Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s2.t2.3

v2.c18.s2.t2.3

² E. C., IX, DB. 67, pp. 71-2; Rice, *I. A.*, V, p. 136; *My. Ins.*, pp. 289-90. But Fleet does not accept the evidence of this grant. *I. A.*, XXX, pp. 221-2. See also *Ep. Ind.*, III, pp. 160, n. (3), 162. The eighteen castes, as Dr. Barnett suggests, "is a conventional number going back to the Jātakas and continuing down through mediaeval times". But in view of the fact that these ten castes are, as will be shown in the next section, grouped as professional castes (221 of 1910), they are taken here to mean the 18 sub-divisions of the larger groups that formed the Iḍaṅgai and Valaṅgai class. See also section on the Guilds. B. A. S.