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Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s7: Section 7. A Picture of the Hindu Camp

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s7

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Section 7. A Picture of the Hindu Camp

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From the *Chronicle* of Nuniz we learn a great deal about the camp of the Hindu army. That traveller thus describes the manner in which Kr̥ṣṇa Dēva Rāya the Great pitched his camp on the eve of the battle of Raichur: "The tent of the King was surrounded by a great hedge of thorns with only one entrance, and with a gate at which stood his guards. Inside this hedge lodged the Brahman⁴ who washes him and has charge of the idol that he always carries about with him, and also other persons who hold offices about the King's person, and eunuchs who are always to be found in his chamber. And outside this circle all around are his guards, who watch all night at fixed spots; with this guard are quartered the officers of the household; and from thence to the front were all the other captains in their appointed posts, according as each one was entrusted and ordered. Outside of all these people, in a camp by themselves, were the scouts of whom I have already spoken, whose duty it is to patrol all night through the camp and watch to see if they can catch any spies. On the other side the washermen, (who are those that wash clothes) were in a camp by themselves, and they were near to the place where they could best wash clothes.

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¹⁹⁶ The tradition of giving betel leaf to warriors was handed down in the later days. Read Lakshmīśa, *Jaimini Bhārata*, Sandhi, 2. v. 42, p.

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²⁴ (Sanderson). ⁴ This Brahman "who washes" the king may have been the same learned Brahman "who never married or ever touched a woman" mentioned in a later passage, p.

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³⁹⁰ If it is so then he was probably Vyāsarāya, the well-known Madhva teacher. Nuniz is certainly wrong when he asserts that the Brahman washed the king. But this fiction, like the one relating to the great temple cars, seems to have been popular among foreigners. We shall see that Paes also relates the same about the king. B.A.S.

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"All the camp was divided into regular streets. Each captain's division has its market, where you found all kinds of meat, such as sheep, goats, pigs, fowls, hares, partridges and other birds, and this in great abundance; so much so that it would seem as if you were in the city of Bisnaga. And you found many endless kinds of rice, grains, Indian-corn, vetches (minguo)¹ and other seeds that they eat. Besides these things, which are necessaries, they had another (market) where you could find in great abundance everything that you wanted; for in these markets they sell things that in our parts are sold by professional hucksters. There were craftsmen, also, working in their streets, so that you saw made there golden jewels and gewgaws, and you will find all kinds of rubies and diamonds and pearls, with every other kind of precious stone for sale. There also were to be seen sellers of cloths, and these were without number as that is a thing so many want, they being of cotton. There were also to be seen grass and straw in infinite abundance. I do not know who could describe it so as to be believed, so barren a country is this Rachol and so sandy. It is a mystery how there should be an abundance of everything therein. Any one can imagine what grass and straw would be required each day for the consumption of thirty-two thousand four hundred horses, and five hundred and fifty-one elephants, to say nothing of the sumpter-mules and asses, and the great numbers of oxen which carry all the supplies and many other burdens, such as tents and other things. Indeed no one who did not understand the meaning of what he saw would ever dream that a war was going on, but would think that he was in a prosperous city. Then to see the numbers of drums and trumpets, and other musical instruments that they use. When they strike up their music as sign that they are about to give battle it would seem as if the heavens must fall; and if it happened that a bird came flying along at the time when they made such a terrific noise, it used to come down through terror of not being able to get clear of the camp, and so they, would catch it in their hands; principally kites, of which they caught many.

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¹ "Minguo, probably, moong or green grain ('Hobson-Jobson'). Ibn Batuta calls it munj, others mungo." Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 333, n. (1).

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"But I cease to speak more of this because I should never finish; and so I turn to tell of the battle".¹

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¹ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, pp. 332-4. Cf. With the description given by Lakshmīśa, *Jaimini Bhārata*, Sandhi, 4, v. 18. p. 58. (Sanderson). Nuniz was not far wrong in his notices of the extraordinary noise made by the people on this occasion. B.A.S.

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While describing the camp followers, the same chronicler tells us that there were "washermen, who are numberless here—they wash clothes", twenty thousand public women, "some ten or twelve thousand men with waterskins" who go seeking water, and place themselves along the road to give water to those who have no one to bring it to them;" and some "fifty thousand men who are like scouts", who have to spy the country in front, and always keep that distance (i.e. of four leagues in front of all this multitude), and two thousand cavalry on their flanks.²

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² Sewell, ibid., p. 328.

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On the basis of the observations of Nuniz one may venture to think that the following figures given in the Bakhair of Rāma Rāja may not be entirely wrong, although we may repeat, it would be interesting if independent evidence could be found to confirm them. The Bakhair contains the following figures:

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| Europeans | ... | 3454 |
| Harcarrahs | ... | 3454 |
| Mahaldars | ... | 4594 |
| Chapdars | ... | 6486 |
| Jasoods | ... | 4689 |
| Sastries | ... | 4864 |
| Masatjis | ... | 5786 |
| Murrakorras | ... | 4689 |
| Camelmen | ... | 4879 |
| Pooraneeks (Purāṇiks) | ... | 4687 |
| Taffa Joodes (Dancing girls) | ... | 5789 |
| Vabakas | ... | ?438 |
| Carpenters | ... | 4380 |
| Stonecutters | ... | 4376 |
| Saddle makers | ... | 3763 |
| Pallalgars | ... | 3767 |

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| Checklegars (Chucklers ?) | ... | 3763 |
| Gaddedas | ... | 4321 |
| Hookabundars | ... | 4597 |
| Charchubardar | ... | 5678 |
| Dallburder | ... | 4976 |
| Callaries | ... | 4567 |
| Boyees (palanquin bearers) | ... | 6789 |
| Booyas | ... | 5476 |
| Purlavanaras | ... | 4897 |
| Baultas | ... | 4579 |
| Shroffs | ... | 3643 |
| Faums (?) | ... | 3779 |
| Vidwans | ... | 4867 |
| Kavisvaras | ... | 5787 |
| Vinakars (Musicians) | ... | 467 |
| Cahdy (Cahly) Talladars | ... | 579 |
| Tellada Bhagavatas | ... | 379 |
| Artificers : | | |
| Ironsmiths | ... | 3736 |
| Goldsmiths | ... | 3775 |
| Brassmiths | ... | 3776 |
| The twelve classes of Artisans called "Ballabalottis" | ... | 76,321 ¹ |

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¹ Mack. Coll. Some of the names, however, are indistinctly written in pencil. B.A.S.

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Having thus formed some idea of the vastness and arrangement of the Hindu camp, we may now proceed to note a few more details about it. Nuniz tells us the manner in which the camp was supplied with the necessities of life. "In this order, as I have stated, they left the city of Bisnaga, and with them a great number of merchants, besides many others who were already in advance with all supplies; so that wherever you may be you will at once find all you want. Every captain has his merchants who are compelled to give him all supplies requisite for all his people, and in the same way they carry all other necessaries".² In the description of the actual camp at Raichur which we have noted above, Nuniz says how the services of these merchants were called into requisition in order to turn "so barren a country" into a prosperous city.

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² Sewell, For. Emp., pp. 328-9.

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It is interesting to inquire in this connection whether the Hindus had tents during a campaign. Paes, in the passage cited above, is positive about the tents and pavilions in the plains, which were great in number.¹ Nuniz also speaks of the great number of oxen which carried all the supplies and many other burdens "such as tents and other things".² Then again he says: "According to the King's custom, when he wishes to lie down and sleep, they make for him a hedge of brushwood and of thorns behind which his tent is pitched, which was done for him all along this route..."³ But he contradicts this in a later passage thus: "... and when he (the king) takes the field, wherever he pitches his camp there they make for him houses of stone and clay, for he does not stay in a tent, and he always has these decorated with cloths".⁴ Barbosa speaks of the king pitching his tents and camp in the country.⁵

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¹ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 279, op. cit.

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² *Ibid.*, p. 333, op. cit.

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³ *Ibid.*, p. 329.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, p. 370. See also *ibid* page where Nuniz speaks of a mosquito curtain and a house made of pieces of iron. One may question the validity of Nuniz not only on the strength of his own earlier assertion but on that of the fact that the Hindus—who were in close relationship with the Muhamadans on the battlefield from the later half of the thirteenth century,—may have borrowed the idea of the tents prior to the times of Krishna Deva Raya the Great. Indeed, it seems probable that even in earlier ages the Hindus of the south were not ignorant of the use of tents. This can be inferred from the mention that is made in inscriptions of *javanike*. Perumala-mantri, the great minister of the Hoysala king Narasimha, according to a record dated A.D. 1284, acquired the title of *javanike Narayana*, because in the presence of two contending armies he offered up the head of the brave Ratnapala to the Lakshmi Victory, and seized his (Ratnapala's) *javanike*. *E.C.*, IV, Ng. 38, p. 122. See also *E.C.* III, TN. 27, p. 72.

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⁵ Barbosa, Stanley, p. 97. Dames does not mention it. I, p. 224. He translates the passage thus: "Thence he goes forth at once and fixes his camping ground in the open country where he awaits the time fixed for his advance".

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One particular feature of the camp which struck the foreign witnesses as remarkable was the presence of the public women in the army. There is no denying the fact that these formed an indispensable element in the Vijayanagara camp. Nuniz's remarks are confirmed by the other Portuguese traveller Barbosa, who gives us the reason why they were taken to the front, with an account of the manner in which the monarchs started on their campaigns. "In order that these may not take to flight he directs large pay to be given to all; in the first place, to the enchanting single women, who are numerous, and who do not fight, but their lovers fight for love of them very vigorously. And it is also said that many men come from all the other kingdoms to the king's camp for the love of these women, amongst whom there are many honourable ones, great confidantes of the king, who came of great houses, and are very rich. Each one of them keeps seven or eight pretty waiting women, who are given to them by their mothers to bring them up, and put them in the court enrolled on the pay list. They hold this service in great honour.¹ While Barbosa's assertion that there were public women in the army only proves the remarks of the other travellers and of the Bakhair, it may be doubted whether entire reliance can be placed on him when he says that the great nobles allowed their ladies to join the army in their capacity as public women.²

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¹ Barbosa, Stanley, pp. 97-8; Dames, I, pp. 225-6.

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² Faria y Sousa, Asia Port., I, Pt. iii, p. 236, op. cit., may have followed Nuniz in his estimate of the courtezans who accompanied the Hindu army during the same siege of Raichur. See also Sewell, For. Emp., p. 145, n. (1). For the position occupied by the public women in Vijayanagara see infra Volume II, Chapter IV, Women.

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We may read along with the above description of the Hindu camp that of the Muhammadans as recorded by Firishtah. While dealing with the campaign of A.D. 1366, he says that Muhammad Shāh Bahmani I was compelled to take certain precautions. "As it was common for bands of thieves to steal into the camp at night, and murder and maim men and horses, he commanded the elephants taken from the Raja (of Vijayanagara) to be sent to Koolburga, desiring the officers to return all their baggage to that place, except what was absolutely necessary. The artillery was placed round the camp, connected by strong ropes and chains; and regular patroles went the rounds during the night".³ This insecurity which prevailed in the Muhammadan camp could also be observed so late as A.D. 1573. 'Ali Ādil Shāh after his victorious return from the battlefield of Rākshasa-Tangadi, tried to subdue one "Velap Rav", the ruler of Bankāpur. While the Sultan's army was besieging the fortress, the Hindu chieftain "prevailed on some chiefs to join his son; who acted with such vigour, that grain became scarce in the King's camp, which was molested every night by bands of robbers and assassins, who did much execution". The Hindu soldiers "entered the tents at night and stabbed the soldiers (of the Sultan), while sleeping, without mercy. Every night numbers were killed by them in this treacherous manner, and so great a dread and discontent prevailed among the troops, that they were near forcing the King (Ādil Shāh) to raise the siege. At length Moostufa Khan provided a remedy, both to ward off famine and to repel the nightly murderers. He detached the Bergy chiefs with six thousand horse against the enemy in the field, and stationed a chain of eight thousand foot round the camp every night".¹

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³ Firishtah, Briggs, The Rise, II, p. 313.

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¹ Firishtah, Briggs, *The Rise*, III, p. 137.

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The absence of such preventive measures in the Hindu camp notwithstanding the vast numbers of camp followers, in the accounts of the foreign eye-witnesses, suggests that it was more efficiently organized according to the standards of the age. But we may remark at the same time that the Hindus could be as indifferent to the needs of the hour as the Muhammadans were inefficient to guard their camp. The following sad plight which befell Dēva Rāya is related by Firishtah. "Lody Khan, Adam Khan, and Dilawar Khan (A.D. 1422) marched during the night, and fording the river at a distance, reached the environs of the enemy's camp at day-light. The Ray was then sleeping, attended only by a few persons, in a garden, close to which was a thick plantation of sugar-cane. A body of the Mahomedans entered the garden for plunder, and Dew Ray, being alarmed, fled, almost naked as he was, into the sugar-cane plantation. Here he was found by the soldiers, who taking him for a villager, loaded him with a bundle of canes, and obliged him to run with it before them. Dew Ray, perceiving he was undiscovered, took up the burden readily, hoping that he should be released when he reached the enemy's camp, or be able to effect his escape.

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"They had not gone far when an alarm spread through the camp of the Hindoos, that Ahmud Shah (the Bāhmani Sultan) had crossed the river, and that the Ray was missing. The King entered the lines without opposition; and the soldiers who had taken Dew Ray, hoping to obtain more valuable plunder than sugar-cane, hastened to join their comrades, leaving him to shift for himself. Dew Ray fled, unnoticed, and about noon came up with some of his officers, by whom he was recognised, and received with great joy". His army began to re-assume some kind of order but he was compelled to fall back on Vijayanagara.¹

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¹ Firishtah, Briggs, *The Rise*, II, pp. 401-2. There are two considerations against this story. We know from the account of Nuniz that great precautions were taken by the Vijayanagara king to guard his camp day and night. This must also have been observed in the days of Dēva Rāya. It is difficult, therefore, to believe that that ruler could have lost himself without the knowledge of his body guard. Further, it seems incredible that the ruler should have pitched his camp near a sugar-cane plantation which, as is well known, is always a marshy ground. We may also remember the glowing account of the personality of Dēva Rāya II, as given by 'Abdur Razzāq (Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 113), to realize the impossibility of the Hindu ruler being mistaken for a common villager. Nevertheless the episode as narrated by Firishtah illustrates one of the defects of the Hindu camp. B.A.S.

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SECTION 8. How Campaigns were Conducted

Battle Array

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We may now turn to the arrangement of troops on the field and the method in which the Hindus commenced their campaigns. The details regarding these are unfortunately not numerous. Kauṭilya has minute regulations about the arrangement of troops in respect of wings, flanks, and front. According to him "the array in which the front is occupied by elephants, the flanks by chariots, and the wings by horses, is an array which can break the centre of the enemy's army". The general distribution of the units in the front and flanks is as follows: "An array of elephants may also be made: the front by such elephants as are trained for war; the flanks by such as are trained for riding; and the wings by rogue elephants. In the array of horses, the front by horses with mail armour; and the flanks and wings by horses without armour. In an array of infantry, men dressed in mail armour in front, archers in the rear, and men without armour on the wings, or horses on the wings, elephants on the flanks, and chariots in front . . ." That this was by no means the only order to be followed is clear in the next sentence which says that "other changes may also be made so as to oppose the enemy's army successfully".² Then Kauṭilya describes the different arrays—those formed like a staff, a snake, a circle, or in detached order. Each of these is dealt with in detail.³

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² *Arthaśāstra*, Bk. X, Ch. V, 373, pp. 431-2. See also pp. 430-1.

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³ *Ibid.*, Bk. X, Ch. VI, pp. 433-6.

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Kauṭilya makes provision only for four divisions of the army; the Vijayanagara rulers, as we have observed, superseded the limits of the ancient times. Evidently with the increased number of parts they could only be guided by a writer like Śukrāchārya, who had taken the later improvements and additions into consideration. Śukra deals with the śakaṭa (cart-like), makara (crocodile), vajra (thunder), and chakra (circle) arrays.¹ These are also described by Kauṭilya.² But Śukra also introduces the needle array and the pigeon array³ which are not mentioned in the Arthaśāstra. We can only conjecture that these injunctions of early and later legists may have been in the minds of the mediaeval generals of Vijayanagara.

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¹ Śukranīti, IV. vii, ll. 527-31, pp. 242-3.

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² Arthaśāstra, Bk. X, Ch. VII, pp. 433-5.

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³ Śukranīti, IV. vii, ll. 527-63, p. 242.

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The actual practice in southern India must have been somewhere within the limits of the regulations set down by the lawgivers. From the inscriptions we can learn a few details about it. Fragmentary as their evidence on this subject is, nevertheless it enables us to assert that the ancient and mediaeval regulations were quite known to the people of the Karṇāṭaka. One of the battle arrays mentioned by Kauṭilya is the circle array. In the Arthaśāstra it is called the maṇḍala, and in the Śukranīti, the chakra. The technical name given to the battle order is vyūha.⁴ An inscription dated A.D. 982, found at Śravaṇa Belgola, mentions this kind of battle array exactly as it has been described in the classical and mediaeval codes. The epigraph further enlightens us on two kinds of fighting known to the people of the Karṇāṭaka—the defence called the ola sādhaka and the attack called hora-sādhaka. This inscription which contains verses that have a double meaning, describes the greatness of the Raṭṭa king Indra Rāja, who could subdue hosts of enemies who had formed themselves into a chakra-vyūham, and mentions the two kinds of fighting-defence (ola-sādhaka), including nine cuts, which made to the right and left hands, come to eighteen; and attack (hora-sādhaka). The chakra-vyūha can be attacked on the four sides and above; these five cuts, made with the thirty-two kinds of weapons, give 160, which again made to the right and left hands, come to 320. "These 338 kinds of blows or cuts did he deliver, varying them in a crore of ways . . In this manner attacking the *chakra-vyūha* like a *chakra*-bearer by going round it, leaping on it, penetrating it here and there, he was unequalled in receiving no injury . . ."¹

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⁴ Arthaśāstra, ibid.; Śukranīti, ibid.

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¹ E.C., II, No. 57, p. 145, (1st. ed.); No. 57, p. 62. (2nd. ed.) Cf. Sukraniti IV, vii, ll. 539-550, p. 245.

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The bearing of a hero on the battlefield, with a description of the dress which he was given, is thus narrated in a later record dated A.D. 1290 which says that when Kōṭe Sōveyya Nāyaka marched against Baṅki Nāyaka and pitched his camp in Kānilachelave, the hero Bomma, who, as we have seen, had the honour of receiving betel leaf from the hands of his ruler, prepared to meet the enemy. "He (Bomma) put on gold-coloured silk cloths, bound woollen cords round his head, and came forth bellowing like a bull to the cows".²

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² E.C., VII., Nr. 33, p. 153.

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Although it is not possible to assert that the precepts of Kauṭilya or Śukrāchārya guided the action of the Vijayanagara monarchs in military affairs, yet it is not improbable that much of the theoretical knowledge as well as the practice current in the Karṇāṭaka may have been handed down to the new comers, who, as we have often remarked, were zealous to protect the ancient constitutional usage of the country. Gaṅgadēvī in her poem *Madhurāvijayam* gives us the earliest description of their method of warfare. The soldiers used not only arrows but also catapults which were worked with stones, and ladders to scale the walls. This was during the siege of Rājagambhīra where Champa (i.e., Sambhuva Rāya) had taken refuge.³

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³ Madhurāvijayam, Canto IV, vv. 69-73, pp. 35-6.

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How Kampaṇa went to war is also described in the same poem. Having attended to the usual ablutions of the morning, prescribed in the *śāstras*, he ordered his commander to march the army to the south. The battle drums were sounded, caparisoned elephants and horses arrayed, men in their mailed coats marshalled and the infantry got ready. The generals were adorned with ornaments suitable to the occasion and they gathered in the gateway of the palace awaiting the arrival of Kampaṇa. Flags were unfurled, umbrellas of white silk held over the Prince, and the Brahmans reciting the *atharvaṇa mantra* blessed him with victory, the cry of jaya (victory) ringing out everywhere. Kampaṇa approached the gate of the palace where his favourite horse was awaiting his arrival and mounted it, while the generals and nobles wished him success by holding both their hands in the añjali pose over their heads. The Chōḷa, Kēraḷa, and Pāṇḍya kings, as the poem relates, holding their batons in their hands proceeded forward on foot to make way for Kampaṇa's horse. The women folk of the town threw fried rice on the person of Kampaṇa by way of benediction, and prayed to God for his success.¹

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¹ Madhurāvijayam, Intr., pp. 6-7, Canto IV, vv. 1-33, pp. 28-31.

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An inscription dated A.D. 1403 mentions a kind of fighting called sāmbrāṇi, the meaning of which is not clear. It narrates that a Mahānāyakācharya, having a mind to see a fight with left foot advanced and right foot in the sāmbrāṇi fashion (yeḍada-kāla chāchi balada-kāla sāmbrāṇi-raṇa)", Chennappa, son of Kāmeya Nāyaka, fell fighting against Palasumāmiḍi Chanda-bōva in the battle of Nāgārjunkōṭe.²

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² E.C., XI., C. 42, p. 102, n. (1)

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Nuniz again is our sole authority as regards the order in which Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya the Great marched his troops during the Raichur campaign. "After the King had made his offerings and performed sacrifices to his idols he left the city of Bisnaga with all his troops; and they marched in the following order. The chief of the guard . . .³ led the advance with thirty thousand infantry—archers, men with shields, and musqueteers, and spearmen—and a thousand horse, and his elephants.⁴ After him went Trimbicara⁵ with fifty thousand foot and two thousand horse and twenty elephants. After him went Timapanayque; he had with him six thousand foot and three thousand five hundred horse and thirty elephants; and after him went Adapanayque with one hundred thousand foot and five thousand horse and fifty elephants. After him came Comdamara⁶, and he had one hundred and twenty thousand foot six thousand horse and sixty elephants; and after him went Comara⁷, and he had eighty thousand foot, and of horse two thousand five hundred, and forty elephants; after him the forces of Ogemdraho,¹ the governor of the city of Bisnaga, with one of his captains, who had one thousand horse and thirty thousand foot and ten elephants. After him went three eunuchs, favourites of the King, who had forty thousand foot, and one thousand horse and fifteen elephants. The page who served the King with betel had fifteen thousand foot and two hundred horse, but he had no elephants. Comarberca had eight thousand foot and four-hundred horse and twenty elephants. The people of the chief of Bengapor went by another route with the people of Domar, who were very numerous; and in the same way went other captains of ten or twelve thousand men, of whom I make no mention, not knowing their names. The King took of his guard six thousand horse and forty thousand foot, the pick of all his kingdom, men with shields, archers and three hundred elephants. . . .

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³ His name was Kāma Nāyaka. Sewell, For. Emp. pp. 326, n. (2) 329.

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⁴ Barros, in describing the same event, says sixteen elephants. Sewell, ibid., p. 326, n. (3).

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⁵ Triyambaka. Cannot be identified.

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⁶ Cannot be identified. Sewell, ibid., p. 360, n. (1).

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⁷ Kumāra? Later on he speaks of 'Comarberya,' as being father-in-law of the Emperor. Ibid., p. 336.

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¹ Sewell suggests Ganda Rāja (Guṇḍa? Gōvinda?) For. Emp. p. 327, n. (2). Perhaps the name may refer to Vijēndra Rāya. This is uncertain. B.A.S.

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"In the rear with the king, but always on the road in front of him, some ten or twelve thousand men with waterskins, who go seeking water. . . . Three or four leagues in front of all this multitude go" the scouts already mentioned.²

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² Sewell, ibid., pp. 326-8.

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Nuniz unfortunately does not give the exact positions occupied by the contingents of horses, elephants and cannon. But in a later passage he says the following: ". . . he (the Emperor) ordered a general advance of all his forces. He divided his army into seven wings".³

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³ Ibid., p. 336.

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The success or failure of a campaign sometimes rests on the activities of the scouts and the spies. Nuniz has given us some details about the former. As regards the latter⁴ Firishtah informs us the following in connection with the campaign of A.D. 1417. Firūz Shāh Bāhmani attacked Pangul, and Dēva Rāya with the aid of the ruler of Telingana, "marched against the King, with a vast host of horse and foot." In the course of the conflict "Meer Fuzl Oolla, who commanded the troops of Islam, charged the infidels with great valor, and routing their centre, fell upon their right wing, and was on the point of obtaining the victory, when one of his own attendants, said to be bribed for the purpose by Dew Ray, inflicted a severe wound on his head, of which he instantly died." This fatal event changed the fortune of the day: the king was defeated, and managed to effect his escape with the utmost difficulty.¹

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⁴ For Kautilya's injunctions as regards spies, see Arthaśāstra, Bk. X., Ch. III, 368, pp. 426-7; Bk. XIII, Ch. III, p. 463, seq.

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¹ Firishtah, Briggs, The Rise, II, p. 390; Sewell, For. Emp. p. 68.

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The war, however, continued under Ahmad Shāh I, whose bloody orgies on the battlefield exasperated the Hindus. A body of five thousand Hindus "united in taking an oath to sacrifice their lives in an attempt to kill the King, as the author of all their sufferings. For this purpose, they employed spies to observe his motions, that they might seize the first opportunity of accomplishing their ends".²

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² Firishtah, ibid., II, p. 402; Sewell, ibid., p. 68.

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The Rāyavāchakamu contains some interesting details about the stratagem used by the minister and general of Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya the Great during the siege of Koṇḍaviḍu, Vinu-koṇḍa, and other fortresses in the kingdoms of the Gajapati ruler and of the Sultan of Bidar. On capturing the town of Ahmadnagar, the Emperor directed the fortifications to be destroyed; and for this purpose ordered that castor seeds should be sown where the fortifications stood. He proceeded towards Poṭlūri Simhādri (Simhādri Poṭṭunūr) but was deterred for a moment by the news of the great preparations made by the Gajapati ruler and his sixteen Mahāpātras to repel his army. The minister Appāji came to the rescue of the Emperor at this juncture. He despatched some chests full of gold and valuables with the consent of the Emperor to the sixteen Pātras along with secret letters. The letters said that the boxes were despatched to them according to the agreement between the Pātras and Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya, and exhorted them to act up to it, by deserting the Gajapati ruler during the battle. Some of these boxes containing presents were captured by the messengers of the Gajapati king and were taken to him. On reading them he began to fear for his own safety, and retreated unnoticed towards the north. When the sixteen Pātras learnt about the flight of their master, they retired to their respective fortresses. The Gajapati capital consequently fell into the hands of the enemy.³

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³ Rāyavāchakamu, The Sources, pp. 115-16, 124-5. See also pp. 112, 113 for the activities of the spies, generals and poets of the Vijayanagara ruler.

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