Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c22.s1: Section I. Pre-Vijayanagara traditions
Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c22.s1
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Section I. Pre-Vijayanagara traditions
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The people of western and southern India gave expression to their sense of service to the State in apparently superstitious but truly patriotic acts of bravery. Patriotism, as understood in our own times, it must be confessed, is rarely to be found in the mediaeval ages; but they had a notion of loyalty and service which was remarkable for the decades in which they lived. The heritage which the people, especially of the Karṇāṭaka, gave to the land in this respect was bound to leave a permanent mark on the minds of the later generations. It is true that superstition may have guided the less ignorant to perform what may indeed be called a strange custom. Sōmeya and his uncle (?) Bāchcheya died fighting in a conflict with robbers, who had outraged the modesty of women, in A. D. 1198. A *viragal* or memorial stone in honour of the heroes, was set up, and wet land was granted that food and flowers may be offered to it.¹ The custom of setting up *viragals* to commemorate the death of a gallant man in a fight was universal in southern India; but that of granting lands for the offering of such memorial stones is mentioned only in this singular inscription. But nobler examples are those of men and women of the thirteenth century. In about A. D. 1215, in the reign of the Hoysala king Vira Ballāḷa Dēva, the great master of robes, the Halivāna-sāvanta, Si...śeya Nāyaka's mother Honnakkā Nāyakiti died; and her female servant Ma...ya...kiti Honni "gave her head to the hook and gained the world of gods". The stone set up on this occasion was called thira-sthāyiyāgi nil (l) isida kallu (stone set up as a permanent memorial).¹
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¹ My. Arch Report for 1926, p. 58.
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¹ E. C., XI., Mk. 12, p. 91; Kavicharite, II., p. 7. See infra, Chapter IX, for a detailed account of the siḍi performance.
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But the example set by the great general Kuvara Lakkaya, his wife, and his brave soldiers in about the year A. D. 1220 is hardly rivalled in the entire range of Karṇāṭaka history. Kuvara Lakkaya, or as he was also called Kuvara Lakshma, was the minister of the same Hoysala king Vira Ballāḷa II. But "between servant and king there was no difference, the glory and marks of royalty were equal in both". The record which gives us this information also praises Kuvara Lakkaya for his bravery and learning, and relates that "he gave his word to king Ballāḷa that he would keep him free from fear. Not like ministers who, binding a toḍar on the leg as a decoration, guarding the wealth they obtain as if fearing to lose it, taking good care of their persons, in the time of trouble to their master accept service under another family,—he remained faithful to king Ballāḷa in all circumstances". The great general had 1000 warriors bound to him by an oath. There arose some occasion for the celebrated minister to prove his worth; and "his warriors, his beloved wife (Suggala Dēvi) and himself having with him surrendered their whole life to their ruler", mounted up "the splendid stone pillar covered with the poetical vīra-śāsana", thereby proclaiming their devotion to their royal master.² This epigraph does not inform us the exact circumstances which prompted the gallant general and his wife and warriors to give up their lives for the sake of their ruler.
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² E. C., V., P. I., Bl. 112, pp. 71-4.
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But the precedent thus shown was maintained in later years as is proved by epigraphs dated A.D. 1257 and A.D. 1292. In the former we are told that Sivaneya Nāyakaṇ, who belonged to the well known family of Gaṇḍa Nārāyaṇa Seṭṭi, "with five of his servants, fulfilled his engagement (or vow) with Ballāḷa Dēva". The same epigraph continues to narrate that "Lakkeya Nāyaka, with his wife Gaṅgā Dēvi and three servants, fulfilled his engagement with Narasinga". To the same celebrated family which traced its descent from Gaṇḍa Nārāyaṇa Seṭṭi belonged Kanneya Nāyaka. This brave man with his wives Ummavve, Javanavve and Kallavve, and with ten maid-servants and twenty-one man-servants, six times embraced Garuḍa on (or from) the head of an elephant and fulfilled his engagement with Sōmēśvara Dēva.¹ The other inscription is dated A. D. 1292 and refers us to the reign of the Hoysala king Vīra Narasimha Dēva. The high traditions of the family to which Kanneya Nāyaka belonged were continued by his son Singeya Nāyaka who "with his wives Kētavve, Honnavve and Nāchavve, and with ten maid-servants, and twenty man-servants on (or from) the head of an elephant six times embraced Garuḍa, and fulfilled his engagement with Narasimha Dēva" (...mēle āru-bāri Garuḍanan appi bāseyam pūraysidanu).²
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¹ E. C., IV, Kr. 9, pp. 100-101.
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² Ibid., Kr. 10, p. 101; Rice, Mysore & Coorg, p. 171; My. Arch. Report for 1914-15, pp. 55-6. For other examples of men who died fighting for the interests of a temple in A. D. 1281-2, see My. Arch. Report for 1927, pp. 40-1.
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Honours were conferred on these gallant men who sacrificed their lives in order to "fulfil their engagement" with their rulers. Kuvara Lakkaya, as we have remarked, received the privilege of binding a golden toḍar on his left leg. This was given to him together with the right of tying "the pearl peṇḍe round his lotus foot". "The clusters of pearls in his gaṇḍa-peṇḍāra shone like the stars, and the golden toḍar on his ruddy left foot like the fresh opening champaka blossom".³ Gaṇḍa-peṇḍāra seems to have been conferred also as a title by the Hoysala rulers. Thus under Hoysala Narasimha Dēva, in A. D. 1277, Sōmeya Daṇṇāyaka's son-in-law Kumāra Dorabhak-kare Daṇṇāyaka is called the king's chief crest-jewel minister, the gāyi-gōvaḷa, gaṇḍa-peṇḍāra, and maṇḍalika-jāba.⁴
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³ E. C., V, P. I., Bl. 112, p. 73 op. cit.
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⁴ E. C., IX, Kn. 72, p. 129.
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The Tamil kings too showed their appreciation of the services of their subjects by bestowing on them honours and privileges. According to an inscription dated A. D. 1004 Manija fought gallantly during the reign of the Chōḷa king Rāja Kēsarivarman Perimmāṇaḍigaḷ, and secured from the monarch the privilege of wearing a paṭṭa inscribed with the title *Kshatriya-śikhāmaṇi-Koṅgāḷva*, together with a nāḍ called Mālavvi (mod Mālambi).¹ In the reign of Sundara Pāṇḍya in A. D. 1227, his great minister Sōran Uyyaninrāḍuvāṇ *alias* Gurukulattariyaṇ was not only entitled to a great many titles but to the honour of enjoying a rare privilege. Whenever he visited a temple, a kāḷam had to be sounded proclaiming—"Hail! Gurukulattambirāṇ is come!"²
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¹ *E. C.*, I, No. 46, p. 68 (2nd ed.)
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² *Ep. Report* for 1923, p. 110. For the rights and privileges of king's officers under the Tamil rulers, see *S. I. I.*, III, P. III, p. 301; *S. I. I.*, II, pp. 512, 530 *seq*. For some notice of loyalty to a departed monarch, Bāṇa, *Harshacharita*, pp. 160, 173.