RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES AND MILITARY FEUDALISMwell as those which his father had endowed before him. If we look at Map
10 we see that all the fourteen temples listed there are located either in the
northern border region, or in regions which had only recently been
conquered (e.g. Srisailam), or in those regions in the southeast between
Tirupati and Rameshvaram which had been invaded by the troops of the
Gajapati and had since been troubled by intrigues and rebellions. Such
endowments could not directly contribute to the military strength of the
empire, but they did enhance the loyalty of the Brahmins and of the people
in areas where the rulers of Vijayanagar had only a precarious hold.
There was another aspect of this policy of utilising religious prestige and
loyalties for the strengthening of the imperial system: the rulers appointed
many Telugu Brahmins from their own homelands as commanders of
fortresses (durga dandanayaka) in all parts of the empire. The traditional
symbiotic relationship between Hindu rajas and Brahmins became an
additional element of the loyalty which bound an officer to his king. The
fortresses commanded by Brahmins were veritable pillars of the realm. The
policy of ritual sovereignty which was so important for the consolidation
of Hindu kingdoms was clearly demonstrated in this way. As we have seen,
the late medieval Hindu realms of Orissa and Vijayanagar were trying to
meet the Muslim challenge by a militarisation of their whole structure and
by a stronger emphasis on the religious legitimation of the ruler as a
representative of god. The Brahmin-commanded forts symbolised this
process in a very striking manner indeed.