Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c20.s4.1

v2.c20.s4.1

As already remarked in connection with the description of sati, it appears almost certain that it was a fashion in those days for men, especially among the wealthy classes, to have many wives. Inscriptions contain notices of the many wives of rulers as well as subjects. Thus, for example, in A.D. 1120, Dēmiyakkā is said to have been the chief wife among the wives of the merchant Chāmuṇḍa Seṭṭi, "who was beloved by many kings," and "who protected the merchants from the rakshasa, the Kali age."¹ Śāntala Dēvī, the queen of the Hoysala king Viṣṇuvardhana, according to an inscription dated A.D. 1131, was "a furious elephant to her haughty co-wives."² The Hoysala king Narasimha Dēva, as an inscription dated A.D. 1161 relates, had 384 wives.³