Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c25.s1.115

v2.c25.s1.115

References to the Hōḷi festival and the Okali sprinkling are also found in the inscriptions and literature. There can be no doubt that this festival was celebrated with great enthusiasm in early days. A record dated A. D. 1281 speaks of the *Okali* sprinkling of the god Hoysaṇēśvara (of Belūr?).¹ In A. D. 1438 thirty *honnu* were collected from the Śrīvaiṣṇava Brahmans for the spring festival of the god Śrīranganātha of Śrīrangapura.² Timmi Nāyaka, the Agent of Aṇṇamarasayya, who was the deputy (*avasaram*) of the king Sāḷuva Narasiṅga, in Śaka 1391 (A. D. 1468-9), gave certain specified taxes collected from the village Mūsukoḷattūr for the expenses connected with the Vasanta festival of the god in the Tiruviraṭṭānēśvara temple at Tiruvaḍi, South Arcot district.³ One of the *birudus* given to Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya in an inscription dated A. D. 1509-10 is the following—he "who, every year, performed a sacrifice to (*Kāma*) the lord of the golden festival of Spring."⁴ We are told in a record dated 1586-7 that the *Vasanta mahōtsava* was held in Udayagiri.⁵