Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c11.55

c11.55

An important feature of the village organisation was the *Āyagār* system. According to it every village was a separate unit and its affairs were conducted by a body of twelve functionaries who were collectively known as the Āyagārs. Col. Wilks describes the functions of these Āyagārs in the following terms: “Every Indian village is, and appears always to have been, in fact, a separate community or republic; the gouḍ or potail is the judge and magistrate; the karaṇam or shanbhog is the registrar. The taliary or sthulwār and the toti are generally the watchmen of the village and of the crops; the neergaṇṭee distributes the water of the streams or reservoirs in just proportion to the several fields; the jotishee, joshee or astrologer performs the essential service of announcing the seasons of seed time and harvest, and the imaginary benefit of unfolding the ‘lucky and unlucky’ days and hours for all the operations of farming; the smith and carpenter, frame the rude instruments of husbandry, and the ruder dwelling of the farmer; the potter fabricates the only utensils of the village; the washerman keeps clean the few garments which are spun and sometimes woven in the family of the farmer, or purchased at the nearest market; the barber contributes to the cleanliness and assists in the toilet of the villagers; the goldsmith marking the approach of luxury, manufactures the simple ornaments with which they like to bedeck their wives and daughters; and these twelve officers styled the Barabullowuttee or Ayangadi, as requisite members of the community, receive the compensation of their labour either in allotments of land from the corporate stock or in fees consisting of fixed proportions of the crop of every farmer in the village.”⁴¹ Almost every British Indian administrator in the early nineteenth century was struck by the vitality and usefulness of the Āyagār system.