A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c6.17

c6.17

The task of Vijayanagar was thus to conserve Hindu society and save it from the dissolution which threatened it from several directions. Little wonder therefore that during this period the outlook of the Hindus of the South developed new standards of a narrow and rigid orthodoxy in social and religious matters which persist to this day in great force and render a widespread reform at once necessary and difficult. Literature and the arts subserved this rising tide of orthodox feeling and strengthened it in every way. The work of Sāyaṇa, Mādhava and others, resulting in the great commentaries on the Vedas and on the Smriti of Parāśara and in a new codification of the philosophical systems in the Sarvadarśana-sangraha (‘Digest of all systems of philosophy’), may be said to have laid the foundations of this development. The erection of new maṇḍapas, pavilions and colonnades, as well as gōpuras, in all the important shrines of the country, and the innumerable gifts to temples and learned men for the promotion of religious worship, education and learning that are found recorded in stone inscriptions all over the country attest the large material support given to the movement by the monarchs and the nobles of the court. Painting, music, drama, indeed all fine arts, gathered round the court and the temple and found liberal support from both. In one important respect, however, there was a setback. In the villages the people seem to have lost a good deal of their initiative and come to depend more and more on the tender mercies of petty officials appointed and controlled by the central government or its representatives. The admirable system of autonomous village rule that had been established under the Cholas, and that survived intact for several generations after them, now fell into neglect and all but disappeared in this period, thanks to the pressure of military needs on the emperors and the feudatory nāyakas. The militarization of the empire proved disastrous to some of its most valued civil institutions.