Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c11.49

c11.49

But these republics slowly but steadily decayed in the course of the Vijayanagar period. Venkoba Rao while commenting upon a particular inscription of A.D. 1382 remarks: “These village assemblies which were powerful local institutions during the Cōḷa period seem to have gradually died out after the decline of the Cōḷa empire. The few transactions noticed in the above inscriptions were probably among the very last transactions of the assemblies before their total disappearance.”³⁶ In another place while commenting upon an inscription of A.D. 1386 he observes: “The transaction recorded in the present inscription is another late instance of the vestiges of power wielded by the village assembly.”³⁷