Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s2.123

v2.c24.s2.123

Agreements relating to marriage may next be considered. A record which is unfortunately much defaced, but dated about A. D. 1449, tells us that a number of Seṭṭis (named) of Bāgūr made some regulations regarding women who lapsed from marriage.⁵ In Śakā 1377 (A.D. 1455-6) certain merchants of Kāvērippākam drew up a private agreement to the effect that a specified sum of money was to be set apart, on marriage occasions, for the repairs of the temple of Kēśava Parumāḷ at Kāvērippākkam alias Vikrama-Śōḷa-Chatuvēdimangalam.⁶ All the subjects and Seṭṭis (of a place not mentioned in the epigraph), we are told in a record dated A. D. 1534, by the order of the Emperor Achyuta Rāya, remitted for all castes the tax on marriage and on marriage pandals. The inscription also contains the names of Seṭṭis who joined in this.¹