Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s6.1

v1.c15.s6.1

Much can be gathered about this phase of their military life from foreign travellers. We shall deal with the method by which the Hindus mustered their troops, pitched their camp, conducted their campaigns and concluded peace. The very fact that the annual military review was held at the close of the great Mahānavami festival, and that during its course the king examined the troops in company with an image, which was obviously carried in a palanquin, suggests that the Vijayanagara monarchs attached some religious significance to their military manoeuvres. In the methods by which they summoned their army we have a further proof of the same sentiment. Barbosa tells us how the king went for war. "He then gives out in how many days from that time he will start, and this news runs through the whole city and kingdom. Thence he goes forth at once and fixes his camping ground in the open country where he awaits the time fixed for his advance. When the time is fulfilled he issues a proclamation [ordering that the whole city shall be at once set on fire, saving the palaces, fortresses, and temples, and those of certain lords which are not thatched and this he does in order]"¹ that all men shall attend with their wives and sons and households, all are ordered to go thither, for he says that men fight better if they have the responsibility of wives and children and household goods on them".² If wives and children, according to Barbosa, were also ordered to follow the soldiers, then, it is difficult to understand why the Government should have included "numerous unmarried women"—mentioned by the same traveller in the same passage—among the camp followers.