Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s1.23

v2.c24.s1.23

Turning to the corporate activities of the people in what may be called legal matters, we have also many instances of the same spirit of joint-action which they showed in socio-political affairs. Buying and selling land, fixing the village boundaries and questions of a similar nature occur in the inscriptions of both the Karṇāṭaka and Tamil land. It must have been already evident to the reader that the ancient village assemblies of the south exercised considerable influence in the Tamil country. These remarks only supplement those made in connection with local administration under Vijayanagara. An inscription dated in the fourth regnal year of the king Parakēsarivarman alias Śrī-Rājēndra-Śōḷa Dēva relates that the great assembly of Ukkal alias Vikramābharaṇa-caturvēdimangalam, ordered the writing of a sale-deed (vilay-āvaṇam), of land in its own subdivision of Kāliyūr-kōṭṭam, for the maintenance of two boats (ōḍam) which had been assigned to the tank in their village by an individual (named) of the locality. The sale-deed relates the following, among other details : "We have sold, and executed a deed of sale for three thousand kuḷi, (measured) by a rod of sixteen spans (śāṇ) (with details) of land which was the common property of the assembly ".² In the record dated in the second regnal year of the king Rājakēsarivarman, we are told that the great men of the big assembly which included the great bhaṭṭas of Nālūr, a brahmadēya of Sērrūr-Kūrram, sold the market-fees (aṅgadik-kūli) of the bazaar street in their village to the god Mahādēva of Mūlasthāna at their village of Tirumayāṇam. These great men including the bhaṭṭas sold and executed the sale-deed (vilai-śrāvaṇai) with certain specified conditions relating to the māheśvaras and the members of the assembly.¹ In the Vēlūrpāḷiyam plates of Vijaya Nandivarman (III), we are told that along with a long list of exemptions (parihāra) and a written declaration (vyavasthā) Tirukkāṭṭupaḷḷi was made over to the temple assembly (paraḍai Skt. pariṣhad) of the village by a certain Yajña Bhaṭṭa, in the sixth year of the reign of the king.² An inscription dated in the third year of the reign of king Parakēsarivarman alias Śrīrājēndra Śōladēva, Sōmanātha, the supreme lord of Nipuṇilapura, and other great lords purchased from the citizens of Vāṇapuram in Karaivali, in Jayaṅgoṇḍa-Chōḷa-maṇḍalam, the cultivating land called Gaṅgādēvimaṇali. The epigraph further states that the citizens of Vāṇapuram sold and gave by a deed of sale, with all exemptions, the land enclosed within the boundaries (specified), having received from Sōmanātha the whole of the purchase-money and the tax-money due for the one thousand kuḷi " at the very place of the sale."³ An inscription dated in the ninth year of the reign of the king Parakēsarivarman alias Rājēndra-Chōḷa Dēva, relates that certain shepherds (named) made provision to supply ghee for a lamp in the Arinjiśvara temple, and agreed to stand security for one of them in case he died, absconded, got into prison, fetters or chains.⁴