Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c8.53

c8.53

But the existence of a separate court presided over by a judge or a panel of judges did not preclude the king from dispensing justice himself. The king also received complaints from his people and disposed of them. Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya’s views on the duties of the king with regard to the administration of justice are contained in his statement in the Āmuktamālyada where he says: “Be always intent upon protecting your subjects; when you hear complaints from people in distress, hear them and redress their sufferings. Do not entrust your affairs to mean persons.”²⁹ That emperor personally dispensed justice in a few cases. When he received complaints about certain irregularities of management in respect of daily worship in the Tiruvālūr temple, he ordered the dismissal of the culpable servants of the temple.³⁰ Sometimes the king asked the officers by his side to try the cases presented to him. Once when the Mahājanas made representations with regard to a dispute between two parties of residents of Koṇḍagai in the Rāmnād district to king Sadāśiva Rāya while he was camping at Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam in A.D. 1545-46, the king directed the matter to be settled by the arbitration of learned men in the presence of Sāḷuva Nāyaka as a result of which remissions of certain taxes were granted to the village of Tiruvēṅgaḍapuram.31 But in particular cases it appears the king could not be appealed to directly. An appeal to him could be made only through some officer. Thus it is stated in an inscription that the trustees in charge of the temple treasury of Tiruvāmāttūr petitioned to Kṛṣṇa-dēva Mahārāya through Karaṇikkam Maṅgaraśayyar and Sāḷuva Ariyava Nāyakkar.32 It is difficult to know exactly what the two officers did in the appeal. Perhaps as provincial governors they recommended the case for final appeal to the king; or it was simply an appeal from the provincial court to the imperial court.