The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c30.123

v1.c30.123

As regards the territory ruled over by Venkata exaggerations too obviously poetic to be misleading are found in these and similar sources. According to the Vellangudi plates ‘he ruled the earth from the Himalayas to Setu’⁴; or ‘he defeated his enemies from the bridge (Rameswaram) to the Himalayas’, according to the Mangalampad grant⁵. If we are to believe the Vilapaka grant, the whole of India was under him⁶; and consequently, he boasts of having had as vassals the Rattas, the Magadas, the Kambojas, the Bhojas, the Kalingas; and the Kings of these countries ‘were his doorkeepers’ and ‘used to praise him’. Such are the extravagant expressions of the contemporary grants⁷; these boastful phrases are copied from the old grants of Venkata’s predecessors. Truth is stated once in the Vilapaka grant, where Venkata is said to have ‘ruled over the country of Karnata’⁸.