Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c7.s3.95

v1.c7.s3.95

The Vijayanagara monarchs did not disturb the political machinery of the Hoysalas till they had gathered strength to set their own central authority on a firmer footing. Therefore, in A.D. 1346, we find a Pāṇḍya Chakravartin, with all titles, named Vīra Kāya, ruling in Sātalige under Hariappa Oḍeyar, who was then the Master of Eastern, Western and Northern Oceans, but not of the Southern Ocean.⁵ The name Pāṇḍya implies that he must have been related to the Pāṇḍyas of Uchchaṅgi; and that the Vijayanagara rulers continued the Hoysala traditions of allowing the old royal families to rule over the lands of their ancestors. In A.D. 1355-6 we have a more definite instance of the preference which the Vijayanagara rulers gave to Hoysala officers. The Commander-in-Chief of Bukka was the son of Naḍegoṇṭa-Sāyana, Mallinātha, "who was the exalted commander of the Turuka army, the Seuana army, the Telunga army, the powerful Pāṇḍya army, and the Hoysala army".⁶ In A.D. 1346 under Vīra Hariappa, as we have already remarked, there was the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Ariya Vallappa Daṇḍanāyaka, who, in A.D. 1333, under Ballāla III, granted to the authorities and Pāla Bhaṭṭa of the temple of Singisvaram-Uḍaiya-nāyaṇār at Tēkkal, two villages as a dēvadāna.¹ The same officer under the same Hoysala ruler in A.D. 1336 granted as a sarvamānya, exempt from all taxes, certain lands to all the mahājanas of the brahmadēya village Ivaṭṭam alias Varadarājachaturvēdimaṅgalam in Pulliyur-nāḍu.² This important person, who was, as we have seen, a minister of Ballāḷa III, Harihara won over to his side by making him his aliya or son-in-law.