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Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s3: Section 3. The Military Department

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s3

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English

Contents

Section 3. The Military Department

A. Designation

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Without dwelling at length on the details of the military department as given in the *Arthaśāstra* and *Śukranīti*², we may observe that the idea of entrusting the charge of the army to the care of a commander-in-chief called *daṇḍanāyaka* or *daṇṇāyaka*, was borrowed by the Vijayanagara monarchs from their predecessors, the rulers of Hoysala-vaṃśa. Under these the office of a *daṇṇāyaka* sometimes combined in itself the functions pertaining to the civil and military departments. This is evident from the designation of *Mahāpradhāna*, *Sarvādhikari*, *Sēnadhiptai Hiriya Haḍavala* (*periya paḍaivala* in Tamil) Sokkimayya (Bōkimayya) in A.D. 1155.³ They were sometimes also given the title of *sāmantādhipati* when they were placed over the feudatory chiefs. But the military designation generally remained as *sēnādhipati* or *daṇḍanāyaka* or, as in later times, merely *dalavāyi*. The life-guards, as we might term them, were called *garuḍas* under the Hoysalas. The general Chokimayya (Bōkimmayya) claimed to be Biṭṭi Dēva's (Viṣṇuvardhana's) *Garuḍa*. The Prince Lakshmaṇa was Ballāḷa Dēva's *Garuḍa*.⁴

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² *Arthaśāstra*, Bk., Ch. 11, pp. 398-402; *Śukranīti*, IV, vii, pp. 216-7; Sarkar, *Pos. Back.*, II, P. 1, p. 114.

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³ E.C., X, Bp. 9, p. 136; E.C., P.I., V, Hn. 69, p. 21.

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⁴ Rice, *My. & Coorg.*, pp. 170-1.

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The military department under Vijayanagara was called *kandāchāra*.⁵ The royal grant of a rent-free *agrahāra* in the villages of Hosakere, otherwise called Kṛṣṇasamudra, and Gaurāpura in Pāṇḍya-nāḍ, in A.D. 1551, was caused to be written on stone by Lakshmaṇa Bhaṭṭa of the *kandāchāra* as a perpetual service (*sadā sēve*).⁶

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⁵ Rice, *My. Gaz.* I, p. 472. (1st. ed.); I, p. 579 (Rev. ed.).

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⁶ E.C., XI, Jl, 24, p. 87.

B. Organization

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(i) The Commander-in-chief

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'Abdur Razzāq is the earliest foreign traveller who gives us the official designation of the commander-in-chief of the Vijayanagara forces. According to him the danāik (daṇṇāyaka) was also the chief justice and "his residence lies behind the palace of the king".¹ The Brahman daṇṇāyaka, who returned to the capital after ravaging the territory of Gulbarga, gave him "an assignment for 7,000 fanams on the mint the very day of his arrival".² This presupposes a harmonious working of the civil and military departments about which unfortunately nothing can be gathered.

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¹ Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 108; Sewell, For. Emp., p. 91.

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² Elliot, ibid., p. 122.

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We are again unable to ascertain the powers of the daṇḍanāyaka. From Chennamarāju's *Chāruchandrōdaya* we learn something about the insignia of a Vijayanagara general. 'Abdur Razzāq's information regarding this point is interesting, but the seven coloured umbrellas, the mace-bearers and the penegyrists³ are all associated with a court of law rather than with the office of a general. Chennamarāju, however, tells us that the following were the insignia of a general: a triumphal banner of Garuḍa-Nārāyaṇa, a costly red cloth with golden flowers worked upon it, a turāyi or tiara, an elephant, a costly horse, a necklace called *vīra malahāri*, a square-piece pendant on the breast known as *tāḷichaukaṭṭu* (?), pearl-bangles, an anklet called *gaṇḍapeṇḍāram*, and a sword ornamented with a tassel at the hilt.⁴

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³ Ibid., p. 108.

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⁴ *Chāruchandrōdaya*. The Sources, p. 242. The ornament called *Gaṇḍapeṇḍāra* was in great fashion under the Hoysalas. See E.C., VII, Sk., 153, of A.D. 1039, p. 109; Sk. 138 of 1194, p. 106; Sk. 95 of A.D. 1215, pp. 61-2. Cf. *Gaṇḍapeṇḍāra* with *dakshiṇapeṇḍāra*. E.C., XII, Gb. 58, p. 27.

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(ii) Minor Officials

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The daṇṇāyaka may have had under him the nāyakas (or chiefs who held *nāyaṅkars*) mentioned elsewhere.⁵ But about the details of the military department nothing can be gathered from the epigraphical records. Foreign travellers, on the other hand, enlighten us on the subject. Paes tells us the following: "In this city the king held another review of the troops of his guard, and he distributed pay to all because it was the beginning of the year, and it is their custom to pay salaries year by year. An inspection is held by the officers of his house, and they write down the name of each one, and the marks that he has on his face or body. There are men of the guard who have a thousand *pardaos* pay, and others eight hundred, others six hundred and more, and a little more or less; there is a difference, and also a difference in the persons. Some men of them who are of higher rank than others have two horses or three, and others have no more than one. These troops have their captains, and each captain goes with his guard to mount guard at the palace according to order and custom; the king has in his guard five hundred horse, and these watch outside the palace armed with their weapons. There are two watches inside, and people with swords and shields".¹

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⁵ A.S.R. for 1908-9, p. 185.

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¹ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, pp. 283. We have seen that, according to Barbosa, before admitting recruits into service, the Government entered their names in books after noting all the marks on their bodies. What Paes relates refers to an annual review and the same procedure is repeated obviously with the idea of checking earlier reports. B.A.S.

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The evidence of Nuniz cannot be made to reconcile with that of Paes as regards the number of the king's guard. Thus writes Nuniz in his *Chronicle*: "When the King rides out there go with him usually two hundred horsemen of his guard whom he pays, and a hundred elephants, and this in addition to the captains, forty or fifty in number, who are always in attendance with their soldiers. He takes with him two thousand men with shields, all men of good position, ranged in order on the flanks, and in front goes the chief *alcaid* with about thirty horsemen having canes in their hands like porters; the chief *alcaid* bears a different wand; he who is now chief *alcaid* of this King is called Chinapanaique. Behind with the rearguard goes the Master of the Horse with two hundred horsemen, and behind the cavalry go a hundred elephants, and on their backs ride men of high estate. He has in front of him twelve destriers, saddled, and in front of these horses go five elephants, specially for the King's person, and in front of these elephants go about five-and-twenty horsemen with banners in their hands, and with drums and trumpets and other music playing so loudly that you can hear nothing. Before these goes a great drum carried by men at the sides, and they go now and then striking it; the sound of this is heard a long distance off; and this drum they call *picha*. After the King has mounted he counts the two hundred horsemen and the hundred elephants and the shield-bearers of the guard, and whoever is missing is severely punished and his property confiscated".¹

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¹ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, pp. 371-2.

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Why the king after mounting should himself count the two hundred horsemen and the shield-bearers when even, according to Nuniz's own narrative, there were important officers like the chief alcaid (?) and the Master of the Horse and the various captains on the scene, cannot be made out. In a later passage he explains more clearly the nature of the king's guard: "The King has continually fifty thousand paid soldiers, amongst whom are six thousand horsemen who belong to the palace guard, to which six thousand belong the two hundred who are obliged to ride with him. He has also twenty thousand spearmen and shield-bearers, and three thousand men to look after the elephants in the stables; he has sixteen hundred grooms who attend to the horses, and has also three hundred horse trainers and two thousand artificers, namely blacksmiths, masons, and carpenters, and washermen who wash clothes".²

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² Ibid., p. 381.

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These observations of Paes and Nuniz definitely suggest that there was a centralized military department in Vijayanagara with its rules and customs, its gradation of officers and a large staff of persons whose services were indispensable during a campaign. Duarte Barbosa's remarks about the order and arrangement which prevailed in the kitchen section of the *kandāchāra* department already mentioned in an earlier page may be recounted here. His evidence is specially valuable in this connection, since it confirms our supposition that the Hindu rulers had a centralized military system. According to Barbosa, "if the knight to whom the king has given a horse cares for it and treats it well, they take away that one and give him another and a better one; and if he is negligent, they take his away and give him another that is worse. And thus all the king's horses and elephants are well fed and cared for, at his cost: and the grandees, to whom he gives a great quantity of them, act in the same manner with their knights".³

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³ Barbosa, Stanley, p. 90; Dames I, p. 211, op. cit.

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(iii) The King's Armoury

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Mention is made in the history of the *Carnataca Governors* of the armoury at the capital. Visvanātha Nāyaka, on the ninth day of the festival of Navarātri, was informed by a goddess to select a sword from the armoury of the king. He offered his services to the king, "provided he might have a suitable sword, to be selected from the number of swords kept in a chest in the king's armoury" at Penugoṇḍa.¹ The provincial rulers too had their own armouries. The location of the armoury of Tirumala Nāyaka is thus given in the same work: "To the north of that (i.e., a pointed dome) is the place for captive kings: in it there are many guns and arms".²

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¹ Taylor, O.H. MSS, II., p. 7. ² Ibid., II., p. 157. ³ Arthaśāstra, Bk. IX, Ch. II, 344, p. 400. ⁴ Śukranīti, II., ll. 789-831, pp. 98-9. ⁵ Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 109. ⁶ Sewell, For. Emp., p. 283, op. cit. ⁷ Ibid., p. 281.

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(iv) Military Accounts

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From the observations of foreign travellers cited above, it is clear that the soldiers were paid by the Government. The system of giving pay to soldiers is very ancient. Kauṭilya enjoins thus: "That army which is vast and is composed of various kinds of men and is so enthusiastic as to rise even without provision or wages for plunder. . . is (to be considered as) a compact body of vast power".³ In the detailed enumeration of wages given by Śukrācārya, provision is made for the payment of salary even to the deceased servants of the king.⁴ It is obvious, therefore that long before the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the system of paying soldiers was already in vogue.

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The Persian ambassador tells us that "the sipāhīs receive their pay every four months, and no one has an assignment granted to him upon the revenues of the provinces".⁵ According to 'Abdur Razzāq, therefore, the military organization was thoroughly centralized. But the Portuguese travellers do not agree with him as regards the time when the soldiers received their pay, although all of them admit that the State disbursed salaries to its soldiers. In a passage already cited above, Paes informs us that it was their custom to pay salaries year by year.⁶ In another connection he tells us: "Each of these captains labours to turn out the best troops he can get because he pays them their salaries . . .".⁷ Perhaps the rulers of Vijayanagara might have introduced a reform as regards the time of the disbursement of the salaries to the soldiers, after the days of Dēva Rāya II. But it is certain that, as Barbosa narrates, they had pay books on which the names of the soldiers with all necessary details, remained enrolled.¹

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¹ *Barbosa*, Stanley, p. 91, op. cit. Cf. Nuniz, Sewell, *For Emp.* p. 381, op. cit.

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The feudatories too had a system of military accounts. We infer this from the term *sēnāpatya-kaṇakku* found in the inscriptions of the Pāṇḍyas of the south. A transaction was made in Śaka 1475 (A.D. 1553-4) effecting the transfer of the tax-free gift of an unclaimed land and house originally given to a person for looking after the military accounts (*sēnāpatya-kaṇakku*) in the times of Jaṭilavarman Kula-sēkhara Dēva.² At the instance of Prince Aḷagan Perumāl Ativīrarāman, in Śaka 1479 (A.D. 1557-8) under the same Pāṇḍyan ruler, lands were granted to Ekanārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa of Vaṅgipuram, as a permanent holding for writing the military accounts.³

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² 557 of 1917. This was the son of Abhirāma Parākrama Pāṇḍya Dēva.

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³ 572 of 1917.

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