Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c11.87

c11.87

These guilds were usually consulted by the government when the taxes due from them were the subject of a gift. According to an epigraph at Hospet in the Bellary district Abbarāja Timmappa, the agent of Pradhāna Tirumalarāja, granted the *mūlaviśa* of certain villages for the offerings of God Tiruveṅgaḷanātha with the consent of the *śeṭṭi paṭṭaṇasvāmis* (presiding merchants) of the villages and the *mahānāḍu* (general assembly).⁶⁰ Similarly one Kampadēva Aṇṇa, an officer of Acyuta Rāya, is said to have made a gift of some duties on crops and of the fee on marriages with the consent of the nānādēśi merchants.⁶¹ They also levied certain customs and taxes of a local character. They levied tolls on markets for instance, and granted them to temples. According to an inscription of A.D. 1534 the local merchants collected tolls at the market held every Sunday in the hamlet of Viśvēśvaradēvapura belonging to Lepākṣi and in the Haruṇāḍu and Hōsūrunāḍu and a few other customs which they granted to a temple.62