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No. 32.]
THE PUNJAI INSCRIPTION OF KRISHNADEVARAYA.
and utilised the occasion for making an extensive tour to the various sbrines in the south. The most detailed account of this tour is furnished by the Räyavachakamu. Evidently, after his return to home country, he wanted to commemorate in some striking manner the pilgrimage he had just concluded. The administrative consultations necessary before the monarch's idea could be implemented must have taken some months as in all probability the local officers in charge of the different parts of the Tamil land had to be consulted. When the final decision had been taken, the monarch must have chosen a suitable place and occasion for making the actual proclamation of his decision. The time chosen was Makara-sankranti of the Isvara year, and the visit to the Ksishṇā river and the shrines of Anantaśäyin of Undavilli and Mallikarjuna of Bezwada on such an occasion is easily understood. The date of the record corresponds to 28th December, A.D. 1517.
It is possible that Krishnaraya's presence at Bezwada was connected with one of the numerous campaigns of the reign fought against the Sultan of Golconda, Kuli Kutb Shah. Late in his life the Sultān boasted of having reduced the infidels of Telingana from the borders of Warangal to Masulipatam and Rājahmundry, having taken between sixty and seventy forts by force of arms. The anonymous historian who has recorded this fact also mentions a war directed by Krishnadēvatāya himself after the capture of Devarakonda by Kuli Kutb Shah.. The date of the particular campaign cannot be determined with precision, and the anonymous historian does not give any date. But once more, it is possible that this campaign is identical with that mentioned by Nuniz as having occurred after Krishnarāya's capture of Catuir, and having been directed against & Muslim captain most probably of the army of Kuli Kutb Shāh of Golconda. If these suggestions are accepted, the presence of Kțishộarāya at Bezwada receives a simple and natural explanation as being connected with the regular course of the military campaigns of the reign.
The taxes that were remitted in favour of the Siva and Vishnu temples of the Chõlamandalam were Jodi, Sulavari, Nilavali (Nilavari), Araéu peru, and other taxes (piravari). These taxes were due to the king (palace) from the temples themselves (1. 30). All these taxes are not mentioned in all the copies of the inscription. It is difficult to specify the exact nature of all of them, but the following suggestions may be made : Jödi is explained by Wilson as a favourable quit rent on ināsn lands. It is also the name of a tenure under which a person reclaims a certain portion of waste land, settles on it, and pays half or quarter of the gross value of the produce to the Government. In the Vijayanagar epigraphs it is found used generally in the former sense, and was in many respects similar to the manyakāņike which the holders of inām lands like Brāhmans and Fakirs paid to the State. Thus Jodi was a small quit rent, paid by the temples, on their inām lands. The rate is unknown.
Sulavari is more difficult to explain. One of the meanings given under the word Sulam in the Tamil Lericon is : Brand-mark on cattle, usually trident-shaped '. No authority is cited in the Lexicon, but the meaning suits the context of our inscription very well and seems to show that
* Sources of Vijayanagar History. (Madras University Historical Series, I), pp. 125-9. * Briggs : Firishla (Cambray & Co., 1910), iii, pp. 952-3. • Ibid., pp. 355-6. I owe this reference to Dr. N. Venkataramanayya. • A Forgotten Empire, p. 322.
No. 288 of 1903. •H. H. Wilson : Glossary of Judicial and Revenue terms, p. 214, col. 1.
Narasinga Rao: A Kisamuir Glossary of Kanarese Words, p. 91, cited by Saletore, Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagar Empire, ii, p. 440.
. Cf. Dr. N. Venkataramanayya : Studies in the History of the Third Dynasty of Fijayanagara, pp. 229-30.
