Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c14.s3.3

c14.s3.3

The mediaeval temple was, from a religious point of view, a house of God.¹¹⁵ The management of the temple was in the hands of trustees who had the right to control the appointment and dismissal of the temple servants and administer the temple endowments and property; in short, they controlled the interests of the temple. There were many servants in the temple of whom prominent mention must be made of the general manager of the temple (kōyilkēḷvi) and the temple accountant (kōyilkaṇakku or ōlai eḷttu);¹¹⁶ there were also the general watchman (mey kāval or tirumēni kāval),¹¹⁷ superintendent of the stores (araikāval), treasurer (poṉ baṇḍāram), servants in charge of lighting (tiruviḷakku-kuḍi),¹¹⁸ the temple priest, the piper and the drummer and a host of other servants who had different duties in it. The Gods in the temple were considered to have the tastes of the men who worshipped them, and hence a large number of dancing girls were attached to the temples, and their duty was to dance and sing before the Gods, not only at the time when offerings were made to them but also in the mornings and evenings. The Gods were said to have been very much delighted at their dances and hence dancing girls were called the dēvaraḍiyār (servants of God). The servants of the temple were remunerated either by grants of lands on terms of beneficial service to be rendered to the temples, or they were allowed a particular share of the income of the temples. Sometimes private individuals maintained these temple servants by making grants of land for their maintenance or endowing a specified money income.