Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c8.96

c8.96

Another point that deserves examination here is the trial of certain cases by a body of persons at the request of particular officers within whose jurisdiction a particular case might fall, and hence who alone had the right to try the case. Under the terms of reference the delegated body conducts the case, arrives at a decision, and submits it to the officer who has authorised it to try the case for the delivery of the judgment. Thus its powers are limited and it tries a case only as a delegated authority. The Āragaḷūr inscription above referred to is an instance in point. It was the *Mahājanas* that tried the case where the temple authorities had sold the acquired right of A to a certain C, and pronounced the verdict in the case. Tirumaḷḷi Nāyaka, the provincial ruler, to whom an appeal was preferred before the *Mahājanas* were asked by him to go into the case, only gave his judgment on the verdict of the *Mahājanas* empanelled by him. Thus these *Mahājanas* simply constituted a jury to find the facts of the case, but they were not the judges.⁵⁸