Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s2.t1.19

v2.c18.s2.t1.19

While the assumption that the division "seems to have been in existence long before the eleventh century" is justifiable, we may suggest that there was one cause which writers have failed to take into consideration as regards the origin of the two sections. This was due not so much to the difference in "the altered manners of the old times" resulting from the intercourse with foreign nations and the consequent extension in commerce, nor to the distinction which "arises primarily" from the landowners and Brahmans being the heads of two rival social groups, but to the fact that in the south extraordinary prominence has been given to the minute details of etiquette and privilege on socio-religious occasions which have deeply influenced the life of the Tamil and Karṇāṭaka people. We shall explain in a subsequent section these questions of honours and etiquette before and during Vijayanagara.