Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c10.s2.48

c10.s2.48

A few of the governors of provinces were appointed to some important posts in the imperial service. Some of the ministers of the king are said to have been the governors over some province or other. For instance Mādhava mantri, the minister of Bukka I (formerly the minister of Mārappa while he was the viceroy over the Kadamba country and the Banavāse 12,000), “accepted the government (of the province) as far as the Western Ocean,”¹⁰⁰ by order of Vīra Bukka Bhūpati. From an inscription in the Tirthahalli taluk of the Shimoga district which mentions that Mādhava-mantri, the house-minister of Harihara II, was the governor of the western parts including Āraga of the Vijayanagar dominions, we are led to infer that he was ruling that province up to 1384, the date of the inscription.¹⁰¹ Nāgaṇṇa Daṇḍanāyaka, the Mahāpradhāna of Dēva Rāya I, was the governor of the Muḷuvāgil kingdom.¹⁰² Lakkaṇṇa Daṇḍanāyaka, the Prime Minister of Dēva Rāya II, served as a governor in various provinces. About 1430 he was the governor of the Mulbāgal and the Tēkal provinces.¹⁰³ Later he was the governor of the southern part of the empire and was known by the designation “Lord of the Southern Ocean”.¹⁰⁴ Timmaṇṇa Daṇḍanāyaka, the Mahāpradhāni of Mallikārjuna Rāya, was the governor of the Nāgamaṅgala division of the empire.¹⁰⁵ Sāḷuva Timma, the Prime Minister of Kṛṣṇadēva Raya, was made the governor of Koṇḍavīḍu after its capture.¹⁰⁶ Koṇḍamarasayya, the Rāyasam of the king, was the governor of Udayagiri.¹⁰⁷ Salvanayque of Nuniz known to the inscriptions as Sāḷuva Vīra Narasimha Nāyaka or Sāḷuva Daṇḍanāyaka was for some time ruling over the Tiruvadi rājya and according to the account of Nuniz he was the lord of Charamaodel, Negapatam, Tanjore, Bhuvanagiri, Devipatnam, Tirukoil (Tirukkōyilūr) Kayal and other territories bordering on Ceylon.¹⁰⁸ Thus instances can be multiplied to show that some of the imperial officers were also provincial governors; and they governed their provinces through their deputies, who were called Kāryakartas.