Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c13.s3.9

v1.c13.s3.9

One may suspect that Nuniz has relied on superstitious and untrustworthy persons in securing these details about the existence of wizards in the capital. His evidence, nevertheless, indicates that an ordinary citizen had direct access to the king in the matter of presenting a petition; and that, therefore, the Vijayanagara monarchs had put into force one of the principles mentioned in the Sacred Law. Valuable as the information of Nuniz certainly is, it may be accepted with certainty only when it is corroborated by independent evidence. For Nuniz's opinion runs counter to that of 'Abdur Razzāq as regards the existence of a separate court of justice, at least of a distinct high official vested with judicial powers. According to the Persian ambassador, it is the daṇṇāyaka who constituted the highest judicial official in the kingdom; in the opinion of Nuniz, the king gave a sort of a rough-and-ready dispensation of justice, independent of the daṇḍanāyaka. Nothing but confusion would have resulted if this were really the case in Vijayanagara. Moreover, it may reasonably be doubted whether Nuniz does not contradict himself in his accounts of the judicial procedure at Vijayanagara. For, in one place, as we have just remarked, he is sure about the existence of Brahmans and of their law; in another, he gives us the picture of the king, regardless of the presence of his advisers, deciding a case on the spot. It is not denied that the rulers of Vijayanagara, in some instances, may have administered justice independently of the Brahman advisers. But the description of Nuniz, especially that relating to the persons who fell prostrate before the monarch, can in no one sense be taken to be a typical instance of how they administered justice in the Hindu Empire. His remarks of this nature are insufficient to justify the assertion that "the administration of criminal justice was harsh and barbarous".¹ The evidence of contemporary travellers, as well as the few details we can gather from inscriptions, must be examined before such a groundless charge is preferred.