Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c17.s2.5

v2.c17.s2.5

Whether in Vijayanagara times the distinction between the rich and the poor was as acute as is depicted in the Śukranīti², and whether they adopted the "eight good ways and means" of acquiring wealth, mentioned by the mediaeval lawgiver³, it is not possible to say; but if one could judge from the opinions of writers of a later age, one may venture to remark that in Vijayanagara too there must have been as invidious distinctions between the rich and the poor as are mentioned, for example, by Vēmana. This writer tells us that "If one be possessed of wealth they look upon him as the god of love; but if he falls into poverty, and is unable to rise and help himself, be he as Cupid himself, they look upon him as a Pariar."¹ If this was the heritage which was left by Vijayanagara to the people of the seventeenth century, we may well imagine that in its own days it could not have been free from those ideas of wealth and poverty which are usually associated with material prosperity.