Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c13.s4: Section 4. Oppression
Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c13.s4
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Section 4. Oppression
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In studying this aspect of their institutions, we come across interesting features of their political life. That there was oppression in Vijayanagara times there cannot be any doubt. No less a personage than Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya the Great himself admits the hardships which the people suffered under tyrannical officers of Government. That monarch writes thus: "That king is never prosperous even though he conquers all the seven Dwīpas, who has an officer who does not call back the subjects when they leave the State on account of suffering, who would sell away their cattle and stores of corn and would consider their houses as fit for fuel and who thus resemble the jackal in the battlefield".¹ The suffering to which Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya refers here may have been caused by natural calamities like floods or famine; but it may equally well have been the result of the rapacity of the servants of the Government. In all likelihood it was the latter, since both on the evidence of inscriptions and of the writings of foreign travellers, some officials, and a few monarchs as well, practised a policy of unvarnished extortion.
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¹ Amuktamālyada, v. 237; J.I.H. IV, p. 60.
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A dam had been breached in A.D. 1424, and the king's minister solved the question by bringing official pressure to bear on Chāma-nṛipāla, the commander of the forces, in the manner related in the following inscription: "The messengers of Nāgaṇṇa Daṇṇāyaka the Mahā-pradhāna of śri-Vira pratāpa Dēva Rāya Mahārāya, having brought intelligence that the Haridrā dam had been breached, on enquiring who would undertake the meritorious work of restoring it, looking upon Chāma-nṛipāla, the commander-in-chief of all the forces of the auspicious great king of kings (Dēva Rāya II) (the descent of Nāgaṇṇa Daṇṇāyaka stated)—(he said): 'The dam which by order of Dēva Rāya Mahārāya I built to the river Haridrā having breached, to restore by the assistance of merit the provision for the service and decorations of the god Harihara and the property acquired by the Brahman residents in that kshētra, except you there is no one else. That the fruit of the merit of building this dam will according to the Veda and the dharma śāstra be beyond calculation you are well aware. You therefore must repair his work of merit.' Hearing this order, and with submission undertaking the work, in the Śaka year 1346, (details of the date specified), Chāma-nṛipāla, with his own hands pouring water on behalf of the god Harihara and the Brahmans, and committing the work with pouring of water into the hands of Bukkarasa, sent him saying, 'Do you in my behalf build the dam and excavate the channel', and had it repaired".² The prospect of holding out the "fruit of merit" "beyond calculation" which was placed before Chāma-nṛipāla was only an apology to cover the real nature of the behest which Nāgaṇṇa Daṇṇāyaka, evidently with the object of pleasing the monarch, conveyed to the great commander.
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² Rice, My. Ins. Intr. pp. lxxxii, 40; E.C., XI, Dg. 29, pp. 38-9. The history of the dam is also given in ibid., Dg. 23, pp. 31-2.
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An example of people migrating on account of the tyranny of the officials is given in an inscription from Kiḷūr, South Arcot district, dated Saka 1368 (A.D. 1446-7): "In this kingdom the ministers had been taking presents (by force) from all ryots belonging to both the right-hand and left-hand classes at the commencement of each reign. In consequence of this all the ryots were harassed and ran away to foreign countries. Worship and festivals ceased in the temples; the country became full of disease; all people (that remained) either died or suffered".¹
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¹ 23 of 1905; Ep. Report for 1905, p. 50; Rangachari, Top. List. I. S.A. 728, p. 212; A.S.R. for 1907-8, pp. 246-7.
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Firishtah narrates a long story of a learned but villainous Brahman who induced the "Ray of Beejanuggur" (evidently Dēva Rāya I) to abduct a beautiful damsel named Nehal of the town of Mudkul, of the consequent estrangement with the Muhammadans, and the complete humiliation of the Hindu ruler at the hands of Firūz Shāh.²
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² Firishtah, Briggs, The Rise, II, p. 380, seq. See infra, Volume II, Chapter III, pp. 132-3.
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The strange ending of an inscription of A.D. 1356 makes one suspect that the kings sometimes really oppressed the people. This is as follows: "Be it the thief or plunderer prowling by night or day, be it the honourable mahā-maṇḍalēśvara, the emperor who rules the world or the king of kings, who thinks to himself, I will seize the villages, lands or grants bestowed in this village—at the mere word, thrust him, with his father and mother and all into the hell filled with worms, for seventy-seven crores of years, and continue to visit him with all manner of torments, do you see, O Sin?"³
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³ E.C., XI, Cd. 3, p. 2.
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Another inscription which suggests that even the property of Brahmans was sometimes seized by kings and their relatives, is dated A.D. 1530. It ends thus: "Whoso seizes the property of Brahmans of substance, that are bountiful and have families,—whether they be kings or of the king's family, roast in Kumbhīpāka without intermission as long as the tears from their eyes moisten the dust".⁴ Whether these strange tirades were directed against actual cases of royal and official tyranny or whether they were merely inscribed as a guarantee against possible mischief at the hands of people cannot be determined with any certainty for the present.¹
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⁴ Ibid., Dg. 28, p. 38.
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¹ For another instance, see Rice, My. Ins. p. 229.
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Official malevolence is also seen in the fate which befell the unfortunate Persian Ambassador at the court of Dēva Rāya II, due to the mischievous machinations of the Hormuzians. 'Abdur Razzāq was reduced to a state of misery and uncertainty because of the daily decreasing rations sanctioned by the State.²
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² Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 122.
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Nuniz relates that Achyuta Rāya robbed the nobles, especially one called "Crisnaranarque" (Kṛiṣhṇa Nāyaka?), and that he recovered the indemnity which he had to pay 'Ali 'Ādil Shāh by extracting payments from his captains and people. "Which King Chytarao, after he ascended the throne, gave himself over to vice and tyranny. He is a man of very little honesty, and on account of this the people and the captains are much discontented with his evil life and inclinations; for he has never done anything except those things that are desired by his two brothers-in-law,³ who are men very evilly disposed and great Jews. By reason of this the Ydallcāo ('Ādil Shāh), learning of how little weight he was, determined to make war on him, believing that he would easily succeed since the king was not inclined to war; so he made his forces ready, and began to invade the King's territory, and arrived within a league of the city of Bisnaga. . . . but the King (Achyuta Rāya) was terrified, and by the advice of his brothers-in-law (of which they gave not a little) decided to send and make peace with the Ydallcāo. The Ydallcāo was very glad and made a peace with him which was to last for a hundred years, on condition that the King should give him ten lakhs of gold pardaos, each lakh being 100,000 pardaos, and further should yield up to him the city of Rachol which the King Crisnarao had taken from him, and which had a revenue with its lands of 150,000 pardaos as well as jewels, which could easily be valued at a lakh. The King accepted these terms, and the Ydallcāo departed well pleased with this money; and after all was done the King sent to him a diamond stone weighing 130 mangellinis (=162 carats), with fifteen other similar ones worth fully a lakh. This money he soon afterwards recovered and put in his treasury, exacting payments from his captains and people so ruthlessly that they say that in six months he had recovered and put the whole in his treasury.
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³ Read Sewell's note on this. For. Emp., p. 367, n. (5).
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"Wherefore the captains and troops, both because he made this peace and because he exacted the sum of money contrary to the wishes of them all, have lived greatly discontented, and have held that if this kingdom should ever be brought to destruction, it must take place in the lifetime of King Chitaro (Achyuta Rāya). . . ."¹
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¹ Sewell, For. Emp., pp. 367, 368, n. (1), 369.
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Even in the trifling matter of supplying leaves, there seems to have been oppression in some quarters. For, as we shall narrate later on, about the Śaka year 1445 (A.D. 1523-4), there seems to have been a custom of supplying leaves, upon which they took their meals, to the *circar* people.²
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² Rangachari, Top. List. I, Ap. 189, p. 28. See infra, Volume II, Chapter VII.
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Sometimes the Government servants committed great havoc by their brutalities. The *thāndār* Dilāvar Oḍeyar, who was evidently a Muhammadan servant of the Government, in charge of the Dummi-sime, destroyed "the children of the farmers, subjects, chiefs in the kingdom" and cut off the head of Gauḍayyar of Chikka Gaṅgūr, and of the officials sent against him. This occurred in A.D. 1562.³
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³ E.C. VII, Ci. 69, p. 191.
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The oppression by Tirumala Rāya, soon after the battle of Rākshasa-Taṅgaḍi, in A.D. 1567, when he tried to repopulate the terror-stricken city, has already been narrated on the evidence of Caesar Frederick.⁴
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⁴ Caesar Frederick, Purchase, Pilgrims, X, p. 94.
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In a letter dated 30th of August 1611, Antoine Vico gives to us a gruesome account of the manner in which the poor people were made to pay for the negligence of the feudatories. "In that case, (the king of) Bisnagar, comes or sends one of his generals, at the head of hundred thousand men, to make them pay all the arrears with interest. On these occasions, which are frequent, it is again the poor people who pay for the fault of their princess; all the country is devastated, and the people are plundered or massacred . . . "⁵
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⁵ Satyanatha, Nayaks, p. 293.
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John Nieuhof in A.D. 1622 relates the following about the Nāyaka of Madura: "The Nāyak to secure himself of the Fidelity of his Governours, detains always their Wives and Children in a certain Castle call'd Zwela Baddy, about seven Leagues from Madure, under the guard of 300 Eunuchs; neither are the Husbands permitted to see them without peculiar Licence from the Nayak, and are obliged to depart again in two or three days".¹
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¹ Nieuhof, Churchill, Voyages, II, p. 297; Satyanatha, Nayaks, p. 331. For the treacherous dealings of the Governor of Masulipatam, read Floris (A.D. 1611), Purchas, Pilgrims, III, p. 321.
Cites (2)
- Āmuktamālyada — Kṛṣṇadevarāya 1515, Telugu
- Epigraphia Carnatica