Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c13.s2.6

v1.c13.s2.6

Some idea of the manner in which these early village courts of justice dealt with cases of grave importance can be gathered from records found in the South Arcot district. These epigraphs contain details about cases of murder under provocation and of accidental death, and the method by which culprits were punished. In A.D. 1054, in the third year of Parakēsarivarman Rājēndradēva, a village officer (?) demanded taxes from a woman, who declared that she was not liable to pay taxes. On the officer putting her through an ordeal, she took poison and died. A general assembly consisting of the people from "the four quarters, eighteen districts, and various countries" was summoned, and the man was declared liable for punishment. This, however, took the shape of a fine of thirty-two kāśu which he had to pay for burning a lamp at the temple of Tirut-tāndōṅri-Mahādēva.¹ A Śūdra, in the third year of Rājakēsarivarman alias Tribhuvanachakravartin Kulōttuṅga Chōḷa Dēva, while out a-hunting, missed his aim, and shot a Veḷḷāḷa. The villagers "from the seventy-nine districts" assembled together, and found the Śūdra guilty of homicide (not amounting to murder). He was ordered to pay sixty-four cows to the Tiruttāndōṅri-Aḷuḍaiyār temple for burning two lamps.²