Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c8.68

c8.68

In those days special officers were appointed to supervise the working of the temples, and whenever disputes arose in them these special officers enquired into such cases and decided them. One Viṭṭappar of Anegōṇḍi, when he was appointed as the king’s officer in the Tiruvorriyūr temple, had to decide a serious dispute in that temple. As soon as he took charge of his office “he found that the Padiyilār, the Iṣabhaṭṭaliyilār and the Dēvaraḍiyār had struck work in that temple and that two previous attempts at reconciling their differences made in the 5th year of Rājanārāyaṇan Śambuvarāyan by the Mudaliyār of Perumbarrapuliyūr (Cidambaram), and subsequently by the trustees, had proved abortive. Viṭṭappar now enquired of the Vīraśōla aṇukkar and the Kaikkōḷar for the cause of this strike, and having called together a meeting of the Śrīrudras, Śrīmahēśvaras, the Iṣbhaṭṭaliyilār and the Dēvaraḍiyār in the Vyākaraṇadānamaṇṭapa of the Tiruvorriyūr temple, settled the order to be followed by them in the matter of temple service. It, however, appears that the question was not finally settled; for three years later (in Ś. 1293) under orders of Kampaṇa Uḍaiyār, these had to meet again in the very same maṇṭapa presided over this time by the officer Tuṇaiyirunda nambi Koṅgarāyar. More representatives than on the previous occasion had gathered including the trustees and the district representatives (nāṭṭārs), and the question was decided not only as between the Iṣabhaṭṭaliyilār and the Dēvaraḍiyār, but concerned also indirectly the Śokkaṭṭaliyilār, Muṭṭukkārar, Viraṇukkar (Viraśōḷa aṇukkar mentioned already) and the Kaikkōḷar, all of whom must have been servants of the Tiruvorriyūr temple in one capacity or another. The points settled were many, and involved several details which it is unnecessary to repeat. In effect the Iṣabhaṭṭaliyilār were required to serve in the shrine of the God and the Devaraḍiyār in that of the Goddess on festive occasions celebrated within the temple, and when the Gods were carried in procession outside the temple through the streets, into maṇṭapas, into gardens, tanks and other sanctified spots, and when minor deities including the image of the sage Tiruvādavūr Nāyanār (Mānikkavāśagar) on the occasion of his hearing the Tiruvembāvai, was paraded, the procedure was to be somewhat different.⁴¹ This interesting epigraph clearly shows that the special officers appointed by the kings to supervise temples had also judicial functions.