Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c25.s1.3

v2.c25.s1.3

Before we deal with them in detail, we may enumerate the different kinds of festivals mentioned in the inscriptions. Some of the epigraphs merely contain references to ordinary festivals; others, to the greater celebrations which foreign travellers also witnessed. Thus an inscription dated A. D. 1375 relates that Dēvaṇṇa Oḍeyar, along with the inhabitants of Kaivāra-nāḍ, in order that merit might accrue to his father Īśvara Dēva, instituted a festival for the god Bhīmīśuram-Uḍaiyar-Nāyanār of Kaivāra.² But a more detailed account is given in a stone record dated about A. D. 1397 which informs us that the great general of Harihara Rāya, Guṇḍa Daṇḍādhipa, made provision for the following festivals in the Chennakēśava temple at Bēlūr: the daily worship according to the *pañcha rātra* ritual and the *mantra siddhānta*, the worship of the throne, the enthronement for the bath, enthronement for the decorations, the enthronement for processions, the enthronement for offerings of food, the enthronement for retiring to rest, the display of the sacred emblems, the ceremonial contact, the sixty-four festivals of rejoicing, the worship with flowers, the daily oblation, the daily procession, the fortnightly festivals, the monthly festival, the yearly festival, the festival of purifications, the festival of remaining at home, the festival of the engine (or disc), the festival of invoking Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, the festital of worship with lotuses, the swing festival, the festival of illumination, the festival in Mārgaśira, the festival in Pushya, the festival in Chaitra, the decoration with the nine gems, the decoration with new clothes and jewels, the burning of sandal perfume, the congratulation, the presentation of fruit and delicacies, the presentation of a bull, the offering of honey, the offering of seeds, the display of the four divisions of the army, the exhibition of the mirror and of garlands, the exhibition of dancing, the procession to the treasury, the bathing at equinoxes, at solstices, and at the time of the sun's entering a new sign, the waving of lights, the penance for defects (or omissions) in the daily service, and the penance for accidental interruptions, the peace offering and the festival of bringing the god home from a distance.¹