Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c22.s3.102

v2.c22.s3.102

An equally patriotic chief was Basavayya, who assigned in the same year the rents, customs, and all other rights of the village Sōgehaḷḷi in Bayi-nāḍ-sthala, for the decorations of Rāmēśvara-liṅga of Maṭakere, in order that merit might accrue to Kṛiṣhṇa Rāya Mahārāya.¹ In Śaka 1446 (A. D. 1524-5) a grant of the village of Ghaṭanahaḷḷi in the Uchchhaṅgi-vēṇṭhe, was made (by Viśana Rāvutta, son of Murāri Rāvutta ?) to Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa for the merit of the Emperor.² Hanumappa Nāyaka in A. D. 1527 “in order that dharma might be to Kṛiṣhṇa Rāya Mahārāya”, granted land (specified) as a koḍage-mānya to a donee not mentioned in the record.³ An inscription dated A. D. 1528 informs us that Dēvarasayya made a grant of Āludūr village, in Tāyūr-sthala,(to the Brahmans of Ummattūr ?) as a permanent endowment. This epigraph contains the usual phrase that “merit accrue to Kṛiṣhṇa Rāya Mahārāya” and at the same time, “by order of Kṛiṣhṇa Rāya Mahārāya”.⁴ Since we know from various sources that that great monarch was too generous and noble to order a petty official to commemorate his sense of patriotism by a grant of land, we may reasonably assume that the phrase “by order of Kṛiṣhṇa Rāya Mahārāya” may have been used in the sense of the donor’s having made public the gift in the presence of the officers of the king.