Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s7.31

v1.c15.s7.31

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.