The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s3.t2.5

v2.c15.s3.t2.5

Secondly, the administration of the kingdom was organized on a military basis. The Kākatiyas appear to have apportioned their territories among a number of military chiefs known as *nāyakas*. Several of these *nāyakas*, and the *nāyaka-sthalas* or the *nāyaka-sthala-vrittis*, as the estates were called which were granted to these *nāyakas* to secure for them the requisite economic basis for the proper discharge of the duties pertaining to their office, are mentioned in the Kākatiya inscriptions. Obviously the *nāyankara* system which became a prominent feature of the administration later under the Vijayanagara emperors was already in existence at this time, though its character and its political and military obligations are nowhere precisely defined. The *Nītisāra* of Pratāparudra, however, seems to throw some light on the subject. The king, according to this work, should assign only small villages to the *sāmantas*, reserving the big ones for the upkeep of the four-fold army and the replenishment of the treasury.¹ This suggestion must not be dismissed as mere theoretical speculation. Pratāparudra seems to have kept in mind the administrative system obtaining in his dominions, while laying down these rules. The *sāmantas* are apparently the *nāyakas* who obtained grants of lands from the Kākatiya monarchs to enable them to support their position. It is interesting to note that the villages which they held as feudal vassals fell into two classes, small and large. The former were given to them in lieu of salary; they had to maintain themselves from the income derived from the rents whether in money or kind. From the proceeds of the latter, the larger estates, the *nāyakas* had to maintain for the service of the king a stipulated body of troops, elephants, horse and foot, and in addition to pay a sum of money into the royal treasury every year as tribute. Baddena urges that the king himself should maintain a stronger military force as his private guard than he should allow to any one of his *sāmantas*; since otherwise it would not be possible for him to enforce his authority in case of insubordination or revolt. The Kākatiyas were, as a matter of fact, always extremely apprehensive regarding the excessive growth of the power of their *nāyakas*; for this reason, they never allowed the *nāyakas* to remain in one place and strike root there permanently. From the tradition preserved in the *Pratāpacharitra* we learn that Pratāparudra entrusted the defence of the seventy-seven bastions of his capital city Warangal to seventy-seven *nāyakas* of the Velama community, allotting to them a fourth of his kingdom as estates to enable them to discharge efficiently the duties pertaining to their office.² This statement is in the main corroborated by the contemporary and near contemporary epigraphic evidence, despite differences regarding the number and the communal affiliations of the *nāyakas*. The number of the nāyakas is said to have been seventy-five and not seventy-seven;¹ nor did they all belong exclusively to the Velama community. The nāyaka system became a characteristic feature of South Indian Hindu polity in subsequent ages. The Rāyas of Vijayanagara who inherited it from the Kākatīyas bequeathed it to the Nāyaka kings of the South, especially to those of Madura, where it flourished continuously up to the advent of the British.