Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s1.19

v2.c24.s1.19

But there are also instances of Brahmans having received grants of land at the hands of Gauḍas. In A. D. 1314 Vīra Baḷḷāḷa III gave a royal order (rāyasa) to the Sēnabōva Kāvaṇṇa, Kāḷa Gauḍa, Nāya Gauḍa, and other Gauḍas and subjects, the nature of which is not specified in the epigraph. These donees, however, on receiving it, granted land in Heggere irrigated from the Būdihāḷa tank to "all the Brahmans of the all-worshipful senior great crown-agrahāra (piriya-paṭṭada-mahāgrahāram) Udbhava-sarbbajñā-vijaya-Baḷḷāḷapura, which is Arasiyakere", as a permanent endowment.³ An effaced inscription dated A. D. 1326 relates that during the administration of Permmāḍi and others (named), all the Brahmans of the great āśrama of Muḍigoṇḍachōḷamaṇḍala, the immemorial agrahāra Malavūr, which is the Rājēndra-siṃha-chaturvēdimaṅgalam, gave to the great senior merchants, the Nānā-Dēśi-nakharangaḷu and all the other people of certain other classes (whose names are given), a niyama-śāsana relating to shops.⁴ All the Brahmans of the great agrahāra Baḷḷāḷapura, which is Kittanakere, with the consent of the royal officer Kāmeya Daṇṇāyaka, son of the great minister Poṇṇaṇṇa, in about A.D. 1336, granted Madahalu, a hamlet of Kittanakere, as a rent-free estate together with the gauḍa's office of Hiruvūr, a house, dues from the fair, and certain specified land in the latter place, to Kala Gauḍa, son of Maleya Rāma Seṭṭi, for having repaired Kittanakere-sthala which had fallen into ruins. Nāchappa and Dēvappa, sons of the great master of the robes, Nācheya Heggade, joined the Brahmans on this occasion.¹