The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c16.11

v1.c16.11

As a matter of fact, the inscriptions and grants of that time have nothing but praise for Rama Raya and his government. "While having uprooted all the enemies," we read in a grant of 1554, "Rama Raya ruled over the earth, as famous as Bharata and Bagiratha" 1. "This heroic Rama Raya," the Kuniyur plates of Venkata III state, "resembled by his great fame Bharata, Manu, Bagiratha and other kings" 2. He is said, in the Vellangudi plates of Venkata II, to have "ruled the earth with justice after having destroyed his enemies" 3; in the Krishnapuram plates of Sadasiva, to have been "endowed with valour, nobility and kindness" 4; and in one of his grants of 1561 he is "noted for valour, generosity and mercy" 5. His generosity towards his subjects seems to have become proverbial: Manucci extolled it a century later 6, and the aforesaid Vellangudi plates of Venkata II affirm that "he surpassed even the wishing tree of the gods in his gifts" 7.