Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s5.t2.6

v2.c18.s5.t2.6

Tamil history records the sale of human beings in the thirteenth century. Two inscriptions of Rājarāja III, dated in the third year and the twenty-fourth year of his reign, (i.e., in A.D. 1218-19 and A.D. 1239-40 respectively) found at Vēdāraṇyam in the Tanjore district, record the sale to the temple of five men and five women and their relations(?) for a price of 1,000 kāśu, by a certain Ariyan Piḻchan alias Edirili Śōḻa Gaṅgaiṇāḍāḻvaṉ, who was apparently doing police duty in the west of the district in which Vēdāraṇyam was situated. He refers to the five men who had been made over to the temple as slaves by his master (mudaliār).¹