Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c11.8

c11.8

From the inscriptions we get some idea of the strength of the village assemblies in the Vijayanagar days. An epigraph at Tiruvāṇḍārkōyil in the Pondicherry territory records that Tribhuvana-mahādēvi caturvēdimaṅgalam had an assembly consisting of 4000 men.³ It must have been too unwieldy to transact any business successfully. These assemblies generally met in a temple hall, failing which they seem to have gathered at some other public place. According to an inscription at Virāccilai in the Puduk-kōṭṭai State a great assembly met in a flower garden (nandavanam).⁴ The corporate character and the large size of these assemblies are indicated by the terms ūrāga īsainda ūrōm, or nāḍāga īsainda nāṭṭavarōm and kuraivara kūḍi, niraivara niraindu, etc. Though these assemblies seem to have been large it is reasonable to assume that their deliberations were conducted only by a few residents who were the leading citizens of the locality. Some of these assemblies were at times called mahāsabhās. Thus Kāvēripākkam in the North Arcot district is said to have had a mahāsabhā in A.D. 1459-60.⁵