Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c11.42

c11.42

The village assemblies acted sometimes as guardians of the public endowments and charities, and administered trusts, the expenses of which were to be met by the income from a particular landed property or money deposit placed in charge of these village assemblies. Thus according to an inscription at Paḷḷikoṇḍa in the North Arcot district, the assembly of Nandikampacaturvēdimaṅgalam made an agreement with a certain Vaṇakkaṇ Poṇṇāli Nambi, a merchant of Mērpādi, who endowed as dānapuram 2,000 kuli of land in the village of Vaippūr for feeding daily a specified number of persons versed in the Vedas.29 According to another epigraph at the same place the same assembly agreed to feed certain ascetics daily in return for a grant of 400 kuli of tax free land made as dānapuram by a lady named Umaiyāḷ Ammaiyāḷ.30 Similarly when one Rācappa, the son of a merchant Ciṇṇappa, made a grant of a dry field of the sowing capacity of 10 kōḷagas for the service of God Kalledēva during the reign of Bukka II, the field was placed in charge of the Mahājanas of the village.31