Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c22.s1.1

v2.c22.s1.1

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