Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c12.s2.t2.70

v1.c12.s2.t2.70

In the generality of cases, as we remarked while dealing with the revenue system of Vijayanagara, the boundaries were marked by means of stones with the figure of Vāmana or the dwarf. This method of denoting the boundaries of villages seems to have been common from the earliest times of Vijayanagara history, as is evident from an epigraph dated A.D. 1336 which describes the demarcation of boundaries with stone stamped "with the illustrious Vāmana (dwarf) seal".¹ Sometimes the boundary stone, as in A.D. 1390-1, were marked with figures of the sun and moon.² In the times of Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya the Great, according to a record dated A.D. 1512-13, pillars of Garuḍa with the impression of Vāmana were also used.³ The boundary stones, evidently of a koḍage grant held by a gauḍa, were sometimes also inscribed with the letters gavuḍa-goḍagi and placed at a distance of 803 bows.⁴ As regards the other queston of determining the direction of the flow of water in a village, we may note that it sometimes necessitated the intervention of the Central Government. This is inferred from an epigraph dated A.D. 1553 which narrates that Rāma Rāju Kōnappa Dēva Mahārāja settled a water dispute between two villages in the Anantapur district.⁵