Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s2.95

v2.c24.s2.95

Before we proceed to mention the charitable endowments by the people, we may speak of one or two features of the social history of the times—the particular favour by which the rulers and the subjects looked on the Jainas, and the amicable relations between the Sthānikas and the Brahmans. Although these two features refer to the religious life of the people, yet it is not irrelevant that we should dwell on them from the point of view of the corporate activities of the people. Lest the instances we have cited above should be interpreted to mean that the Brahmans of Vijayanagara were extremely fortunate in securing the largest share of the bounty of the people, we may give an instance dealing with the public charities of all the merchants and citizens of a province. This epigraph, which does not exhaust all the records on the subject, is dated A. D. 1383. All the Sālu-mūle of Eḍa-nāḍ in Gutti and of twenty-one other centres we have already mentioned in connection with the guilds in Vijayanagara, " having agreed among themselves, gave to the Sankala basti of Haḷigere a *śāsana* " confirming the *umbaḷi* gift of seventy *varāha* for a palanquin and spears, given by the *Mahā-prauḍha* Mude Daṇṇāyaka.³ One has only to remember the former religious settlement between the Jainas and the Śrīvaiṣṇavas in A. D. 1368 at the hands of Bukka Oḍeyar, to realize that the people could not but have shown the same generosity and consideration to the Jainas, which their ruler had made public on the occasion of that great controversy.