Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s1.6

v2.c24.s1.6

From the beginning of the eleventh century A. D. we have more numerous records describing the varied corporate activities of the people. An effaced inscription in Tamil dated about A. D. 1019 informs us that the mahājanas of Malavūr alias Irājēndrasiṃha-chaturvēdimaṅgalam granted certain privileges, resembling those given above, in connection with some houses of the village, to Kō...(sarattu-Āḍi-māsa...vyavasthai-paṇṇina paḍi iv-ūril gṛihamgaḷ-uḷḷavai kshētraman nashṭa...ājñā...lum gṛihamga...traṭṭōḍu upathiy-āga ājñā-krayam-idak-kadvōm-allav-āgavum gṛihamgal a...)³ The mahājanas of the same agrahāra in about A.D. 1160 having received specified sums of money, granted certain lands (specified) as a kuḍaṅgai, as a permanent endowment, to Satyanāda-svāmigaḷ's son Nilkaṇṭha-dēvar. They also bound themselves to exempt lands from certain specified taxes.⁴ In the reign of Hoysala king Narasimha Dēva in A. D. 1173 Mallapa, son of the accountant Bamma, erected a temple of Galagēśvara in Dōrasamudra. And the generous Bārika-Chinna commended it to Narasimha Dēva, and the townspeople and the *sēnabōva* Malliyaṇṇa favoured it. The *heggaḍe* Yareyaṇṇa gave certain specified lands to the temple. And Bārika-Chinnaya and *sēnabōva* Malliyaṇṇa being present, granted for it one family of oilmongers and one family of garland makers. And all the townspeople of Chittavaṭṭi and the Brahmans of Hannasēṇi made a grant of a handful of rice, with one areca-nut and two betel leaves per shop. The oilmonger chiefs (many named) of the thousand families, together with the fifty families of the tread oil-mills, granted a *solige* of oil per mill.¹