The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c16.129

v1.c16.129

14. The transfer of the capital to Penukonda was the cause of the abandonment and destruction of Vijayanagara. Two inscriptions of Tirumala, of the following year 1568, describe the city as 'destroyed and in ruins'³. We cannot believe that the buildings of the city were in a ruinous state only a year after the departure of the court; the above mentioned inscriptions refer, no doubt, to the moral body of the citizens, to the *Civitas*, not to its buildings. Anquetil du Perron expressly says that "the town of Bisnagar, being abandoned, became the dwelling of wild beasts" ⁴. And Frederick in his memoirs wrote: "The Citie of Bezeneger is not altogether destroyed, yet the houses stand still, but emptie, and there is dwelling in them nothing, as is reported, but Tygres and other wild beasts" ⁵. Orme records that at the end of the 16th century, "the city of Bisnagar was part of the dominion of the Mahomedan king of Viziapore (Bijapur)" ⁶. Accordingly when Filippo Sassetti passed through Vijayanagara in 1584-5, he found a Muhammadan Governor there, as a letter of his, dated Goa, November 9th, 1585, relates ⁷. But at the close of the century Ferishta wrote: "The city itself.........is now totally in ruins and uninhabited" ¹.