Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s2.t1.20

v2.c18.s2.t1.20

So profoundly have these trifling details affected the life of the people that the division seems to have cast asunder even the Brahmans. This is inferred from the following account styled *Idaṅkai Vaḷankai Kaifiyut*: "This relates to the great dispute between the *Vaishnava-Brahmans*, with their followers, who have the epithet of right-hand, and *Saiva Brahmans*, with their followers, termed left-hand. The dispute is stated to have arisen from the usage of a *Garuda* banner, or flag bearing the eagle or kite of *Vishnu*, as a device. The right of bearing this banner, and the question of which of the two classes it belonged, created so hot a dispute, that the matter was referred in arbitration to *Vicrama-Chola-deva Perumāl*, in *Cali yuga* 4894, *Paritabi* cyclic year. That prince caused the old copper-plate records at *Conjeevaram* to be disinterred and examined, and legal authorities to be consulted. As a consequence the claim of the Saivas to the *Garuda* banner was admitted; but another result was, the more accurate distinction and definition, of what rights and privileges were proper to the two classes; and what were not so. The book further contains an enumeration of the classes or castes, into which the two lines of *Vaishnavas* and *Saivas* became divided; and of the *Pariars* and others, who range under the right-hand class. These castes, on both sides, are stated to be ninety-eight. The sub-divisions are those of persons having castes; that is, not *Pariars*".¹