Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s1.82

v2.c24.s1.82

Instances of the corporate activities of the people for religious purposes are found in the records of the Tamil kings. We shall give only a few of these, since it is well known that joint-action was a special feature of the village assemblies of the ancient Tamil people. The following relates to the times of Rājakēśarivarma, who may have been perhaps Āditya I. The great merchants (nagarattār) of Kumāramārtāṇḍapuram assigned, and gave with the consent of the guild, their income of every alternate year from the collection (vārāvaigal) from certain specified flower gardens for the repairs (pudukkuppuram) and gōpuram of the local temple. If they failed as a guild or as a single individual, one among them who was in charge of the temple, was authorized to levy a fine of gold himself and realize it from the defaulter openly or at any place he liked.⁴ Another record dated in the twelfth regnal year of Ko-Rāja- Kēsarivarman (Rājarāja Dēva) informs us that the *sabhai* (assembly) of the same village pledged themselves to furnish a yearly supply of paddy to the temple treasurers (*Śiva-paṇḍāri-gal*) from the interest of a sum of money, which they had received from a large stone-temple, named Rājasimhēśvara at Kañchipuram, or to pay a fine of a quarter *pon* daily.¹