The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c16.136

v1.c16.136

The information of the Muhammadan writer, however, is not up-to-date: because a servant of the East India Company passed through Vijayanagara in that year and found inhabitants there: hence the city was not yet totally destroyed. A letter of Peter Floris to Mr. Tho. Aldworth at Surat, dated Mislopatam (Masulipatam), June 17th, 1614, gives this information: "Yesterday arrived here a fellow who calleth his name John, saying, he come sent from you with letters from Sir Thomas Smith our Governor, brought by land; and that he hath been but thirty three days from you, or the next day that you did send your letter per this peon; and coming to Barampur (Burhampur) in company of a certain English merchant John Bednall, and one Thomas Lock with one Frenchman whom he did leave at Barampur; and this John coming from Barampur (Burhampur) towards Bagnagar (Bisnagar) was robbed by the way, by his own report, of a camel, a horse, six fine clothes, a hundred pagodas in money and other apparel. So coming to Coulas, he did send back two servants for Barampur and one for Surat; but he himself came to Bagnagar, where he did meet with a certain gentile, being a goldsmith, an old acquaintance of mine, who did take him into his house and did write me of it what is passed with this John". And a little later he adds: "Because he tells me that the English merchants from Barampur will be here within this ten or twelve days, I have been content to write Attmachan and Malicktosuer in Bagnagar in his behalf, to see if he can get his stolen goods again," etc. ². It is quite evident from this letter that at the beginning of the 17th century there were still some inhabitants at Vijayanagara. And in the middle of the same century Timma or Tirumala, a nephew of Ranga III, by his brother Venkatapati, built there the lofty eastern gopuram of the temple of Virupaksha ³.