Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c11.72

c11.72

Another body of persons that constituted a political group and at times co-operated with the local assemblies is what were known as the Valangai and Idangai ninety-eight sects. Though they were essentially social groups with differences and frequent quarrels among themselves yet in their relations with the government they acted as an organised constitutional body. Thus according to a record at Tiruvaigāvūr in the Tanjore district the Valangai 98 sects and the Idangai 98 sects along with the assembled residents of Parāntakanāḍu met together and arrived at a decision regarding the amount under the various items of taxation payable to the government (rājagaram irai muraimai ) or to the temple.⁵⁰ Similarly according to an unfinished and damaged record of A.D. 1429 at Vṛddhācalam already referred to, the Valangai sects entered into an agreement among themselves that they would inflict corporal punishment on those who helped the tax-collectors of the king in the collection of taxes by coercive measures and who consented to write accounts.⁵¹