Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c12.s2.t2.5

v1.c12.s2.t2.5

Before we mention the names of other village officials, we may note some details about the composition of a village assembly in Vijayanagara times. A village assembly was sometimes called a *mahā-sabhā*. The great assembly (*mahā-sabhai*) of Kāvirippākkam, North Arcot district, is mentioned in Śaka 1381 (A.D. 1459-60).¹ The assembly of Tiruvāṇḍārkōyil, Pondicherry, French Settlements, in Śaka 1327 (A.D. 1405-6) consisted of 4000 members.² A record of Virūpāksha Rāya I, found at Kuṇṇāṇḍarkōyil, Pudukkoṭṭai State, dated only in the cyclic year Bhāva, refers to an assembly composed of certain specified groups of people (*kūṭṭam*) such as those attached to Tiruvaraṅgam (Śrigaṅgam) and Tiruvāṇaikkāval (Jambukēśvaram), of the three recognized classes of *pallis*, of the four or six subdivisions of professionals, of artisans (*rathākara*), and of other castes and caste-leaders living in the three districts.³ The heads of the commercial groups and corporations, as can be made out from an inscription of a later date (A.D. 1664), seemed to have formed an integral part of the village assemblies also in the Karṇāṭaka. Here, in the same year, a village assembly is said to have been composed of *gauḍas*, *sēnabōvas*, *seṭṭis*, and *paṭṭaṇsvāmis* of Agali, Maduvidi, Raṇṭavallu and other villages.⁴