Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c12.s2.t2.39

v1.c12.s2.t2.39

Of the village officials given above, the sēnabōva was a person of much consequence. He was the village accountant. The office of a sēnabōva can claim some antiquity. It is mentioned in a Western Chālukya grant dated Śaka 1015 (A.D. 1093-4) of the times of the king Vikramāditya.² A sēnabōva in A.D. 1238 is said to have been the adhikāri of Sētu.³ It is not improbable that just as they had a sēnabōva over a village, they had also one over the nāḍu. The nāḍ-sēnabōva had to maintain what may be called the revenue register of the district. We infer this from an inscription dated A.D. 1392 of the times of Harihara Rāya II, which gives us the details of rents in Mādharahalli and the neighbouring places, and of the award of 215 varāha, two haṇa to Rāmachandra Oḍeyar "according to the accounts of the nāḍ-śyānabhāva Sāyappa".⁴