Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s5.5

v1.c15.s5.5

The grand military pageant in the reign of Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya the Great, as described by Paes, seems to have struck the foreign travellers with its orderliness and magnificence. One does not find a similar picture of the Emperor Achyuta from the pen of Nuniz; “And after these nine days are finished the Rao rides out and goes to hold a review of the troops of his captains, and he goes a length of two leagues between the armed men. At the end he dismounts and takes a bow in his hand and shoots three arrows, namely one for the Yadallcão (Ādil Shāh), and another for the King of Catamuloco (Qutb Shāh of Golkonda), and yet another for the Portuguese; it was his custom to make war on the kingdom lying in the direction where the arrow reached furthest. After this is done the King returns home, and on that day he fasts and with him all the people of the land. . .”² Now, we know that the Vijayanagara monarchs did not allow their discretion to be directed by their bows and arrows. Paes, who was also an eye-witness of the review, does not mention this incident. But the fiction of the arrow must have been circulated among the foreigners, for Barbosa speaks of it but on an altogether different occasion. We shall presently cite his evidence. For the present, we may note that the observations of Nuniz relating to the arrows savour more of superstition rather than of personal observation.