Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s2.31

v2.c24.s2.31

The Heggade of Meṇasūr in Madavadi-nāḍ and a number of Heggades (named) together with all the people of Dānamūla granted a stone śāsana of a deed of sale (kraya-dāna-dhārā-pūrvvakāvagi koṭṭa śilā-śāsanada kramav) embodying the transfer of Dānamula-Meṇasūr and other villages (eleven in all) to these people of the three cities of all the nāḍs of the Eighteen Kaṃpaṇas. The epigraph also contains the information that the people of Dānamūla and their aḷiya-santāna (or heirs in the female line) with one consent sold the land, having received from those of the three cities of the nāḍs of the Eighteen Kaṃpaṇa the price, 500 varāha, saying that those lands and measurements belonged no more to Dānamula. The epigraph ends by saying that the whole was made over to Viṭhṭhaṇṇa Oḍeyar, free of imports.² Another inscription of the same date tells us that the viceroy received as a gift from the cultivators of the three cities of the Eighteen Kaṃpaṇa a deed of sale of land valued at 150 honnu in the lot of Masiga-Gauḍa of Meṇasūr; and that Viṭhṭhaṇṇa Oḍeyar, who had acquired it "with the consent of the women, men, son-in-law's descendants (or descendants in the female line), and all other claimants," formed an agrahāra, named Bommaṇāpura consisting of fifty-four shares (specified).³ The specific mention of the consent of the claimants and the rights of the cultivators is significant from the point of view of the care which the rulers bestowed on questions involving legal intricacies and constitutional usage.