Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s1.31

v2.c24.s1.31

The custom of selling and buying land, and of settling questions connected with it, by corporate bodies was also common in the Karṇāṭaka. In A. D. 1179 the Brahmans of Siṅdaghaṭṭa, also called Saṅgamēśvara, sold to Mādaṇṇa and Bommaṇṇa, sons of Gandani Dēvaraṇṇa, for forty-four gadyāṇa certain specified land belonging to the god Lakshmī-Nārāyaṇa of Siṅdaghaṭṭa. The following is related in an inscription dated about A. D. 1215: Biṭṭi-guru, son of Devarāśi-guru, the temple priest (sthānāchārya) of the immemorial agrahāra Vijaya-Narasimhapura, which is Kaḷikaṭṭi, together with Jagata Jiya and others (named) agreeing among themselves in the presence of the great senior merchant Ponnachcha Śeṭṭi and others (named), gave to all the Brahmans of the same agrahāra, a vōle (or written deed) as follows: "A dispute having arisen as to some gain in the land of the god Kamaṭēśvara,—the people of the place, Ponnachcha Śeṭṭi, the Jiyas, Gavuḍas and Chavu-gāveyas having assembled, inspected the place, saw that from the beginning it was no part of the god's endowment, and said to those priests,—' It is not right for you to dispute about this'. On which the priests agreeing said: 'We will make no dispute. From this day forth the land of all the temples which we have been enjoying is ours; the land which the Brahmans have been enjoying since the agrahāra was established is theirs. When the land was distributed to us and to the Brahmans there was no watchman for Haḷḷi Hiriyūr'." Such was the vōle given to the Brahmans by the priests (sthānikaru).²