Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c8.43

c8.43

As in all empires under a monarchical constitution, so in the Vijayanagar empire, the king was the chief judge. But it would appear that he did not dispense justice in all the cases that appeared before his court. There was a judge who administered justice on behalf of the king. It is about that officer that Abdur Razāk writes: "A eunuch called Danāik sits alone upon a raised platform, and presides over the administration; and below it the mace bearers stand, drawn up in a row on each side. Whoever has any business to transact advances between the lines of mace bearers, offers some trifling present, places his face upon the ground, and standing upon his legs again, represents his grievances. Upon this the Danāik issues orders founded upon the rules of justice prevalent in that country, and no other person has any power of remonstrance."²² This description by the Persian ambassador shows that there was a judge at the capital for dispensing justice. Commenting on this Saletore remarks: "The Danāik of 'Abdur Razzāk was evidently a daṇṇāyaka or military commander; and if we are to rely on the evidence of the Persian ambassador, the Vijayanagara monarchs entrusted the duty of administering justice to an officer of the army, or to one who had seen service as a general. If this were really the case, no graver error could have been committed by the Hindu rulers of Vijayanagara, since such a procedure would have meant the violation of one of the most important injunctions of the ancient lawgivers in regard to the administration of justice........A daṇḍanāyaka or military commander was in no sense a substitute for a Brahman learned in the Smṛtis. . . . The fact that 'Abdur Razzāk is positive about the name of the high dignitary who administered justice makes one suspect that the rulers of Vijayanagara had indeed acted, at least in the important question of the composition of what may be called the court of chief justice, contrary to the classical notions of daṇḍa."²³ But it must be noted here that the term Daṇḍanāyaka was not necessarily a military title. In the Hoyśāla and Vijayanagar empires that title was assumed by one who had certain important administrative functions to discharge, and it indicated a cadre to which a particular person belonged. The title was applied also to a military commander, but not all Daṇḍanāyakas were officers of the army, or those who had seen service as generals. From such similarity of titles it is not right to conclude that "the rulers of Vijayanagara had acted contrary to the classical notions of daṇḍa."