Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c8.30

c8.30

In dealing with adjective law Mādhava, on the authority of Bṛhaspati, divides for instance, regular courts as stationary and circuit, and courts presided over by the king, and courts presided over by judges appointed under the king's seal. Ramayya Pantulu thinks that the kings as a rule presided over the supreme courts in person, and that they appointed judges to preside over the provincial courts, over which they could not themselves preside.18 But these recommendations do not appear to have been followed in the Vijayanagar court. There is no evidence to show that there were circuit courts then. Further, we have good evidence to indicate that the provincial governors held their own courts in their respective areas and dispensed justice as the king did at the capital irrespective of the fact whether there was a judge holding his court in the same place or not.