Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c8.88

c8.88

From the judicial procedure adopted in deciding the case of the aggrieved priest in the above suit, the following conclusions may be drawn. An aggrieved party had the right of petition to the governor or king. When the governor or king by himself could not decide the case, he sought the aid of the nāṭṭār. But even when this influential body of people could not decide the case, perhaps owing to the fact that it was too important a question and involved serious points of law, the Mahājanas of the surrounding villages were asked to decide the question, which they did by giving the award that the temple trustees had no power to sell the right of worship which originally belonged to B, and having been abandoned by him had gone to A and was with him for eight or ten generations, who had thus acquired a prescriptive right to the conduct of worship. This also shows that appeals could be made from the popular courts to regular courts of justice which belonged to the king.