Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c12.s3.t2.5

v1.c12.s3.t2.5

Sometimes the compacts thus entered into were partly political and partly social. Thus in the disturbed days of Kulōttuṅga III, the assembled people (the nāḍu) of Vallanāḍu declared that thenceforward they would afford protection to the cultivators (kuḍimakkal) residing within the four boundaries of the sacred village of Tiruvaraṅgulam, Pudukkōṭṭai State, and its dēvadāna villages. If in the course of this protection any one of the assembly was found to rob, capture the cows of, or do other mischief to, the cultivators, the assembly agreed to assign two mā of wet land to the local temple by way of fine for the offence committed.² Another interesting record of A.D. 1257 describes the measures the people took "for the prosperity of the country". The revenue expected from the village of Maradūru in Uḻattūr-kūrram failed, as there were no people to cultivate the fields. To make good the loss to the State, the whole nāḍu undertook to bear the burden; and the villages, the cities, and the nāḍu of Kaḍaladaiyādilaṅgaikoṇḍasōḻa-vaḷa-nāḍu agreed among themselves to give away Maradūr to two individuals for providing offerings to the god Tirumāliśvaramuḍaiya-Nāyaṉār at Vēmbaṇū for the prosperity of the country.³