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THE VIJAYANAGARA KINGS
referred to as the donee in another record (No. 369 of 1927) from the Kundapur
taluk dated in the same year. Kavi Kṛishṇa-Bhatt’s son named Kavi Śaṅkara-
Kavi Kṛishṇa-Bhaṭṭa and his son Kavi Śaṅkara Bhaṭṭa, Librarians of the Śṛiṅgēri-maṭha.
Bhaṭṭa figures in another record (No. 284)
from the same village dated in Śaka 1354,
Virōdhikṛit (=A.D. 1431) which registers
a gift of land made to him by Chandapa, governor of Bārakūru and Tuḷu rājyas,
under the orders of the king Dēvarāya-Mahārāya ruling from Vijayanagara. This
governor is already known from other records copied in this locality. It is learnt
that the descendants of this Kavi Kṛishṇa-Bhaṭṭa have been in charge of the pūjā of the Sivaliṅga installed at the place where Vidyātirtha, the guru of Vidyā-
raṇya, attained samādhi.
These two records are important for their mention of the existence of a library
attached to the Śṛiṅgēri-maṭha. As the propagation of learning of learning was given attention to by the schools and Vēdic seminaries attached to religious institutions, and
as the Śaiva and other religious organisations also co-operated in the dissemination of knowledge, well-equipped libraries containing many manuscripts must
have been maintained by these institutions. An earlier reference to a library (Sarasvatī-bhāṇḍāra) occurs in a record of the Western Chāḷukya king Āhavamalla I
of the 11th century A.D. (Hyderabad Archӕological Series, No. 8, p. 7).
Devaraya II (Saka 1349), enquiry into cases of coercive taxation.
56. No. 113 form Jambukēśvaram in dated in Plavaṅga, in the reign of
Vīrapratāpa Dēvarāya-Mahārāya. This year must have corresponded to Śaka
1349 in the reign of Dēvarāya II. It gives
us an idea as to how the high-handed action
of the officers in the matter of collection of
some taxes was checked. The officers were generally remunerated for their services
by grants of land, and by the levy of some special taxes from the people,
such as adhikāri-jōḍi, adhikārip-pon, rāyasa-varttanai, pradhāni-jōḍi etc., for their
maintenance. From a record from Tiruvaṇṇāmalai (No. 565 of 1902) we learn
that a pradhāni was in receipt of the taxes kaivilai. kiraiyam, ūliyam and uluppai.
When abuses in the collection of taxes were brought to the notice of the king they
were immediately rectified. According to the present record, the Māhēśvaras,
evidently of the temple of Jambukēśvaram, and one Marudavana-śivan, brought
to the notice of the king that in thesarvamānya lands belonging to the Śiva and
Vishṇu temples in the Tiruchchirāpaḷḷi, Śōla-maṇḍalam and Valudilampaṭṭu rājyas, the adhikāris and sēnaibōvas were harassing the people by levying jōḍi and kāṇikkai for choultries and other taxes, besides the legitimate Vibhūti-kāṇikkai due to the king, with the result that the tenants left their holdings and migrated
elsewhere, and worship in the temples had consequently to stop. On the petition
of the people that the old state of things should be restored, the king sent an
order to his officer Śirupparaśar and deputed two agents (taravukkārar) Bukka and
Timma, to the effect (1) that the income from deivattāna (dēvasthāna) (lands), after
paying the vibhūti-kāṇikkai due to the king, should be enjoyed by the respective
temples and that worship, service and festivals in them should be conducted
through the respective Śthānikas and Māhēśvaras ; (2) that the adhikāris and śēnabōvas should undertake not be levy from these lands aṅgasālaigaḷ, veṭṭi, vēkāḷi,
kāḍuveṭṭu and amañji ; (3) that the temple at Tiruviḍaimarudūr should continues as sarvamānya and that the Māhēvaras, evidently of that temple, should be entrusted
with the conduct of worship, services and festivals therein, as in the time of
Bhūpati (who was probably identical with his predecessor the son of Bukka II
who ruled from A.D. 1326 to 1422) ; (4) that as one Tripurāda-śivan and
Piraiśūḍi-śivan, had represented that the temples at Tirumadukkam situated in
Karukkarāya-parru, a subdivision of Śōlamaṇḍalam, and Kunramāḷigai situated
between the two rivers in Valudilampaṭṭu had ceased to function, they should
get back their old lands and that Marudavana-śivan should be entrusted with
the conduct of worship, services and festivals in them : and (5) that this order
should be filed in the ledgers (kaṇakku) and a copy of it issued to the Tānikas and
the Māhēśvaras ( of the respective temples) as a letter of authority to them.
This Śirupparaśar to whom the order was sent was the governor of Paḍaivīṭṭu.
rājya about Śaka 1353 ( No. 497 of 1926). His son Viṭṭhaṇan is said in a record
from Śrīraṅgam (No. 96) dated in Śaka 1366. Raktākshi, to have built the
big car-pa vilion (tēr-maṇḍapam) for the god Raṅganatha.
An undated record from Jambukēśvaram (No. 134) refers to the construction
of the tirumadil and the southern entrance into the fourth prākāra of the Jambukēśvara temple at Tiru vānaikkkā by Aṇṇa Chauṇḍappa-Uḍaiyar, son of Ādittarasar. From an inscription (No. 143 of .28-29), at Mummuḍiśōlamaṅgalam, a
suburb of Lālguḍi, we know that this chief lived in this locality in about Saka
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