Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c14.s2.3

c14.s2.3

The members of the early Saṅgama dynasty, as said earlier, were Śaivas, following the Kāśmīr school of Śaivism and were known by the name of the Pāśupatas. Kriyāśakti Paṇḍita was their guru, and Śrī Virūpākṣa of Hampi was their tutelary deity, while Śrī Virūpākṣa was their sign manual.⁶⁵ The rulers maintained very cordial relations with the Śṛṅgēri maṭha; and Vidyātīrtha and Vidyāraṇya, who were its heads, and contributed much for the foundation of the Vijayanagar empire, were held in great veneration and high esteem by the early rulers of the line. In A.D. 1346 the five Saṅgama brothers jointly made a grant to the maṭha.⁶⁶ In A.D. 1380 Cennappa Uḍaiyār, a nephew of Harihara II, made the grant of an agrahāra to one Vidyābhūṣaṇa Dīkṣita, a sound scholar and a disciple of Vidyāraṇya, and re-named the village after Vidyāraṇya himself.⁶⁷ In the course of the fifteenth century a gradual change came over the faith of the Vijayanagar house and the rulers came to have a partiality for Vaiṣṇavism.⁶⁸ The Sāḷuvas were Vaiṣṇavas equally devoted to Nṛsiṃha of Ahōbalam and Veṅkaṭēśa of Tirupati. But their patronage was given to Śaivism also. They made their mahādānas both to the Śiva and Viṣṇu temples. But the Vaiṣṇava temples received more attention; grants and gifts to them were made on a larger scale. However Śrī Virūpākṣa of Vijayanagar continued to be the tutelary deity of the Sāḷuvas.