Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c22.s2.3

v2.c22.s2.3

One of the earliest records which mentions what appears to be State service is that dated A. D. 1380 of the times of Harihara Rāya. His younger brother Vira Mallappa Oḍeyar's son Channappa "when the Turuhkas were swarming over Ādavāni *durga* and kingdom, conquered those Turuhkas, took possession of the *durga* (or hill-fort) and kingdom, and gave them to Harihara Rāya" receiving a kingdom of his own in return.⁴ An effaced inscription dated A. D. 1460 tells us that when the great minister Dēvarasa was ruling Gutti, the Maḷalagade *mahā-prabhu* Mācha Gauḍa's...Māda Nāyaka's son Bayire Nāyaka gave his life in his master's service (*tamma voḍeyana svāmi-kāryyakke tanna prāṇavakoḷ [ṭ] anu*).¹ During the reign of Sadāśiva Rāya, according to a copper-plate dated A. D. 1557, the *Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara* Rāma Rāju Tirumala Rājayya Dēva granted to Mahīpati Yerrama Nāyaka for faithful service done to the State and for guarding the country the villages of Gooty, Tāḍpatri, Vellaḷūru, Śiṅgaṇamla and Siyyaḍa, with the right of receiving ten *varāhā* for every 100 *varāhā* of tax collected from the villages, together with the produce from two *markāls* of seedlings out of every twenty, and one bundle of fodder from that got out of two-fifths of an acre of land.² The Emperor Veṅkaṭapati Dēva Rāya in A. D. 1589 granted to the Hiriyūr-sthaḷa *Śyānabhōga* Tipparasayya Kare Virayya a deed of gift (*dāna-paṭṭe*) as follows: "This Virayya being engaged in our service, and Kenchaṇṇa Nāyaka having made known to us his previous history (*i-Virayyanu namma sēve māḍalāgi Kenchaṇṇa-nāyakanu ivara pūrva-vartamāna binnahāṃ māḍalāgi*)—we, approving of the service that this Virayya has rendered, have granted unto him an estate" which comprised eleven *sthaḷas* and 185 villages under the *kaṭṭes* (or ponds) in which were many *mānya* rice-lands (specified).³