Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c12.s2.t2.50

v1.c12.s2.t2.50

In Vijayanagara times a tax was paid for the maintenance of the village police. In the record of the reign of Virūpāksha I, dated only in the cyclic year Bhāva, which we have already cited, the composition of the village assembly of Kunnāṇḍārkōyil is given together with the fact that the Kaḷḷa-Vēḷaikkāṛars, who sought refuge with the village authorities, were assigned the duty of guarding the village lands and the lives of the people. In return for this they were permitted to collect from each family of the eighteen castes (padinēṇ-būmi-samayattār) one paṇam annually and one ring on each marriage occasion.² This suggests that in some localities the village authorities and the Vijayanagara Government did not institute a regular body of village police; and that they entrusted the duty of maintaining order in the local units to a class of people who may have been the traditional custodians of the village peace. It was not that the rulers were ignorant of maintaining a regular police force. 'Abdur Razzāq, as we have remarked elsewhere, definitely tells us that the capital contained a large police establishment. "Opposite the mint is the office of the Prefect of the City, to which it is said 12,000 policemen are attached; and their pay, which equals each day 12,000 fanams, is derived from the proceeds of the brothels".³ There is evidence of what appears to be money-payment given to the village police, and the fact that an official policeman is mentioned in inscriptions proves that there was a definite police organization in the villages.