Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s1.34

v2.c18.s1.34

One class of the people who have now taken to agriculture but who, during Vijayanagara times, it is presumed, found employment under the Nāyakas of Madura and the various Pāḷeyagāras as peons and armed retainers,⁵ were called the Toṭṭiyans, also known as Kambalaṭṭār. These had their own communal organization. In about A.D. 1369, in a joint resolution issued by the Toṭṭiyans of Pulliyūr-nāḍu, as we have seen, it was decided that he who did not pay was declared to be an outcaste from the nāḍu, the assembly, the pañchāḷan, the parai, and the eighteen nāḍus.¹