Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s1.7

v1.c15.s1.7

The next foreign traveller who has some details about the Vijayanagara army is 'Abdur Razzāq (A.D. 1442-3). "There are more than 1,000 elephants. . . . The army consists of eleven lacs of men (1,100,000)".⁵ It is not surprising that Dēva Rāya II, who possessed this great army, should have been characterized by him as the most absolute ruler in Hindustan.⁶ Firishah tells us that the Vijayanagara army in A.D. 1443 was composed of 62,000 archers (of whom 2,000 were Muhammadans, and 60,000 Hindus), 80,000 horsemen and 200,000 foot-soldiers.⁷