________________
158
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[AUGUST, 1914,
is there in the body, he asks in one place, that men should love and cherish it so much? It is a property claimed by various agents,-by fire, by worms, by the earth, by kites, jackals and curs. Its ingredients, moreover, are nasty and of bad odour. To love it, therefore, is the greatest of anomalies, of inexplicable inconsistencies. As is the body, so is every other thing of man. His habitation, his fame, his women, his children, his beauty, his wealth, nothing abides. The moment he is dead, he is, to his mother, an object of contempt. To his sons," who encircle the pyre and fall the wonted pots, his memory is more a burden than a pleasure." "There is no love, therefore, concludes Pastinattu Pillai, as the love of God. It is the most enduring, eternal and pleasure giving." It is the sole support of his life. Vows and austerities, Vedas and Puranas, offerings and prayers, sandals and ashes, mantras and mortifications, all these are, in his opinion, nothing but Godward perfidy.". It is the love of the Lord that is everything.
The Policy of Vijayanagar, With tender solicitude the Vijayanagar sovereigns fostered all these various aspects of religious activity. Their attitude towards the two great religions of Hinduism was one of inexhaustible generosity and boundless encouragement. And they shewed it in various ways. They first built temples and towers, walls and manlapas, and constructed cars and vehicles. They organized festivals at state expense. They reared gardens of useful trees. They made numerous endowments of land. On all sacred occasions, on days of eclipses, on the anniversary days of the deaths of royal personages, they made various gifts to temples in the form of lamps, cows, gold, etc. They interfered in the management of the temples and looked after their proper maintenance 23 They even remitted revenues amounting to thousands of vardhas on behalf of temples. Nowhere else in the world's history do we find such a close alliance between the state and the church, such a hearty co-operation between temporal and spiritual leaders. True, Vijayanagar was pursuing no new policy. The idea of the close connection between royalty and religion is as old as Indian history; nevertheless the policy of Vijayanagar seems to have been singularly liberal and broadminded. The Emperors seem to have extended their patronage not only to sects of Hinduism. Their range of patronage knew no bounds, knew no petty partialities. A remarkable proclamation of Deva Raya in the 14th century declares the unity of the Jain and Vaishộava religions, and the consequent necessity on the part of the adherents of the two religions to abstain from conflicts24 Examples of endowments even to mosques are not wanting and prove the nobility of a power, which valued harmony above everything else among the various peoples and creeds of Empire.
The services of Vijayanagar to art and industries, to literature and culture were equally great, but space forbids an attempt to dwell on them. Nor is it my province to do so. The foregoing survey of the social, political and religious effects will suffice to point out the atmosphere in which the Naik Raj was established, the policy which it inherited, and the problems it had to solve. The other effects-on art, on painting and sculpture, on architecture and literature-will be incidentally illustrated in the course of this treatise. With these remarks we shall proceed to consider the circumstances under which the Naik dynasty was founded in Madura.
- Ind. Ant. I. p. 197-204.
See the Köyilo ugu for examples of such interference 24 Ind. Ant., Vol. XIV, 233-5.
