Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c14.s2.47

v1.c14.s2.47

There is nothing which indicates to us the sincerity of purpose which lay behind the foreign policy of the Vijayanagara rulers towards the Muhammadans so much as the readiness with which they enlisted the latter in their service, and the patronage they gave to the cause of Islām in and outside their great capital. The Muhammadan kings of course reciprocated this by an equally liberal policy towards the Hindus. Foreign travellers like Paes and Nuniz inform us that the Vijayanagara monarchs publicly acknowledged their broad-minded policy of recruiting Muhammadans in their service by providing quarters for them in the capital. Paes says: "At the end of this street is the Moorish quarter, which is at the very end of the city, and of these Moors there are many who are natives of the country and who are paid by the king and belong to his guard".¹ Nuniz adds to this: "Then he (the Emperor) sent the Moors in the royal service to lead the van, and Camanayque, the chief of the guard, pitched the camp very near the ditches of the city of Rachol, and every captain halted his people according to the commands given".²