Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c22.s2.52

v2.c22.s2.52

This was certainly not the usual manner in which the people of Vijayanagara appreciated the services of those who gave up their lives for public good. Even in later Vijayanagara history we have evidence of *nettaru-goḍage* having been granted by the rulers or their subordinates. An inscription dated A. D. 1569 relates that Tirumala Rāya Dēva Mahārāya was pleased to order the grant of the *māgaṇi* of Golahaḷḷi in the Doḍḍēri-sīme of the Rāya-durga-sthaḷa, to Aubhalaiya, son of Doḍḍēri Malapa Gauḍa, "for sacrificing his life", as a *nettaru-goḍage*; and that the *Mahānāyakāchārya* Harati Lakshmīpati Nāyaka forthwith executed the royal order by assigning it as a permanent gift, with all rights, to the donee.¹ Keḷadi Rāmarāja Nāyaka-ayya granted to Hiriya Kaliyūr Timma's (son) Malarasa a *nettaru-goḍage* (specified) in the Hennagēri village, in A. D. 1571, for some service not stated in the epigraph.² In about A. D. 1598 Keḷadi Malle Gauḍa gave to the Yalagaṇale torch-bearer (*divaru*) Bommayya's son Kāma a *nettaru-goḍage* as follows : "Your Bommi having died in our service, we have given for him land (as specified) in Beḷala-matti."³ Suguṭūr Immaḍi Tammaya-Gauḍayya granted land (specified), in A. D. 1602, for the children of the cowherd Hiriya Chennaiya for "having exerted himself at the time of need and died".⁴ This could only have been a *nettaru-goḍage*, since the Suguṭūr rulers, as is evident from a grant dated A. D. 1630, were aware of the traditional method of recompensing the services of dutiful subjects. In this year, when "Rāma Dēva Rāya was ruling the empire of the world", Suguṭūr Chikka Rāya Tammaya Gavuḍa granted to the *Daḷavāyi* Soṇṇaya Gauḍa a *nettaru-goḍage śāsana* as follows : "You having taken great trouble and carried out for our government the list of orders written out for our affairs, we grant to you...in the Suguṭūr village."⁵