Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c13.s3.30

v1.c13.s3.30

This decision of a provincial officer conclusively shows that the State not only controlled the regulation of worship in a temple but also decided justly the minutest points of privileges with the co-operation of the representatives of the district, in a manner which we have now become accustomed to associate with the working of a modern court of justice. The above instance is by no means a solitary example of the care which the State bestowed on bringing civil disputes to a successful issue. As we have related elsewhere, in about A.D. 1500, Yallappa Oḍeyar was the governor over the Āraga-rājya. He granted the Kuppaṭūr-Bhāraṅgi-sīme to the junior queen Bommarasi-ammā of the female apartments for her portion. And his minister Mallarasayya was ordered to assume the management of the province. This officer seems to have found certain discrepancies in the management of the lands belonging obviously to the junior queen, for he is said to have set on foot a detailed enquiry and to have inflicted a singular penalty on the local temple. For, as the inscripiton relates, "in the course of his enquiries from village to village (grāmavan(n)ū-grāmagalan(n)ū-pokku), coming to Beṇṇagere, he stopped the daily allowance at the Nārāyaṇa temple, (Sohrab tāluka), and having had proper prōkshaṇe (or purification) performed for the god, granted a śāsana regulating the worship and ceremonies".²