Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s2.t2.7

v1.c15.s2.t2.7

The actual price of a horse, which the reader must have noted from the observations we made while describing the country in general, varied, as can be seen by comparing the account given above with that relating to Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya the Great. On his way to meet 'Ali Ādil Shāh, the monarch "bought six hundred horses from the Portuguese at the rate of 4½ for 1,000 *paradaos*".¹ Nuniz, who gives us these details, was himself a trader in horses in Vijayanagara. He tells us that the king bought twelve or fifteen country-bred horses for a thousand *paradaos*.² Under ordinary circumstances, therefore, the Vijayanagara monarchs were not constrained to resort to measures which Tirumala adopted when he attempted to recover from the effects of the great battle of Rākshasa-Taṅgaḍi. We may here note that one of the centres which contained a number of superior saddlers was Baṅkāpur.³