Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s2.9

v1.c15.s2.9

The Vijayanagara monarchs apparently transgressed the injunctions of Kauṭilya and the precedent of the early rulers of Karṇāṭaka as regards the four-fold divisions of their army. Sewell speaks of the troops of Vijayanagara marching against the Sultan of Gulbarga in A.D. 1419 with horse, foot, and elephants.¹ This was only partially true. For the Hindu army was made up of six parts. An inscription dated A.D. 1390-1 informs us that the Prince Dēva Raya "for a long time carried out a fierce military expedition by order of his father Harihara (II) accompanied by the six component parts of the army . . ."² The six parts of the Vijayanagara army were the following—infantry, cavalry, elephants, artillery which included "chariots" or carts, camels and bulls. The Bakhair of Rāma Rāja is the only account which gives us an idea of these six parts of the army.³ The Vijayanagara rulers, therefore, unintentionally followed the mediaeval precept of Sukra rather than the classical injunctions which restricted the forces to the four well known names. We shall now enumerate in some detail these six divisions of the Vijayanagara army.