Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s2.115

v2.c24.s2.115

Brahmans as well as artisan classes joined together to make provision for the dancing-girls attached to temples. In A. D. 1366 Kāḷappa, the Gauḍa of Honganūr, the mahājanas of the village and the gavuḍugaḷ of the nāḍu, having met together, granted some lands and taxes to provide for dancing-girls in the temple of god Ankanātha. All the eighteen castes attended the meeting at which it was decided that for making the above provision every house should pay one ? tāra every year and on occasions of regular marriage of a girl one bāgilu-vaṇa (door-haṇa) and one dēvara-haṇa (God's-haṇa) and of kūḍike marriage of a woman half the amount.⁴ In A.D. 1369 all the Brahmans of the agrahāra Madhusūdanapura also called Taḷirūr, agreeing among themselves, made a grant in Imma-Uyaguṇḍiyahaḷḷi for the support of the dancing-girls in the temple of the god Madhusūdana.⁵ All the Brahmans of the agrahāra Prasanna-Vijayapura, agreeing among themselves in A. D. 1372, made a grant (specified in detail) for the support of the dancing-girls of the original god of the village (grāmadhidaivavāgiha), the god Rāmanātha. The amount set apart for this purpose was thirty gadyāṇa. As we have already seen, the epigraph concludes thus: "Whatever Brahmans oppose this, are out of the Brahman community, and banished from the village."¹ In the same year all the Pañchāḷas of Terakaṇāmbi and various other places (named), we may likewise be permitted to repeat, with the smiths of the four places (named) agreeing together made a grant also with the same object, of providing for the dancing-girls of the same temple. Their generosity extended also to the dancing-girl Kētavve, presented to the temple by Rāmaṇṇa, son Nāgavve. We have already seen that, like the Brahmans of Prasanna-Vijayapura, the Pañchāḷas also imposed a penalty on all those who destroyed their grant.² In A. D. 1403 all the Nāyakavāḍis of Ālūr, the southern Ayyāvaḷiyūr, who were altogether seven, made a grant for the support of the dancing-girls of the god Dēśinātha of the same place Ayyāvaḷiyūr.³