Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s6.34

v1.c15.s6.34

These instances prove that a great political significance was attached to the betel leaf in early times. It has no doubt played a conspicuous part in the social life of the people about which we shall relate in detail in a subsequent connection. In the political sphere too its importance was equally felt. Twenty-five people (named) of the Eighteen Kampanas of the Āraga-vēṇṭhe, agreeing among themselves, in A.D. 1404 granted a vile or betel leaf to Virappa Oḍeyar, the Viceroy of Āraga, stating that since they were unable to plough all the land, (obviously in the village of Bondi, in Mēlubhāgi of Maduvaṅka-nāḍ), they gave it to the Viceroy for twenty-five hon to provide offerings for the god Kalinātha of the Mūlasthāna of Āraga, on the specific understanding that they had no further connection with that land of the Bondi village, having bestowed it, in the presence of witnesses, of their own free will.²