Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c2: Preface

Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c2

Language: English

Preface

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The history of the Vijayanagar Empire occupies a period of well over three centuries (1336-1650 A.D). It marks the culmination of the achievements, political and cultural, of the people of South India in the days when they had not fallen under foreign domination. And the Empire at its greatest extent covered practically the whole of the modern Presidency of Madras, the Indian States in the area included, and extended for a time to Ceylon and parts of Burma. The outline of the history of this ‘Forgotten Empire’ was first presented by Robert Sewell in a celebrated book published in 1900.

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Since then there has been a steady accession of much new material owing to the activities of the Archæological departments in Madras, Mysore and Travancore, the publications of numerous works of literature and travel in various languages, the editing in extenso or calendaring of public records from the archives of different governments and the fresh study and interpretation of old collections of materials like the Mackenzie Manuscripts.

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The study of Vijayanagar has necessarily occupied a considerable place in the work of the University department of Indian History and Archæology since its inception in 1914. Its first Professor, Diwan Bahadur Dr. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, inaugurated the University Historical Series with a scholarly edition of some of the Sources of Vijayanagar History and made many striking contributions to the subject which are well known to all students. The expansion of the department in 1928 by the addition of a Reader and a Lecturer has made it possible to plan the work of the department on Vijayanagar History on a more extended scale. The present Reader, Dr. N. Venkataramanayya, was already a specialist in Vijayanagar History when he joined the department in 1931, and very soon after, he published two books with the titles:

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(1) Vijayanagara, Origin of the City and the Empire

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(2) Studies in the History of the Third Dynasty of Vijayanagara.

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The present work of Mr. Mahalingam is calculated to supplement from the Tamil side the social and administrative studies begun in The Third Dynasty, and I venture to express the hope that the book, by the choice of its theme and the competence of its treatment will be found to fulfil this purpose.