Chapter - 1

INTRODUCTION

"... how laden all knowledge' is with power, interest, and strategies of
control, appropriation, and domination..." (Preface to Nicholas B.Dirks, The
Hollow Crown, XV, 1987)

This thesis deals with the power structure in the Bellary Region during ca.
1565 to 1835 Al), one of the most turbulent periods in the late medieval history of
south India: the post-Vijayanagara phase' at the threshold of colonial takeover. The
focus thrcfore is the transition from late medieval to early modem times in this region.
The enquiry thus centres on a micro region - Bellary, presently situated in the modern
linguistic State of Karnataka. The methodology adopted here seeks to go beyond the
traditional pattern by following a systemic approach. The medieval legacy of power (or
the epicentre of the Vijayanagara State' on the banks of river Tungabhadra dredging
through this semi-arid terrain) and the aftermath of its decline in the late medieval
centuries is the scope of this study.

The emphasis in this thesis is an appraisal of the widely held notion that the
historical influences of a regions's ccotypc have a direct cfleet on the overall political
systems it reflects; socio-economic institutions operate in a given time scale (Robert
1982 : 18-19). In this context, it should be noted that the Bellary region, a typical semi-
arid country, predominantly supports sheep/goat pastoralism, agro-pastoral (primarily)
dry farming vilallgcs (millets being the main crops), and further hunter-gatherers like
the Boyas (who were prominently known from the medieval times in Karnataka as
Bcdars) live in symbiotic association with the agro-pastoral and trading village
communities in the lowlands. The pastoralist groups (Kurubas/Gollas) and the Boyas
played a significant role in the political economy of the region, ever since the medieval
times and eventually rose to eminence in the power structure of Bellary, of course
with a royal initiative, corresponding to its regional specifities (Murty 1992 : 326).

1
 Mention should be made here that, although aiming at a holistic view of a
micro-region as implied in the methodology, the Bellary region as conceived in the
present study entails a slightly larger entity than how it exists today, with some of the
taluks inlcuded in the former Bellary district forming the westernmost part of the*
famous four1 Ceded Districts of the erstwhile Company administration (the other three
being Kurnool, Anantapur and Cuddapah) (Francis 1916 : 46). .

Given the nature of the study, and the geographical aspects of the region taken up
for this investigation, it is necessary to make an overall assessment of the nature of the
state and society with special reference to medieval South India, with focus on the
divergent views and broader theoretical formulations as put forward in the existing
historiography.

The traditional Indian historiographical model which perceived the state as

unitary, centrally organised, and territorially defined to any great length in elaborating
the slate is followed subsequently by the three popular models: Indian feudalism', the
segmentary state'and the patrimonial state', which have more clearly been elucidated
in recent descriptions of medieval India.

One docs not have to overstrain to recognize that the post-Indcpcndcncc historical
writings in India have been dominated by intense academic exchanges between R S .
Sharma and Harbans Mukhia (which subsequently drew in many others) on Indian
feudalism'; Burton Steins application of the segmentary slate1 concept for South India;
and the projection of the Mughal empire as a patrimonial/bureaucratic state by Stephen
Blake and M. Athar Ali (see Kulke 1995).

While R S . Sharma's writings in the last three decades have tended to take
congnisance of multipolarity of his thesis, much of the counter arguments and alternative
constructs have remained confined to political processes (Champakalakshmi 1992 : 151-
56; Mukhia 1979 : 229-80; Sharma 1985 : 19-43). However, B.D. Chattopadhayaya in

2
his 1983 Presidential Address had recognised that the construct of Indian feudalism
represented a "structural change in the Indian social and economic order" and that its
most distinctive contribution was "to plug in the gap between polity and society".
Chattopadhyaya further argues: "in trying to understand the political processes and
structures in early medieval India, it may be more profitable to start by juxtaposing the
process of the formation of local state politics and supralocal politics than by assessing
the structures in terms of a perennial oscillation between forces of centralization and
decentralization" (Chattopadhyaya 1983 : 36).

As an alternative paradigm, political processes in the "integrative polity" are

seen in terms of parallels with contemporary economic, social And religious develop-
ments, such as; (i) horizontal spread ol rural agrarian settlements, (ii) horizontal spread
of the dominant ideology of social order based on Varna division, and (iii) integration of
local cults and sacred centres into a pantheistic supralocal structure. Influenced by
Perry Anderson's thrust on the political forces (construction and deconstruction of
state) as a catalyst and determinant of struggle between classes, the case of "integrative
polity" is based on shifting political geography of the lineages and the pattern of
network they represent, "both territorially and in interlineage combinations" at different
levels of organisation of "political power" Preferring to use the nomenclature of
"\(im<nn<! s\sfcm" rather than "feudal polity", Chattopadhyaya views the system as an
instrument of "political integration" and "a counterpoint to (he decentralized polity of the
feudal", which was caused by the horizontal spread of lineage based state society with
varied local bases (Chattopadyaya 1983 : 36-38). The political basis of such an
organisation of both local and supralocal structure was the "ideal of ranking", which in
turn was to (unction as a potential source of tension on the political plane. Crisis was
thus built into processes of the formation of the structures (Shrimali 1994:4-5).

In quite contrast, Stephen P.Blake sees the Mughal empire as a patrimonial

bureaucratic state, a concept he borrows from Max Weber, where the state was an
enormously extended, if bureaucratized, household. All authority emanated from the

J
emperor, and government was an instrument for the fulfillment of the interests of the
imperial household (Ali 1978 : 38-49, 1993 : 625-638; Blake 1978 : 77-94, 1991 : 1-6).
Here we sec an extremely centralized state that impinged heavily on the society allowing
no space for alternative centres of power. Interestingly the same view is echoed in the
recent work of J.F. Richards too (1993). In his choice of themes and the space he allots
them, Richards is greatly convinced of the strength (or reality as he puts it) of the
Mughal empire. In his view, the empire was an extremely centralized power that crucial-
ly affected the Indian society, the history he writes is one which has the imperial
court as its epicentre As he frankly puts it: "the empire was more than a superficial
canopy stretched over the substantial life lived in thai region. It was an intrusive
centralized system which unified the subcontinent*. And again this time more emphati-
cally: the uniform practices and ubiquitous presence of the Mughals left an imprint
upon society and every locality and region of the subcontinent, few persons and
communities, if any, were left untouched by this massive edifice (Richards 1993 : 1-2).

The historians of the Aligarh School' with whom Richards seems to be in

agreement here, do not go that far, yet they insist in viewing the Mughal state as a
centralized state possessing a uniform currency, an imperial fiscal system, and
centralizing military-cum-administrative institutions, such as the jagir systems. Despite
all the controversies that have gone on regarding the nature of the Mughal state, a
question that still begs an answer is whether the state alone afTected the society, or
whether the society too, possessed the means and dynamism to influence, and even
encroach upon the preserves of the state.

However, Irfan Habib (1963) in his work on Mughal argraian history argued
that the agrarian system of Mughal India towards the late seventeenth century was
charaterized by the oppression of the peasantry by the state and that the jagirdars had
considerably increased, leading to a decline in agricultural production and a series of
zamindari-led peasant revolts that sapped the vitality of the empire and led to its
ultimate demise.

4
 Now, let us also consider the most controversial and highly debated seg-
mentary state theory1 proposed by Burton Stein in his re-examination of medieval south
Indian state and society. In a segmentary state formation the kings real authority
would extend over the core, while the segmentary and shatter zones being the nadus
which constituted the periphery, formed pockets of Power bound to the centre in a
tributary relationship. The sovereignty which the 'cOre' extended over the 'periphery'
(or peripheries?) was a ritual one. The early notions of his grand narrative' of the south
Indian segmentary state are to be found in his article, The Segmentary State in South
Indian History (1977) Those ideas and theories consequently crystallized in his,
Peasant State and Society (1980), many of which were admittedly based on the sound
research of Y. Subbarayalu (Subbarayalu 1973).

However, the seminal theme of the segmentary state of Stein derives from the
model posited by Aidan Southall for the tribal society of the Alurs in African Uganda
(Southall 1956) Southall s analysis of political authority, stemming from clan chiefs
and kinship tics, was picked up by Stein and posited against the holistic model of
Chola state in South India. Richard Fox had applied it to the states of Rajputana in his,
Km, ( Ian, Raja and Rule (197 J) to come up with the intriguing observation that rural
India is a picture of a tribal society rearranged to lit a civilization'!

Southall responded to these two scholarly efforts by conceding the application

of the segmentary model to the Rajput states but questioned its suitability for the south
Indian states. But upto the last Stein proclaimed that the model of segmentary state was
seminal to his conceptualizations of south India (Southall 1988 : 52-82).

The study of nadus has been fundamental to Stein's theories on the south Indian
polity. He defines them as 'locality social,economic and political systems' which 'pre-
dated the Cholas and endured long after their demise'. The units were 'self-
regulating' though not 'self-sufficient'. The empirical and theoretical focus on the
nadus is the major contribution Subbarayalu and Stein have made towards formulating

5
hypothesis of the Chola state (Stein 1980; Subbarayulu 1973). Stein spoke of
opposition which is complementary' among parts of the state as a whole as well as
within any constituent segment. That is, the political system of the Cholas was,
described as composed of a multiplicity of political units-each a segment, and within
each segment internal divisions (ethnic and functional groups) which are capable of
acting together as units. The segments of the structure are integrated on the one hand
by royal patronage to the Brahmans and temples, and on the other by ceremonial and
ritual acknowledgement of Chola kingship (1980 : 22-98). It is not easy to ignore the
significance of a centralised 'core region' and the emergence of a 'state society', but
understanding the impact of these on the slate itself requires greater scrutiny.

Southall's scepticism about Stein's formulations arose from the superimposition of

a model applicable to a tribal set up of clan lineages to a caste-based society. Stein
believed that the nodus were held together by ethnic coherence' and voiced his
conjecture that the functionaries with high titles mentioned in inscriptions implied not
central bureaucrats but rather clan or tribal leaders, whose rule credentials' indicated
status as an ancient one not dependent on the Chola kings. The inherent weaknesses of
such a supposition arc obvious. There is a wide gap between the ethnic coherence of
the Alums or Shmbalas held closer by the accepted oral tradition of common origin,
and proliferating jatis with conflicting origin myths which characterized Indian society,
unless one were to argue with Fox that'what is true of the kin body also applies to
the so called caste1 (I ox 1971 : 63-174).

Also, in a recent study of the Chalukya-Cholas, the Kakatiyas, the Reddis, the
Gajapatis and the Ray as in the Eastern Ghats of south India between AD 1000 and 1500
based on extensive use of the Kyfiat literature, epigraphic references and anthropological
parallels, case has been made out for the state being a major variable in the
manipulation of physical and social environment with an intensification of forest
clearance, founding of new villages and expansion of agrarian order. In this process of
integration of the forested zone, with the king's domain, the forest people (hunter-

6
gatherers like Boya and Chenchu) and pastoralists eg Ctollas became historically
important. The state made alliance with the hunter gatherers and pastoralists by
allocating services; as a consequence emerged a new pattern of resource exploitation,
mobilization and distribution. In this new mechanism of surplus appropriation,
mathadhipatis and pitadhipatis became willing collaborators and sustainer^ of kingly
authority. Without being an overt critique of the 'segmentary state' , this significant
micro analysis gives a severe jolt to the notions of the core and the periphery and their
linkages with the political and ritual suzerainty respectively, which were hitherto consid-
ered to be cornerstones of the concept of the segmentary state (Murty 1993 : 626-27).

Coming now to the subject prc>|)cr, the shift of focus over to the post-
Vijayanagara phase' as it is hoped, would help us in more ways than one. Primarily, it
makes this possible for us to see through the processes of state formation, deformation
and transformation in one such a political continuum from the visible collapse of a
major political era signalled in the imperial downfall of the medieval Vijayanagara
untill the ushering in of yet another, relatively modern state form of colonial dimensions
in around AD 1800 in respect of Bellary (See Dirks 1987; Ka rash i ma 1992*/ Narayana
Rao et al. 1992).

Secondly, historiogrnphically too, the period under consideration, and more so in

relation to the region under consideration has not received due attention, though it has
enough potential to draw serious scholarly enquiry. Especially, the period beginning
with Vijayanagara eclipse until the rise of Hyder Ali in Mysore in AD 1761, is considered
to be something akin to a blackholc in South Indian history by modem historians.
This they ascribe, sadly so, to the paucity of sources. However, there have been a few
studies made on the contemporaneous Nayaka period of interior Tamil country, since
some of the South Indian scholars are increasingly converging on this period (Menon
1995 : 125-128; also see price 1983 : 563-590). As against the fairly well researched
works of the Nayaka period Tamil country, fhe post-Vijayanagara problematic of the

7
upland Rayalaseema plateau is a relatively untouched area. The present attempt,
therefore, is hoped to fill in this lacunae to a certain extent, with Bellary as its focus.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the time bracket chosen for the study, AD 1565 -
1800, has rightly been taken to represent a period of transition from late medieval to
early modem era. The transition as implied here suggests a whole of set of changes in
the historical development of a region from one major epoch to another (See Bayly
1989). It is in this sense, that the interrregnum following the imperial collapse of
Vijayanagara, until the coming of the British, covering over a span of three centuries
has been seen to have witnessed a discernible shift not only in the realm of power, but
even in the composite spheres like agrarian political economy and society. And this
process has been syslemically dealt with, using longitudinal analysis as a general tool
for the identification of the underlying factors responsible for change.

What is politically important during the period under consideration was the
virtual fragmentation of royal authority with the disintegration of Vijayanagara power.
It should be remembered here that the city of Vijayanagara was sacked at the hands of
the allied Bahmani forces of Bijapur, Ahmednagar, Golconda and Bidar in the battle of
Tali kota (or Rakkasitangadi), in the year AD 1565, during Aliya Rama Raya's reign
(1542-1565) (Venkataralnam 1972 : 1-2). It was a catastrophe which changed the entire
course of south India history. Hence the period ending with this battle is a convenient
point to start this enquiry This empire, however, lasted for another century under the
Aravidu dynasty, the fourth and its last dynasty, but its foundations were deeply
shaken, and it could not rise to the former zenith of glory. The Muslim dominion which
followed was weak, and the unstable political conditions consequent to the decline of
Vijayanagara kingship gave way to the rise of numerous sub-regional strongholds held by
those known as poligars, (Telugu -palegadu\ Kannada - palegararu, meaning, holder of
an estate), each one in his own right, forming a core of patrimonial regimes in the
Vijayanagara heartland (Dua 1972 : 467). Such of these poligars mostly comprising the
dominant lineages of the turbulent Boya/Bedar stocks and militarist, peasant warrior

8
groups, to siart with, were the holders of army camps and collectors of revenue which
they passed on to their overlords under the Vijayanagara kingship. In a way, they
should be seen as the supralocal intermediaries between the villages under their control
and the state, and acted as "boundary role players" (Cohen 1974 : 265). It therefore
suggests the shrewd political expediency of the Raya overlords to integrate these ethnics
into the state's realm both politically and ritually by virtue of their fighting prowess; and
for whom Bellary became a favoured habitat since ages, as the physiography of the
region suggests sufficiently.

There are numerous inscriptions to tell us that certain lineages of the forest
dwellers especially the Boyas were bureaucratized; each village had a complement of
watchmen for the protection of persons and property, and policing the village seems to
have been an ancient institution (Mahalingam 1967 : 246). These watchmen were remu-
nerated for their services by the assignment of land and the proceeds of a cess called
padikaval kuh. During the Vijayanagara rule (1660-1700AD), a person enjoyed padi-
kaval rights over a nadu (a large administrative unit), and he engaged a complement of
watchmen called taliyaris, whom he paid in kind or cash, besides granting land free of
rent, and held them responsible for the safety and prosperity within their jurisdiction. A
work with the title Rajavahanavijaya attributed to Krishnadevaraya, the Vijayanagara
king who ruled from lf>()c)-I.S29 Al) describes how the Boyas in his army were marching
with bows in their hands and quills on their backs like black tigers. Some lineages of
these Boya militia, who had wielded great influence over their tribesmen, and who were"
highly paid officials (they were given rent free agricultural lands and other kinds of
allowances) began to emerge as powerful potentates from 16th century onwards, with
the decline of the Vijayanagara power (Murty 1992 : 332-334).

Similarly, the village bodies (eg. Sabha, ur, periyanadu etc.) dominated mostly
Py Sat-Sudra families of peasant warrior groups, wielded considerable power over the
villages and attracted the attention of the kings and royal personages. The power of the
village bodies virtually became a force to reckon with for the state. To get these village

9
bodies into the ibid of the state, some inlluential lineages from among them were
bureaucratised as revenue and military officials. These were instrumental for the
protection/expansion of settlement boundaries, establishment of new agrarian settlement
and water resource management. Through patrimonial legacy the peasant warrior
families amassed considerable properties and control over the local resources. They
actively participated in the state expansion strategies and acquired the newly found
villages through the prebendal rights bestowed on them by the kings for which they
lent their allegiance. The kings for the maintenance of their settlement frontiers, relied
on the holders of the patrimonial rights. But when the royal power weakened, especially,
at the time of change of dynastic rule, the dominant lineages of the peasant warrior
groups also annexed the prebendal rights to their patrimonial legacies and defied the
royal authority (Murty 1993 : 620-24).

Therefore, with the colonization of the forested and pastoral landscapes by the
state, the forest peoples (like the Chenchu, Yerukula, in other parts, besides the Boya)
and the pastoralists (Golla and Kuruba) became partners in the political, economic and
social milieu on the one hand, and in the organisation of the settlement frontiers on the
other. This created new relations of power, giving rise to institutions such as poligars
and kavaligars as noticed above (Reddy 1986 : 112-114).

Contemporary inscriptions and later accounts collected by the first British

administrators in the core of (he Vijayanagara kingdom provide valuable evidence on
the political authority of these chiefs. The heyday of the chiefs was the 16th century, but
most seem to have come into existence during the early 16th century, as a result of
rvrishnadevaraya's policies for incorporating older chiefly families.

Burton Stein sees the new intermediary ruling strata as emerging from below.
The Amuktamaiyada (attributed to Krishnadevaraya), a work containing his political
maxims also prescribes measures such as recruitment of martial tribes in the army and
royal promotion of commerce and control of forts (Stein 1989 : 51-52).

10
 However, as attention has already been drawn, the present study concerns itself
with the core Bellary region only for an exclusive case study of some of these political
intermediaries who played a predominant role in the arena of power in the upland
Rayalsecma, more visibly from the later half of the sixteenth century.

The intermediary zone of authority is largely hazy in many medieval states and
as such is one of the least understood areas of power Hence it becomes particularly
necessary to assess their role in the authority structure for an explication of the pre-
colonial slate (Champakalakshmi 1992: 152-153).

Thomas Munro, the famous first Collector of the region regarded these chiefs as
the major centres of resistance, and he justified their removal on the grounds of their
historical political authority. Munro, in his letter to the Board of Revenue (1802) speaks
of their bravery and turbulent nature, especially of the Boya poligars. In Munro's time,
nearly 2,000 villages were held by eighty poligari families of different statuses. The
highest and perhaps oldest of such local magnates are found in modern Bellary district.
One was the chief of Anegondi across the river Tungabhadra, calling himself Tirumala
Raja and claiming descent from a Vijayanagara ruling family. This chief held 114 villa-
ges in 1800. Fifty miles southwest of Anegondi and Hampi was the Harapanahalli poligar;
this family seems to have been established in the sixteenth century by a Lingayat chief,
Doddappa Nayaka, on the modest basis of his watchman's (taliyari) rights in two villages
(Munro Reports 1802 : 37).

The number of villages held by each chiefly family in the Vijayanagara times is
not always known from the family records said to have been consulted by Munro. Those
of the Anegondi and Harapanahalli chiefs are not known, but another, the Jaramali
Poligar, held 309 villages then and appears to have supplied a force of 3,000 foot-
Soldiers (infantry) and 500 horsemen (cavalry) to the king* The Rayadurg chief,
Vcnkatapali Nayaka, paid no money to the Viayanagara kings, but contributed 2,000
infantry. The other prominent poligars include those of Bellary, and (Gudekota in the
kudligi laluk), all invariably belonging to either Boya/Bedar or Kuruba castes in* the
Bellary region. Evidence of around 1800 suggests that all of the eighty poligars of this
Vijayanagara heartland held some villages free of any payment to the Vijayanagara kings"
and held other villages as tax farmers. In addition, they were obliged to maintain some
mounted and some foot soldiers for royal service. Munro estimated that over 1,200
villages were under poligars until 1660 when the former Vijayanagara heartland had
come under the control of Bijapur sultans or their commanders such as Shaji, father of
Shivajai. Of these villages, 682 were held free of any money demands and 535 were
held as tax farmers for which money was paid to the Sultanate ofllcials. The same eighty
poligars supplied a total of 29,000 infantry and 1,200 cavalry to Bijapur armies (Munro
Reports 1802 : 38-44). Moreover, warfare tested and fortified the military capabilities
of the numerous military chiefs of the south; wars also spread the poligar institution.
Fighters seized or were granted income from villages for maintaining the armed forces
used in the wars of greater lords; otherwise, local cultivating and trading groups seeking
some protection from the violence of the times paid for the protection of poligars in
many places of the far south, as implied by the term paJikaval used in Ramnad and
Pudukkottai (Stein 1989 : 60-61) No chieftains could remain aloof from nearby
warfare, which was bound to lead to a reshifting of local power that left the strong
stronger and pushed the weaker into greater vulnerability and submission. Scattered
contests for local dominance often changed balances between local chiefdoms and the
communal bases of their rule on the one hand and between these local lords and the
kings of Vijayanagara or their agents on the other. As evident in the Post-Vijayanagara
phase of the Bellary region, these various local potentates were very much sought after by
the successive Mohammedan rulers also for their fighting prowess (Murty 1992: 352).

So, it is suggested here that this cluster of poligari conglomerates thus evolved
were not altogether independent either. They did have to function under a new stream of
Bahmani dynasties that followed one after another in quick succession, by only contri-
buting a regular tribute or military support, after the fall of Vijayanagara. For a short
interval, Bellary witnessed the rule by the Marathas as well as the Mughal emperor
Aurangazeb. We also notice here that towards the fag-end of the period (excepting
Sandur which witnessed the Maratha rule administered by the Ghorpade clan of the
Bhonsles of Satara from the beginnings of eighteenth century onwartls), this region
seems to have come under the hold of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, the warlords,
with their base in the Mysore region. And it was from whom the Nizain of Hyderabad
regained the lost territories by the treaties of Srirangapatnam in AD 1792 and Mysore in
AD 1799, respectively. Though became a part of the Nizam's Dominions, interestingly,
these vast tracts comprising the districts of Bellary, Kurnool, Anantapur and Cuddapah,
as mentioned before, were again ceded over to the East India Company as a result of an
alliance entered into with the British in AD 1800, with Thomas Munro as the first
Principal Collector (Regani 1963 . 184).

These districts together with Bellary thus came to be known as the Ceded
Districts of the erstwhile Madras Presidency. After inclusion of the region into the
modern colonial system, the British had to wage prolonged wars to subdue the poligars
who became a formidable force.

An important aspect of the economic organisation in the form of property

organisation in the form of property held by various people, the most prominent of which
being the inams Munro reports a large number of land holdings under the category of
inams. These were also agrahani. JevaJana and brahmadeya grants. Gradually, inams
granted as service tenures were substantially increased and converted into private and
hereditary possessions by the poligars. Even, the poligars appear to have grabbled the
fertile lands under their jurisdiction, most often by use of brute force, and declared them
as poligar manyas. Another interesting feature of the post-Vijayanagara power structure
which should need a special mention here is that almost parallel to the dominant poligari
system, the incumbent Muslim rulers initiated their own revenue systems in the form of
amildar i or Jagirdari systems in certain pockets of Rayalseema. These later revenue
systems which functioned in close alliance with the help of the deputies drawn from
those having a close nexus or extraneous connections' with the new ruling strata seem to

n
have enjoyed greater autonomy in terms of lax farming and overall jurisdiction, in most
cases. It was unlike their poligari counterparts who had derived their leanings from (he
earlier Vijayanagara ruling system (Reddy 1986: 105-106, 115-116).

And for such an exercise to come to fruition, even (hough the permissible
scope of the thesis ends by the close of eighteenth century when traditional processes of
power had been confronted by inroads of colonialism in the Bellary region, its purview
extends a little further into the early decades of nineteenth century, in order to locate
the subtle changes and continuities occurring in one such a political continuum as
described above, especially in matters pertaining to the responses of local structures to
the British administrative policies.

Finally, what comes in here for one's immediate attention from an altogether
different perspective, and which is also stimulating to note was the'reassertion of self
in the Sudra consciousness* evidenced in this period. And it is in a way similar to
what some analysts tend to say: the reawakening of subaltern consciousness, as part of
a larger discourse (for a cross-cultural study see O' Hanlon 1988 : 1-33). This reasscrtion
or rewakening here is not only seen through Sudra participation in the power structure of
the region as local potentates, but also by following an alternative belief system like
Virasaivism, and at times even by acculturing certain symbols of substance1 usually
associated with ritual superiority. To cite an instance of this, the best possible means by
which the poligars could express their status in the higher echelons of society was by
conveniently Haunting a proud nayaka suffix, in each case, regardless of their social
origins ridden cither in hunter-gather or pastoral-agriculturalist backgrounds. To furtl»cr
suggest these dynamics of mobility and social change epitomized in these upwardly
mobile poligars, certain lineages of peasant warrior families legitimised their ancestry
by tracing their descent to either Lunar {Chandravamsa) or Solar (Suryavamsa) dynas-
ties, as innumerable accounts in the local kyfials bear testimony to (his phenomenon.

14
 Moreover, when these less privileged social groups tried to crowd themselves
into the limited space offered by ritual privileges, the resultant pulls and pressures were
reflected in the contemporary late medieval society. This situation of social flux
continued into the seventeenth century by which time Vijayanagara had ceased to be an
imperial power and the last king of Vijaynagaia, Sriranga 111 AD (1642-49), held no
greater title than that of the king of Vellore (Ramaswamy 1985 : 417).

It is then implied here that while trying to analyse the whole process in a
transitory phase, the thesis tends to examine also the subaltern perspective, in an attempt
to bring into mainstream the historical relevance of the marginalised categories in the
power structure of the Bellary region. As a part of this effort, in many cases, the clhno-
historic accounts of the lineages of the erstwhile poligari families who prominently
figure in this study have been consulted. The vast corpus of Kyfiat literature, collected
and documented by Colin Mackenzie (Mackenzie manuscripts,) is one of the crucial
sources of information for this investigation. During the period under discussion,(here are
eighty poligars in this region belonging to either Boya/Bedar or Kuruba communities;
the most prominent of the Bedar poligars are those of Harpanahalli, and likewise those
of the Kurubas are the Bellary Poligars. I have examined and quoted the docu-mented
sources of those poligars, especially by Thomas Munro and Colin Mackenzie.

Further, to develop my theoretical position in this discussion, I have Hereby

relied u(K>n (and also extensively quoted from) the works of Appadurai (1971),
Charnpaka!ashrni( 1992), Heitzman(1987), Khazanov (1984), Kulke (1978), Mahalingam
(1967), Murty (1992. 1993), Perlin (1985), Stein (1989), Subrahmanyam (1986) and
Talbot(1994)

The following discussion therefore centres around these dynamics of social

mobility, conflict and change in the post Vijayanagara society by analysing the functions
and role perceptions of the leading poligari families who held sway over the region
until the British subdued them.

IS