Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s10.20

v1.c15.s10.20

Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Raya's magnanimous treatment of the fallen foe is seen in the same *Chronicle* of Nuniz. 'Ali Ādil Shāh of Bijapur during the Raichur campaign, was hopelessly beaten. His army was relentlessly pursued by the Hindu forces, and the Emperor "reached the river (the Kṛiṣhṇā) where, seeing, the death of so many—for here you would see women and boys who had left the camp, there horses and men who through clinging to one another could not escape as there was so much water in the river—and the King's troops stood on the bank, so that whenever a man appeared he was killed, and the horses that tried to clamber up by the bank of the river, unable to do so, fell back on the men, so that neither one nor the other escaped, and the elephants went into the stream, and those that they could seize were cruelly killed by them. Seeing what passed, I say, the King, out of compassion commanded the troops to retire, saying that numbers had died who did not deserve death nor were at all in fault; which order was at once obeyed by all the captains, so that each one withdrew all his forces".¹