Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c22.s3.27

v2.c22.s3.27

These titles which are found in profusion in epigraphs and literature, were conferred on recipients after due formalities at the royal court or in the *chāvaḍi* or the court of the provincial rulers. Learned men and poets received their titles in this manner. Some details about this can be gathered from an inscription dated A. D. 1447 already cited in an earlier connection. We saw that Mallikārjuna Rāya being disposed to perform an act of Dharma, and having bathed and put on pure and clean garments, was surrounded with Brahmans on the bank of the Tuṅgabhadrā, in the Bhāskara-kṣētra, at the foot of the Hēmakūṭa-giri. The occasion was in connection with the honour that was to be given to Ādityāryya (descent stated), the author of Bhāshya-bhūshaṇa. This man was proficient in all learning. The king having examined him in a learned assembly in all branches of study, and all the learned men being pleased, granted him the village of Nallaṅgi in the Rāyadurga kingdom.¹ An epigraph dated A. D. 1505 informs us that Bhujabala Pratāpa Narasimha Mahārāya, " in the course of bestowing the great gifts, among them, when bestowing the mahābhūta-ghaṭa, in the presence of the god Śrī-Ranganātha", on the bank of the Chandrapushkaraṇī, honoured Ranganātha Bhaṭṭa, versed in the six darshanas, with the office of āchārya together with the gift of the village Honnakahaḷḷi in the kingdom of (the Ummattūr chief) Chikka Rāja Oḍeyar.²