The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c27.9

v1.c27.9

This governor did not reside at St. Thome, but at the ancient city of Mylapore. "The Portuguese", says the Jesuit annual letter of 1606-1607, "have a captain or *ouvidor*, to govern and administer justice. In another separate town, but in its vicinity, there is a captain of the King (of Vijayanagara), who collects the taxes and governs the Hindus" ⁴. Mylapore is the same city that Gasparo Balbi speaks of in the account of his travels through India in 1582: "Without the Citie of Saint Thomas is another Citie invironed with walls, made of earth, and inhabited with Gentiles Souldiers, whose Chieftaine is called Adicario (*adigar*), who hath power to execute justice" ⁵. Apparently Mylapore was then fortified and garrisoned by the Emperor of Vijayanagara; hence it receives the appellation of a fortress in several Jesuit letters of those years ⁶. All these letters distinguish between this fortress and a Hindu town which was a little farther away. We have suggested elsewhere that this Hindu town might be the one called Madarasa, next to which the Fort St. George was constructed several years after by the English traders, who called it Black Town, as inhabited by coloured people ¹. The Bevinahalli grant of Sadasiva Raya mentions both Mailapura and Madarasa as connected with the father of one of the Brahmans favoured with the grant ².