This volume, the fifth in the ICHR series of Vijayanagara inscriptions, is thefirst part of a two-volume publication and contains 576 Tamil inscriptions of the pre-Krishnadevaraya period. The inscriptions throw much light on the significance of the Tamil area for the Vijayangara state. Its political organization there shows some peculiar features, being dominated, as it were, by the princely viceroys. The Tamil inscriptions also provide somewhat richer details than the Kannada and Telugu inscriptions do regarding the socio-economic conditions of the times.