Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c7.6

c7.6

Besides the inscriptions of the period we have the writings of the foreign travellers who have left their accounts of the revenue administration under the Vijayanagar kings. Among such accounts those of Abdur Razāk, Nuniz, and Paes are indispensable. Especially Nuniz gives an account of the revenues of the Vijayanagar state, how they were collected through the ‘captains’, and how far the revenue policy of the Vijayanagar kings weighed heavily on the subjects. But one fact is worth noting here; that is, the foreign writers, who did not know the real nature of the village life, rural organisation and the dues from the villages contented themselves with making prominent mention of the transit duties, excise and other dues payable on the import and export of merchandise to and from a city. Abdur Razāk for instance has nothing to say about the land tax, but he speaks only about the customs and the taxes on the prostitutes which struck him much. Hence they have not examined all the sources of revenue to the state, the differentiation between the imperial and the local revenues and other questions connected with the revenue administration of the state.