The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c13.211

v1.c13.211

The Vijayanagara general invaded the Travancore territory with an army of six thousand soldiers. The Travancore sovereign was not able to oppose this force, since his own army consisted at most of a thousand soldiers. Rama Varma despatched an envoy to Fr. F. Perez, a Portuguese Jesuit, who was the Superior of the Travancore missions and resided at Calculam (Kalkulam), begging him to pray much to God for the success of his army. Fr. Perez promised to do so, and sent him a standard in the centre of which the name of Jesus was painted; at the same time he recommended that the ensign bearing this standard should precede the army, and that while engaging in battle all should fervently invoke the name of Jesus. This was done, and the Telugu soldiers, on hearing the roar, retreated panic-striken and were pursued by the Malayalams who slaughtered many of them².