Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c13.s5.27

v1.c13.s5.27

The fire ordeal in the Pāṇḍya times was more after the model which is mentioned in the *Institutes* of Bṛihaspati.² A meeting of the inhabitants of the districts, cities and villages in Kōnāḍu, according to an inscription found in Kuḍumiyāmalai in the Pudukkōṭṭai State, and dated only in the second regnal year of a Tribhuvana Chakravartin Vira Pāṇḍya Dēva, was convened to consider a case of misappropriation by certain Brahmans. The pūjāris of the temple of Tirunalakkuṅgamuḍaiya-Nāyinār had misappropriated the cash and jewels of the temple. One of them, however, confessed having taken a portion of the lost cash and of having shared it with a carpenter. The others denied altogether but were evidently implicated by the evidence of their accomplice. The lying pujaris were ordered to be taken to the law-court (*dharmāsana*), where they were required to handle a (red-hot) ploughshare. On all of them burning their hands, they confessed their guilt. The inscription records that they were all ordered to be dealt with as sinners against the god Śiva (*Śiva-drōhin*).³