Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c11.38

c11.38

The village assemblies exercised some control over the temples as well. The assembly of Aṉaimēlagaram in the present Tanjore district confirmed the right of the temple at Mūvalūr over the lands that already belonged to it, the lands that had been gradually added on and the lands that once belonged to the God Kālakūttar whose temple had been destroyed by fire.²⁶ Sometimes it shared in common with the temple the right of controlling certain public places like the village tank. Thus an inscription at Nāṅgunēri in the Tinnevelly district records the grant by the temple authorities and the assemblies of Śīvaramaṅgai and a few other places of the right of fishing in the tank in return for clearing the silt of the tank every year.27