Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c20.s2.11

v2.c20.s2.11

What this woman *nāḷ-gāvuṇḍa* did with her dues is also told in the same interesting inscription. "And Jakkiyabbe, in giving away the dues of the *nāḷ-gāvuṇḍa* in Avatavūr on account of the Nāgarakhaṇḍa Seventy, granted four *mattal* of rice land in Jakkili for the temple ". As regards the administrative work of Jakkiyabbe, the same inscription continues: "Skilled in ability for good government, faithful to the Jinēndra śāsana, rejoicing in her beauty, Jakkiyabbe, when having received the Nāgarakhaṇḍa Seventy, she was protecting it well, though a woman, in the pride of her own heroic bravery", she "performed the vow", and died in the orthodox Jaina fashion.¹ Queen Sōvala Dēvi is spoken of as a mantri in a record dated A.D. 1166.² A more famous example of a woman administrator is that of Queen Rudrāmbā who, under the name of Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Rudradēva Mahārāya, ruled from A.D. 1260. It was because she took the name of a man that Vikrama Pāṇḍya of the south was advised not to go to the north where women under the guise of men ruled.³