What were the features of Hoysala?

The Hoysala polity was monarchical like all other states of South India in those times. As Derrett says it was a “tyranny modified by expediency.” The king was the unifying factor in that polity. The loyalty of the officers and the subjects made the king’s continuance in office possible.

This loyalty was, however, rarely withheld. The royal family treated the kingdom as alomst its private property; the members of that family had a sort of joint and vested interest in it.

The king’s twin and complementary functions were supposed to be: (1) The punishment of the wicked, and (2) the protection of the virtuous. So the main function of the king was judicial; and the king exercises that in person. The need to defend the country against foreign invasion was but an aspect of the twin functions mentioned above. This is what necessitated an army. To the command of the army any civilian officer could also be deputed.

The revenue became a necessity in the context of expenditure involved in these activities of justice and warfare, and payment to royal servants. The most usual source of revenue was land revenue. There was a hierarchy of officials who were all sorts of ministers. The Dandanayaka was the title borne by the highest Hoysala official.

It was during the days of Hoysala ascendancy that Madhva, the greatest philosopher of dualism, flourished preaching his Dvaita doctrine (dualism) and devotion to Sri Krishna as the supreme deity. He wrote a commentary on the Brahmasutras, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.