The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.178.3

v3.c29.178.3

From his account it appears that by 1442 the fortifications, temples, palaces, and public buildings of Vijayanagar had been completed. The city occupied a space of about sixty-four square miles, and had the seven enclosures—the accepted number of circuits for a first-class city. The three outermost enclosures contained only fields intended for cultivation, with the huts of those engaged on the land. The four inner enclosures were occupied by houses, the innermost containing the palace and its precincts. A number of channels had been led into the city from the Tungabhadra; one of them yet goes by the name Rāya channel. They were intended partly for the purpose of cultivation and partly for the water-supply of the city. Even allowing for exaggeration in Abd-ur-Razzāq's account, Vijayanagar under Devarāya II must have been a splendid city, and exceedingly well fortified. Devarāya II lived for six years after this date and died in February 1449, a brother of the same name having predeceased him by three years. Devarāya II, by far the greatest ruler of the first dynasty, was excelled only perhaps by Krishnadevarāya of all the kings of Vijayanagar. Under him the kingdom as a whole had been well knit together and brought under an ordered administration, chiefly through the genius of ‘the great Danayak’ of ‘Abd-ur-Razzāq, the Brāhman minister Lakkana or Lakshmī-dhara.