Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c8.6

c8.6

The importance of the application of daṇḍa or punishment has been brought out with remarkable force by Manu. He says: “It is daṇḍa that rules the subjects, it is only daṇḍa that protects all people; daṇḍa is awake when others sleep; hence according to the learned daṇḍa is Dharma itself.”² The value of daṇḍa was well understood by the Vijayanagar kings. They felt that punishment was an essential condition for the maintenance of law and order in society. Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya says in his Āmuktamālyada: “The wife’s attachment to her husband, the proper relations between men and women, the ascetic subduing his indriyas, the lower castes showing deference to the higher, the servant looking carefully to the interests of the master, you should know that all these are brought about (ultimately) by the fear of the king’s punishment."³ For enforcing the laws the king should possess enormous powers. The same royal author again says: "It is essential that a king should enforce his commands. Even the Ābhīras and the Bhillas of the forest are able to enforce their orders as by the sign of the arrow and the piece of thread. Much more therefore is it necessary that an emperor (Sārvabhauma) should be able to enforce his commands."⁴ Thus the sovereign authority should have the power to enforce the laws on the people.