[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.saletore-1934) › v2.c19.s2.t2.32 # Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c19.s2.t2.32 Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c19.s2.t2.32 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c19.s2.t2.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.saletore-1934.v2.c19.s2.t2.32) Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya was to a certain extent justified in bestowing praise on Brahmans who had proved their worth as governors and generals. Since the times of Harihara II, it had been the custom to entrust administrative work to qualified Brahmans. Thus Mādhava Rāya, the Brahman-general already referred to in a previous page, was temporarily entrusted with the government of the town (and district) of Jayanti. It was during this time that he conquered Gōva (mod. Goa) in Śaka 1313 (A. D. 1391-2).¹ Another famous Brahman-governor was Viṭhṭhaṇṇa Oḍeyar, who was the Viceroy over Āraga in A. D. 1403. He was the son of Bommaṇa, who was the son of the well known minister Saṅkapa of the Bharadvāja-gōtra. His praise is thus sung in an inscription of the same date: "And, at the time when, by that Mahārāya's order, the Brahma-Kshatri, a son of Hēmādri, an initiating priest for all gifts, a son to the lotus the line of Saṅkapa and Rāyapa, son of a chief Brahman minister, proficient in learning, a royal swan in the lotus pond of the learned, a moon to the chakōras poets, remover of the poverty of his servants, a flamingo at the lotus feet of Kriyāśakti-guru muniśvara, devoted to the worship of Triyambaka, the son of Virupāmbikā".² Then again, in another inscription of the same year, we have the following eulogy of Viṭhṭhaṇṇa, both as a learned man and as an administrator: "...the chief minister Viṭhṭhala, ever beloved, versed in the sciences and arts,...Some yōgis took him for Kṛishṇa; certain learned men, for Rāmachandra; some truthful ones, for Yudhishṭhira; the performers of rites, for Svāyambhuva; supplicants thought him the tree of plenty; enemies, a consuming sun; his subjects, as their father (tāta):—such a mine of good qualities was Viṭhṭhalādhīśvara...The hēmādri gift did Viṭhṭhala-mantri but once make, and forthwith there was a hēmādri gift from house to house of all the Brahmans....An abode of all learning and fortune, appointed by his king to the government of the Āraga-dēśa, he was protecting with unfailing greatness all merit, fame and progress".³ An epigraph dated A. D. 1405 calls him "a diksha-guru in regard to all the gifts mentioned in the Hēmādri".⁴ Annamārādhya alias Kompalli was a Brahman appointed as governor of the city-gates in A. D. 1429-1430. It is said of him that he "has studied four vēdas and understood them by the Śaiva scriptures; he is the Lord of the northern gate at Śrīśaila and is renowned on earth".¹ No account of Brahman-governors may be thought adequate without mention being made of Sāḷuva Timma, and of his nephew Nādenḍla Gōpa-mantri, both of whom were governors of Koṇḍavīḍu.² The following incident of A.D. 1614 described by Floris deals with the Brahman governor of Musulipatam. "In the meanwhile, Wencatadra (the son of the governor) remayned aboard without eating or drinking. For he being a Bramene, may neither eate nor drinke in any mans house but what he hath dressed himselfe; which made mee so to pittie him, that I offered if any two Moores of qualitie would come aboard in his place, I would let him go on shoare".³ - [Previous: v2.c19.s2.t2.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.saletore-1934.v2.c19.s2.t2.31) - [Next: v2.c19.s2.t2.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.saletore-1934.v2.c19.s2.t2.33) - [Up: v2.c19.s2.t2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.saletore-1934.v2.c19.s2.t2) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.saletore-1934.v2.c19.s2.t2.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.saletore-1934.v2.c19.s2.t2.32) · Pramāṇa