Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s3.t2.14

v1.c15.s3.t2.14

Why the king after mounting should himself count the two hundred horsemen and the shield-bearers when even, according to Nuniz's own narrative, there were important officers like the chief alcaid (?) and the Master of the Horse and the various captains on the scene, cannot be made out. In a later passage he explains more clearly the nature of the king's guard: "The King has continually fifty thousand paid soldiers, amongst whom are six thousand horsemen who belong to the palace guard, to which six thousand belong the two hundred who are obliged to ride with him. He has also twenty thousand spearmen and shield-bearers, and three thousand men to look after the elephants in the stables; he has sixteen hundred grooms who attend to the horses, and has also three hundred horse trainers and two thousand artificers, namely blacksmiths, masons, and carpenters, and washermen who wash clothes".²