(a) that in accordance with the agreement with Kuṭṭāḍum Nāyaṉār, the managers of these temples were not to pay further taxes even on the production of the king's order (ōlai); (b) that no (frivolous) demands from chiefs who took possession of the district (as governors) were to be noticed; (c) that in remunerating the servants who carried the royal order one paṇam was to be paid on orders actually bearing the king's signature, and one paṇam on orders which were issued under royal warrant; (d) that the king's messengers might not receive any travelling expenses and food, nor even handfuls of rice; (e) that the two paṇam (mentioned above) were to be paid only by such as had been paying already; (f) that when under the king's orders, the 600 achchu thus payable to Government (?)