Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c12.s2.t2.7

v1.c12.s2.t2.7

The assemblies sometimes met in a temple. The great assembly of Rājarāja-chaturvēdimaṅgalam assembled, in Śaka 1408 (A.D. 1558-9), in the *Kulaśēkhara-maṇḍapa* underneath the pandal called *Udayamārtaṇḍan* in front of the god of the temple who was seated on the *pīṭha* called after Viśvanātha Nāyaka, the Agent of Rāma Rāja.⁵ The activities of village assemblies are seen especially in connection with questions relating to land. A village assembly could sell land, obviously on behalf of the village, to the local temple or to the people. According to a record dated only in the cyclic year Śukla (i.e., Śaka 1312 = A.D. 1390-1), the assembly of Tirumaliśai, Chingleput district, sold land to the temple of Jagannātha Perumāḷ of the same locality.⁶ The village of Iṭṭigaipaṭṭu was sold for 400 *paṇam* to certain individuals by the assembly of Ukkal in Pāgūru-nāḍu, in Śaka 1304 (A.D. 1382-3).¹ The same village assembly had sold the village of Arasāṇipālai to an individual of Sērrūr in Tenkarai in Śaka 1294 (A.D. 1372-3) for 600 kaśu.² Similar records dealing with the sale of land by the village assembly of Ukkal inform us that that village was also called Vikramābharaṇa-caturvēdimaṅgalam.³ The village assemblies also confirmed the rights of temples over lands. The assembly of Āṇaimēlagaram alias Nagarīśvara-caturvēdimaṅgalam, in the Tanjore district, in Śaka 1321 (A.D. 1409-10) in the times of Virūpaṇṇa Oḍeyar, confirmed the rights of the Mārgasahāyēśvara temple over lands which had already belonged to it, those which had been gradually added on, and those which once belonged to the god Kalakūttar, whose temple had been destroyed by fire.⁴ In some instances the assemblies gave a village as a gift to temples. The hamlet of Karuvēppampūṇḍi, in Śaka 1356 (A.D. 1434-5), was given as a tirunāmaṭṭu-kāṇi to the temple of Tiruppulivaṇamuḍaiya-Nāyiṉār by the assembly of Uttaramēru alias Rājēndra-Śōḻa-caturvēdimaṅgalam.⁵