Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s1.2

v1.c15.s1.2

Foreign travellers were struck by the immense army of the Hindu monarchs. The earliest foreign traveller who gives us an account of its strength is Nicolo dei Conti. Till his days we know merely that large bodies of Hindus opposed the Muhammadans.¹ But Nicolo informs us that "in this city there are estimated to be ninety thousand men fit to bear arms".² This was the strength of the Vijayanagara army in about A.D. 1420. We may compare the estimate of Nicolo with that given by Firishtah, who describes the campaign of A.D. 1366-8. During this war Muhammad Shāh Bāhmani defeated the Hindus, whose army was made up of 30,000 horse, 3,000 elephants, 1,000,000 foot.³ Even after suffering terrible reverses at the hands of the Muhammadans, the Hindus could command a force of 5,000,000 infantry and 40,000 cavalry.⁴