The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c21.110

v1.c21.110

8. At Chandragiri not a small coterie of nobles had naturally gathered round the Emperor. Fr. A. Laerzio, Provincial of the Jesuit Province of Malabar, who visited Venkata's court in 1603, writing to Fr. J. Alvarez at Rome in the following year, says: "Those nobles are very rich and powerful; some have a revenue of five hundred thousand cruzados, some of six hundred thousand, and some of four hundred thousand" ⁷. Fr. Du Jarric gives interesting information about one of the social institutions of the nobility at Chandragiri, corresponding more or less to our modern gymnasium. "The house fitted for this", he says, "has a yard in the centre, the pavement of which is covered with a layer of lime so smooth that it looks like a mirror; there is a walk around it, spread over with red sand, on which they rest as on a soft bed. One who would wrestle strips himself. Then several strong and brawny youths called geitas, who are ready beforehand, rub the nobleman; then they box, jump, fence and take other kinds of exercise with him, in order to strengthen him; and this they do until perspiration flows freely. Then the geitas cover the whole of the nobleman's body with sand, and massage him, and move his arms and legs in every direction as if they would disjoint his bones. Finally the nobleman is brushed, annointed and washed with warm water; and when dry, dresses himself. Noblemen take this kind of exercise almost every day before dinner, in order to be fit and healthy; thus men as old as seventy years look only thirty ”¹. Such is the description of the exercises taken in the gymnasium of Chandragiri, into which Fr. Simon de Sa, Rector of the College of St. Thome, was once admitted as a spectator.