Indian Antiquary Vol 45

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 81

APRIL 1916]
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
73
intervention by the swearing of a party to the truth of his case before some Karuppa or other deity, and lastly the appeal, to the ordeals of fire, of oil and of water. The Karta, it is true sat as a judge himself to hear complaints, and decided them with the aid of Brahman assessors and caste customs; but the difficulty of the poor people to approach him and to give the preliminary presents usual on occasions of royal audience made the king's judicial Darbâr more an ornament than a useful institution, so far as the common people were concerned.
The chief items of public expenditure.
It will be asked what the items of the Karta's expenditure were, if the revenue was not expended to a large extent in matters of administration. The most important item was, of course, the maintenance of the Karta's standing army, which was more or less a afeguard against Polygar disaffection or sudden political convulsion. In Vijayanagar, says Nuniz, nearly half of the net imperial revenues was spent in this way; but we have no authority to tell us what the proportion was in Madura. A considerable proportion of the revenue was spent in the personal pleasures of the sovereign. The "Karnataka Karta" was as much an epicurean as any other medieval Hindu king, as much the slave of pleasure as the master of his kingdom. Thousands of varâhas were spent every month on his dresses and food, thousands on his amusements, and thousands on his women. The harem was a gigantic institution, containing hundreds of women and absorbing a large part of the revenue. In the king's palace, wine flowed freely, flatterers flourished, and goldsmiths were ever busy making jewels for the ladies. We do not know anything about Viśvanatha's personal tastes in the se matters; but an equally famous ruler as he, the renowned Tirumal Naik, was a special sinner in this respect. The scandal of the day, as we shall see later on, accused him of every form of indulgence. His life-long love of pleasure stimulated extravagance, and we may well believe that every other Karta distinguished himself in a similar, though less conspicuous, manner. It was a defect of the age, not of individual men. An even more important item of expenditure was the department of public works. Buildings, secular and religious, and utilitarian works like tanks and reservoirs, canals and choultries, were favourite channels of the Karta's generosity; and the works they have turned out in this respect, will always entitle them to the eternal remembrance of posterity. Everywhere throughout the peninsula, south of the Kâvêri, there is, at every step, some monument or other, to tell us of the piety or the generosity of a Karta, a tank or a dam, a sluice or a canal, a charity-house or a temple, a pleasure-bower or an avenue. Pleasure and piety were, in short, the two things that, more than any thing else, characterised them; and both these resulted in the mania for buildings and tilitarian works, which, though in some cases unproductive and scarcely beneficial, were as a rule highly conducive to the welfare of the people, while they did a priceless service to the art and culture of the country. Architecture and sculpture, painting and music, jewellery and ornaments, metallurgy and other arts underwent prosperous developments. Literature throve, and scholars found welcome in courts, local and central. It was, in short, an age of culture. Herein lay the justification of the dynasty, and the justification of the administrative system perfected by Viśvanâtha and his able minister.
4 See Forg. Empe., p. 375, but of the 60 lakhs of revenue the emperor "does not enjoy a larger sum than 25 lakhs, for the rest is spent on his horses and elephants, and foot soldiers and cavalry, whose cost he defrays."