Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c4.2

v1.c4.2

This has led me to adopt a treatment of the various facts relating to the history of the Empire of Vijayanagara different to the one we have hitherto been accustomed. Vijayanagara rulers and their people may be judged in terms of the actions and thought of their predecessors both in and outside Karṇāṭaka. It is with this object that the following method has been adopted in the work. Classical and mediaeval Hindu theories relating to government and society have been first given followed, wherever possible, by Vijayanagara conceptions of the same. Further, the origin of the political and social institutions of the Vijayanagara princes and people has been traced to their Hoysala and Tamil antecedents, in order to bring out more clearly the historical sequence that sometimes may be said to govern the actions of the mediaeval Hindu monarchs. In this way an attempt has been made for the first time to bring before the reader classical and mediaeval Hindu theory in harmony with Vijayanagara maxims and practice; and to enable him to estimate for himself the achievements of the rulers of Vijayanagara who have so often been called custodians of the Hindu Dharma.