Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s2.t1.2

v2.c18.s2.t1.2

The mythical origin of one of these classes, the Idaṅgai or Left Hand section, is thus given in an inscription dated in the fortieth regnal year of the Chōḷa king Kulōttuṅga III: "While, in order to kill the demons (that disturbed) the sacrifices of the sage Kaśyapa, we (the ninety-eight sects of the Idaṅgai classes) were made to appear from the agnikuṇḍa, (i.e., the sacrificial fire-pit), and while we were thus protecting the said sacrifice, Chakravartin Arindama honoured the officiating sage-priests by carrying them in a car and led them to a Brāhmaṇa colony (newly founded by himself). On this occasion we were made to take our seats on the back side of the car and to carry the slippers and umbrellas of these sages. Eventually with these Brāhmaṇa sages we also were made to settle down in the villages of Tiruveḷḷarai, Pāchchil, Tiruvāśi, Tiruppiḍavūr, Urrattūr, and Kārikkāḍu of Sennivala-kūrram (all of which are places now situated in the Trichinopoly district). We received the clan name Idaṅgai, because the sages (while they got down from their cars) were supported by us on their left side. The ancestors of this sect having lost credentials and insignia (?) in jungles and bushes, we were ignorant of our origin. Having now once learnt it, we, the members of the ninety-eight sub-sects enter into a compact, in the fortieth year of the king, that we shall hereafter behave like the sons of the same parents, and what good or evil may befall any one of us, will be shared by all. If anything derogatory happens to the Idaṅgai class, we will jointly assert our rights till we establish them. It is also understood that those who, during their congregational meetings to settle their communal disputes, display the *birudus* of horn, bugle and parasol shall belong to our class. Those who have to recognise us now and hereafter, in public, must do so from our distinguishing symbols—the feather of the crane and the loose-hanging hair(?). The horn and the conch-shell shall also be sounded in front of us and the bugle blown according to the fashion obtaining among the *Idangai* people. Those who act in contravention to the rules shall be treated as enemies of our class. Those who behave differently from the rules (thus) prescribed for the conduct of *Idangai* classes shall be excommunicated and shall not be recognised as *Śrutimāns*. They will be considered slaves of the classes who are opposed to us."¹