Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s2.15

v2.c24.s2.15

The nature of the corporate life of the people is better illustrated in the numerous examples referring to what may be called the legal aspect of their social life. In this connection too we may recount the remarks we have already made in connection with the judicial administration of Vijayanagara. Whether dealing with arbitrators or Gauḍas, with the questions of buying land or selling it, with issues pertaining to mortgages or boundary disputes,—the epigraphs prove beyond doubt that behind the immense material wealth of the rulers, there lay deeper and more valuable resources of social solidarity which enabled them to protect and preserve Hindu Dharma for two and a half centuries of peace and warfare.