Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c22.s2.10

v2.c22.s2.10

The custom of granting umbaḷi lands was handed down from early times. In the reign of the Western Chāḷukya king Tribhuvanammalla Dēva, according to an effaced record dated A. D. 1076, the thirty-two thousand Brahmans of the great Gauḍa agrahāra gave lands as umbaḷi to the son of Lakkabbe of Gauḍa, for having fought and slain during the depredations committed by the forces of Kali Sāntara Dēva.² This custom passed on to the rulers of Vijayanagara as well as their officials, although we have to admit that in some instances, as in the following dated about A.D. 1598, the epigraphs do not enlighten us on the specific services which necessitated the granting of umbaḷi lands. The epigraph in question relates that the Mahā-nāḍ prabhu Biḍyavara Mummaḍi Chikkappa Gauḍaraiya gave to his son-in-law Kereya Gauḍa and his daughter K...mma, the village of Karikere a hamlet of Brahmasamudra belonging to Kōra-māgaṇi, as a grāma umbaḷi.³ Kṛishṇa Dēva Rāya in A. D. 1525 granted the new village of Lakumāpura, otherwise called Kṛishṇa Dēva Mahārāyasamudram, in the Būdihāḷ-sīme, to the learned Lakshmīdhara Bhaṭṭa, son of Kṛishṇa Bhaṭṭa, with all usual rights.⁴