Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c19.s2.t1: A. Prior to the Rise of Vijayanagara
Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c19.s2.t1
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A. Prior to the Rise of Vijayanagara
v2.c19.s2.t1.1
The above-mentioned story is, in some measure, an index to the character of the Brahman in Vijayanagara—he was worthy of every praise but he was not free from occasional blame. This was because when the Vijayanagara age had dawned, the importance of the Brahman in Hindu society had already been determined to a large extent by the wisdom and folly of his predecessors. True, the Brahman was in no small measure responsible for the continual rejuvenation of Hindu life in the political world in early ages. The instance of the Hoysala king Viṣṇuvardhaha, whose policy was "radically affected by his conversion from Jainism to the Vaiṣṇava faith through the reformer Rāmānuja",² is a case in point. But there were also instances of Brahmans who had lowered the prestige of the priestly class. We had an occasion of citing the example of a band of Brahmans who had turned brigands in the Pāṇḍyan times. Another instance refers to the twenty-first year of Tribhuvana Chakravarti Kulōttuṅga Chōḷa Dēva, when a gift of land was made to the Śrīpādantāṅgi servants of the temple of Siddharatnēśvara at Uttattūr. This land, the same epigraph narrates, was originally the property of a Brahman who had stolen the jewels of the goddess and was compelled to give up the land as a *dēvadāna* to the temple.¹
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² Rice, Mysore and Coorg, p. 168; see also p. 169.
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¹ 490 of 1912; Rangachari, *Top List.*, III, Tp. 258, p. 1543. See also 512 of 1912.