Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c13.s3.11

v1.c13.s3.11

There are interesting instances of the manner in which justice was administered in Vijayanagara. Some of them deal with the settlement of disputes by the officers of the Government with the co-operation of the local bodies. Thus in A.D. 1363 in the reign of Bukka Oḍeyar, a grave dispute was amicably settled in the Āraga-rājya which was ruled over by Virūpaṇṇa Oḍeyar. The people of Hedḍūr-nāḍ and the temple āchāryas disputed with the Sūris as to the boundaries of the land belonging to the Pārśvadēva temple of Taḍatāḷa in Hedḍūr-nāḍ, in the Tirthahaḷḷi tāluka. The great minister Nāgaṇṇa and various important officials like Pradhāni Dēvarasa, along with other arasus or lords, and the Jaina Maḷappa summoned the elders of the three cities and the Eighteen Kaṃpaṇas, and held an enquiry in the Āraga chāvaḍi or hall. "And having made the nāḍ, agree, they fixed the boundaries (specified) according to the former custom as those of the temple endowment of Pārśvadēva".² This refers of course to the state of affairs in a Vijayanagara province.