Society and Economy
Continuous warfare and the resultant widespread
sufferings were common features of all early and medieval societies. Bahmani
and Vijayanagar period is no exception to this. Perhaps the scale looks larger
due to the availability of many eye-witness accounts. The other consequences
which were enduring over the centuries were the displacement and migration of
people. During the three centuries of this chapter, we find such migrations
everywhere. The conflicts in the Bahmani courts were much due to the migration
of Turks, Afghans and Persians into the Deccan. As far the Vijayanagar area is
concerned there took place migrations of Kannada and Telugu warriors and their
followers into Tamil areas and elsewhere. Many of the Nayaka chiefs belong to
these language groups. Peasants, artisans and other toiling groups were also
part of this migration. The other consequence was the widening gap between the
ruling class and the ruled. All the foreign visitors refer to the enormous
riches and affluence enjoyed by the rulers, the officials and the upper
echelons in the capital cities like Vijayanagar, Bijapur, and the like, in
contrast to widespread poverty among the masses. They also refer to the
prevalence of slavery.
The state had to derive their revenue only by taxing the people. It is found that during the Sangama dynasty when the Vijayanagar rule was extended to new areas, their officers were harsh in tax collection, which provoked the toiling people to rise in revolt. One such revolt took place in 1430 in central parts of Tamil Nadu. This was the revolt in which all the basic producers joined forgetting their caste differences. The revolt took place due to the unjust and arbitrary tax demands of the government including the pradhani (governor), his military bodies, and the landlords. It is said the Vijayanagar Prince intervened and pacified the revolting people by allowing tax reduction. During the sixteenth century, under the Nayak system, the local Nayakas tried to encourage craft production, like weaving, by giving tax concessions now and then.
The kingdom of Ramnad was inaugurated
by the Madurai Nayak Muthu Krishnappa in the early years of the seventeenth
century. The inhabitants with martial tradition had served as soldiers under
Pandyan, Chola and Vijayanagar kings, and were spread into Tirunelveli and
other southern parts of Tamil country. They also served in the armies of Nayak
rulers and were traditional Kavalkarars, whose responsibility was to give
protection to village, temple and other administrative bodies. The temple at
Rameswaram was under the protection of a kaval chief who also assumed the title
of Udaiyan Sethupati (meaning the Chief who was lord of bridge or causeway, as
he controlled the passage between Rameswaram and Ceylon).
Pudukottai was a small principality
situated between the Nayak kingdoms of Thanjavur and Madurai. It constituted a
buffer between the Chola kingdom and the Pandyas. Like the inhabitants of
Ramanathapuram, Pudukottai also had inhabitants belonging to martial tradition.
Hence their region could attain the status of “little kingdom” under
Tondaimans. The Tondaimans served great royal households of Raja Sethupathi and
Nayak kings of Madurai and Thanjavur.
The Vijayanagar period witnessed striking
development in the field of non-agrarian crafts. Until the thirteenth century
the economy was mainly agrarian. From the fourteenth onwards the economy became
more commercial.
With the beginning of the era of money economy,
circulation and use of coined money increased manifold. Artisans like weavers,
smiths, and masons became more prominent in the society. These non-agrarian
groups were generally called the pattadaior
(workshop people) and kasaya-vargam -that
is- the group that pays taxes in
cash. Large number of commercial and weaving centres came up in northern Tamil
Nadu, Rayalasima and coastal Andhra. Naturally the textiles formed an important
commodity exported from south Indian ports. Textiles became main commercial
attractions for the Portuguese and other European traders who started coming
from the early sixteenth century.
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