Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s2.1

v2.c24.s2.1

The detailed description of the public charities in the pre-Vijayanagara ages, especially in the Karṇāṭaka, given above are essential if we are to estimate adequately the traditions which were handed down to the rulers of Vijayanagara, and the corporate activities of the various bodies in mediaeval times. There is something more than mere religious fervour in the numerous examples we have just cited: the sense of solidarity, especially as given in the inscriptions recording the joint-action of the people, not only among themselves, but with the officers of Government, was seen more in the Karṇāṭaka than in the Tamil land, in the latter half of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries. This explains the rejuvenation of Hindu life in the Hoysala Empire, and the failure of the people of the Pāṇḍya kingdom to achieve the same end. It is a significant fact that even in the very last days of the Hoysala rulers, the popular sentiment to work in harmony with the State, which was characteristic of the early Tamil people, should have manifested itself more in the epigraphs relating to farmers and cultivators rather than in those pertaining to Brahmans. The richest heritage which the Hoysalas gave to the new generation was this remarkable spirit of working for the common good without which the resuscitation of the Hindu Dharma would have been an impossible task.