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Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8: Chapter II. The Country in General

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8

Language
English

Contents

Chapter II. The Country in General

Section 1. Description of the Land

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THE Empire which thus arose on the soil of Karṇāṭaka gradually extended its sway over the whole of the peninsula south of the river Kṛishṇā. It was not an empty boast which the engravers recorded on stone when they said that "Sangama of the Yaduvamśa enabled Lakshmī the Karṇāṭaka Deśa to wear permanently her ear-rings".¹ The sons of Sangama had reason indeed to infuse new life into the old country. Known by the name of Punnaṭa (or Punnaḍ) in early history, it had withered till it rose under the general appellation of Gaṅgavāḍi 96,000; and when the warring peoples from the time of the Mauryas till those of the Hoysalas had pained it with their politics and soothed it with their songs, it reappeared again as Karṇāṭa of the Vijayanagara age.² According to an inscription dated in A.D. 1565, it was 126,000 yōjanas in extent, situated in the middle of the Jambūdvipa.³ With the roll of ages, Karṇāṭaka had not changed in its fertility and fame. Centuries before the rise of the Kurubas, the land of Karṇāṭaka had sheltered the Jaina sages of the north; and the nature of the country where the founders of the Vijayanagara Empire first made their appearance is thus described in an inscription of about A.D. 600. Bhadrabāhu, after having foretold in Ujjaini a period of twelve years of dire calamity, took his way to the south where his saṅgha made their abode. ". . .The whole of the saṅgha, leaving the northern regions, took their way to the south. And the ṛishi company arrived at a country counting many hundreds of villages, completely filled with the increase of people, money, gold, grain, cows, buffaloes, and goats.

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⁶ S. K. Aiyangar, Some Contributions, p. 298.

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¹ E.C., VIII, Tl. 206, p. 209, op. cit.

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² Rice, I.A., XII, p. 13. The identification of Maisūru with Mahishamandala, though no doubt very attractive to a Kannaḍiga, is untenable. See Fleet, J.R.A.S., 1910, p. 425, seq.; Pargiter, ibid., p. 867; Rice, J.R.A.S., 1911, p. 809, seq.; Fleet, ibid., p. 816, seq.; Rice, J.R.A.S., 1912, p. 241, seq.; Fleet, ibid., p. 245, seq.; Narasimhachar, Q.J.M.S., X, p. 249, seq. A Sinda king Gaṇḍarādityarasa is called the lord of Māhishamatipura in Saka 969. He ruled over the Sindavāḍi 1,000, Beṇṇevūru 12, and Nuṛuguṇḍa. 711 of 1919; E. Report for 1920, p. 100. Buchanan speaks of a celebrated temple named after Mahishi supposed to have been built by Hanumaṅta, on the banks of the Tuṅgabhadrā near Maluru. Travels through Malabar, III, p. 286. Mr. Sēsha Ayyar would convert Erumaināḍu into Eruvai-nāḍu=Land of Elephants, Q.J.M.S., XI, p. 76. For Mahishavishaya, see Ep. Ind., IV, p. 58, n. 2. See also Munshi, I.A. LI, p. 219.

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³ E.C., VII, Ci. 62, p. 189.

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"Whereupon at a mountain with lofty peaks, whose name was Kaṭavapra,—an ornament to the earth; the ground around which was variegated with the brilliant hues of the clusters of gay flowers fallen from the beautiful trees; the rocks on which were dark as the great rain clouds filled with water; abounding with wild boars, panthers, tigers, bears, hyænas, serpents, and deer; filled with caves caverns, large ravines, and forests . . . .",¹ the *sangha* fixed its quarters.

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¹ E.C., 11, No. 1, p. 1. (1st. ed.); pp. 1-2, (2nd. ed.) Rice, Mys. Ins., p. 302.

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That the people loved to praise Karṇāṭaka in the later ages as well can be seen from the following description of it by the poet Nañjuṇḍa (A.D. 1525) who in his *Kumāra Rāmana Kathe* says:²

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² *Karṇāṭaka Kavicharite*, II, p. 205. Evidently Nañjuṇḍa had Nṛpatuṅga's verses in mind. Read *Kavirājamārgga*, I. 36, p. 6. (text).

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ಕಾವೇರಿಯಿಂದಂ ಗೋದಾವರಿವರೆಗಮು |
ದಾರ್ವಸುಧಾತಳ ವಲಯ ||
ಭಾವಿಸಿ ಕರ್ಣಾಟಕಜನಪದವದ |
ನಾವೆನೊಲಿದು ಬಣ್ಣಿಸುವನು ||
ನಡಿವಂಜಿ ನುಡಿವರಗಳ ನಲಿದಾಡುವ |
ಬೆಡಗಿನ ನವಿಲು ಕೂಗಿದುವ ||
ಪಡಿಯುವಕ್ಕಿ ಮೊರೆವ ಪರಮೆಗಳದೇ |
ಗೆದಿಪುವು ಪಥಿಕರನಲ್ಲಿ ||
ಮಡಿಯೆಂಬ ಮಾತು ಸಂಖ್ಯಾವಾಚಗಳ ಕಟ್ಟು |
ಕಡೆಯೊಳು ಶಾಕವಾಟಿಯೆಗಳ ||
ತಡೆಯುದೊರಜಕರುಳಲ್ಲದಾಜನಪದ |
ದೆಡೆಯೊಳಲ್ಲಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿದನಂ ||

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In order to estimate adequately the remarks of foreigners about the land, and the zeal with which princes and peoples made it wealthy and famous, we may go beyond the bounds of brevity and listen to the well known Sarvajña about the nature of the country. This poet, who may have lived about A.D. 1700 or earlier,³ compares Karṇāṭaka with the adjacent countries in the following lines:

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³ The date of this poet is however disputed. See infra.

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"On each road are thorns of the Shabby Ocymum; all those who are born speak indistinctly. The road to the East is not to be taken. Roasted corn is cheap; for an obeisance you get some butter-milk; there are small Solanum fruits to suck (instead of mangoes). Can one declare the East to be rich?

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"Whithersoever you look, you see thorns of the miserable Ocymum. All the people, even when grown up, speak indistinctly. The North is not beautiful. The villages are far from each other; water is met every ten miles; there is no shade to stand under. The road to the North is not to be taken.

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"With your dish of great millet you have many varieties of split pulse and the milk of well-fed buffaloes. Look at the riches of the Middle Country—the Land of Growth (Karṇāṭaka)! With your dish of Panicum you have suitable split pulse and a lump of butter as big as a sling-stone. Look at the means of the Middle Country! You have your cake of wheaten flour and the milk of the lusty buffaloes and the love of a modest female! I have not seen the like! May cake dust (that does not satiate) fall into the mouth of him who says that the country, where the Bengal gram and wheat are sown and grown, should be burnt!

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"The forest (of the West) is full of immature fruit; the country is full of huge trees; promises are not kept. I have had quite enough of the Hill Country (i.e., Male-nāḍu). The climate is damp, bellies are swollen; ah! why should one go to a country where sinners stir and eat their food with wooden ladles? There are green ginger and turmeric: there are jaggery and betel; there are good jack-fruits to eat. Can one declare the Hill Country to be a good one? There is rice water, there is mud, there are not dwellings, there are wives that are gratifying. Oh! Look at the relieving features of the Hill Country!

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"But in this Southern direction Asuras have been born as men. Daśasīra's (Rāvaṇa's) enemy has given them their name and rejected the region of the Tigulas. There are the kālakūṭa poison and such malice as you might experience if you trusted a scorpion... How shall I tell the self-conceit of the country where reasoning has been born!"

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Making due allowance for the provincialism which has made the poet speak in disparaging terms about the great people of the south, we may, nevertheless, note that he speaks of the ancient Gaṅgavāḍi in words the truth of which has been amply borne out by foreign travellers. Duarte Barbosa, who was for sixteen years in the Indian seas, and who visited Vijayanagara in A.D. 1504-1515,¹ confirms the opinion of Sarvajña as regards the richness of the soil of the centre of the Empire. "This kingdom of Narsinga," says Duarte Barbosa, "is very rich and well supplied with provisions, and is very full of cities and large townships; and all the country is very fertile and brought under cultivation".²

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¹ Sarvajña, translated by Kittel, I.A., II., pp. 23-4.

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¹ Barbosa, *A Description of the Coasts of E. Africa and Malabar*, Preface, p. vii. (Trans. by Stanley); Burgess, *Chronology of Modern India*, p. 13.

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² Barbosa, ibid., p. 79.

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Paes, who was in the city of Vijayanagara in about A.D. 1520,³ in his *Chronicle* writes: "Now to tell of the aforesaid kingdom (of Vijayanagara). It is a country sparsely wooded except along this serra on the east (i.e., on the west of the territory of Vijayanagara), but in places you walk for two or three leagues under groves of trees; and behind cities and towns and villages they have plantations of mangoes and jackfruit trees, and tamarinds and other very large trees, which form resting-places where merchants halt with their merchandise. . . These domains are very well cultivated and very fertile, and are provided with quantities of cattle, such as cows, buffaloes, and sheep; also of birds, both those belonging to the hills and those reared at home, and in this in greater abundance than in our tracts. The land has plenty of rice and Indian-corn, grains, beans and other kind of crops which are not sown in our parts; also an infinity of cotton".⁴

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³ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. vi.

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⁴ Ibid., p. 237.

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About the eastern parts of the Vijayanagara Empire we have the following from the writings of Nicholas Pimenta, who went from Tanjore to Mailāpūr in A.D. 1559: "From hence (i.e., Tanjore) we went by land to Saint Thomas, travelling twelve days in a pleasant Country beautified with Groves and Streams, enriched with a fertile soil and wholesome eyre".⁵

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⁵ Nicholas Pimenta, *Purchas, Pilgrims*, X, p. 207.

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This fertile region over which the Vijayanagara monarchs ruled was bounded on three sides by the ocean and on the northern side by an almost impenetrable belt of forest. The justification of the title of *pūrva-paśchima-dakshina-samudrādhipati* (Lord of the Eastern, Western and Southern Oceans) which the Hindu rulers assumed, is to be found in these words of 'Abdur Razzāq, the ambassador from the court of Sultan Shāh Rukh,¹ who stayed in the great capital from the end of April A.D. 1443 till the 5th of December A.D. 1443.² "His dominions (i.e. those of Dēva Rāya II) extended from the frontier of Serendib to the extremities of the country of Kalbergah (i.e., from the Kṛṣṇā river to Cape Comorin)".³ "Inland, his cities and provinces extended over a journey of three months".⁴ As regards the northern frontier, Paes relates thus: "On the extreme east of these two kingdoms (i.e., the kingdom of the Hindus and that of ‘Ādil Shāh) you must know that the country is all covered with scrub, the densest possible to be seen, in which there are great beasts; and (this) forms so strong a fortress for it that it protects both sides; it has its entrances by which they pass from one kingdom to the other".⁵

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¹ Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 89; Sewell, For. Emp., p. 87.

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² Hultzsch, I.A., XX, p. 301.

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³ Sewell, ibid., p. 88.

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⁴ Elliot, ibid., IV, p. 103.

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⁵ Sewell, ibid., pp. 243-4.

Section 2. Flowers, Birds, and Animals of the Empire

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We shall now describe in detail this country and its people in order to appreciate better their achievement when compared with some of the principles of the Hindu writers on polity. To start with, an account of the flora and fauna of the land will be given, since these, especially the latter, have played an important part in the socio-economic and religious as well as political spheres of life.⁶ No one who has carefully examined the neglected sculptured walls of Hampe, notably of the Hazāra Rāma temple, the Achyuta Rāya temple, and the Dasara Dibba, can fail to admire the skill with which the Vijayanagara architects have left behind them a definite evidence of their intimate acquaintance with the animals of the country. It does not appear from the bas-reliefs of Hampe that the people made indiscriminate use of their animals for religious purposes, although it may be said with some measure of truth that the consecration of animals to gods and goddesses as well as the deification of fauna form two important features of the religious system of the Hindus.⁷

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⁶ Sarkar, Positive Background of Hindu Sociology, I., pp. 46-47.

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⁷ Ibid., I, p. 221.

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In order to know how far the people in the middle ages realized the importance of animals for their social and economic purposes, we shall follow, firstly, the travellers from Honnāvūru to Madura, and from Madura to Mailāpūr, in their quest of the animals of Vijayanagara, and then, in a subsequent connection, dwell at length on the method by which the Vijayanagara architects actually made an ample use of their environment in matters of art and religion.

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Varthema, who undertook his travels between the years A.D. 1502 and 1508, while speaking about Honnāvūru, then called by the foreigners, Onore, says: ". . . and some kinds of animals are found here, viz., wild hogs, stags, wolves, lions, and a great number of birds different from ours; there are also many peacocks and parrots there. They have beef of cows, that is real cows, and sheep in abundance. Roses, flowers, fruits are found here all throughout the year".¹ The same traveller visiting Bhaṭkal remarked thus about the animals in that city: "Neither horses nor mules nor asses, are customary here, but there are cows, buffaloes, sheep, oxen and goats".² Duarte Barbosa in A.D. 1514 wrote the following about the animals in Tuḷuva-nāḍu, which he calls Tulinat, and on the Western Ghauts: "This range (i.e., the Western Ghauts in Tuḷuva) is peopled in several parts, with good towns and villages, very luxuriant in water and delicious fruit; and in it there are many wild boars, and large and fine deer, many leopards, ounces, lions, tigers, bears and some animals of an ashy colour, which look like horses, very active and which cannot be caught (i.e. 'the Nil-cow or Blue Cow'). There are serpents with wings, which fly, very venomous, so that their breath and looks kill whatever person places himself very near them, and they always go amongst the trees. There are also many wild elephants; and many stones of geyonzas, amethysts, and soft sapphires, are found in the rivers where they are deposited. They carry them from the mountains to sell them in the Malabar towns, where they are wrought".³

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¹ Varthema, The Itinerary, p. 122, (Trans. by Jones); ibid., p. 50, (Trans. by Temple). ² Varthema, ibid., Jones, p. 120; Temple, p. 49. ³ Barbosa, Stanley, pp. 84-5.

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Nothing could escape the notice of these foreign travellers. John Nieuhof in A.D. 1664 writes thus in his *Voyages and Travels* about the venomous creatures of the extreme south of the Empire: ". . . the Sea shoar abounds in Hares and Partridges, the first of which resemble our Rabbits, their Flesh being tough, yet in Taste like our Hares. . . They have here Mice as big as Cats. . . which dare not approach them, for, if they be pursued, they will settle upon a Chair or Chest, and sitting upright, Fight and Bite like Dogs. . . They will dig underneath the Doors and do considerable mischief to the Merchandise in the Warehouse. . . This Country also produces Serpents and diverse other sorts of venomous Creatures".¹

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¹ Churchill, *A Collection of Voyages and Travels*, II. (John Nieuhof, *Voyages and Travels into Brazil and the East Indies*), p. 297; Visvanatha, *Nayaks*, p. 331.

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From the observations of Paes we can infer that the remarks of Nieuhof about the partridges of the south hold good of Karṇāṭaka proper as well. "In this country," writes Paes, "there are many partridges, but they are not of the same sort or quality as ours: they are like the *estarnas* of Italy.

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"There are three sorts of these; one class has only a small spur such as those of Portugal have; another class has on each foot two very sharp spurs, almost as long and thick as one's finger; the other class is painted, and of these you will find the markets full; as also of quails, and hares, and all kinds of wild fowl, and other birds which live in the lakes and which look like geese. All these birds and game animals they sell alive, and they are very cheap, for they give six or eight partridges for a *vintem*, and of hares they give sometimes two and sometimes one. Of other birds they give more than you can count, for even of the large ones, they give so many that you would hardly pay any attention to the little ones they give you, such as doves and pigeons and the common birds of this country. The doves are of two kinds; some are like those in Portugal, others are as large as thrushes; of the doves they give twelve or fourteen for a *favao*; the pigeons are the same price as the other birds".²

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² Sewell, *For. Emp.*, pp. 257-8.

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Thus, according to the foreign travellers, it seems certain that Vijayanagara possessed one of the many attributes of an ideal capital as described in the mediaeval Hindu books. In the *Sukranīti*, for example, birds are mentioned, along with cattle and other animals, as some of the attractions of the place where the capital city is to be built.¹

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¹ *Sukranīti*, I, ll. 425, 428, p. 28; Sarkar, *Pos. Back.*, I, p. 250.

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As regards domestic economy, Sukrāchārya mentions cows, buffaloes, goats, cats, dogs, sheep and deer.² The most popular of these is the cow. How far it could be said that the Vijayanagara monarchs were orthodox in the matter of maintaining the sanctity of the cow will be seen in a subsequent chapter; for the present we shall say something about the prosperous condition of cattle in the capital. Paes is positive about this vital question of the agriculturists. "For the state of this city", says he, "is not like that of other cities, which often fail of supplies and provisions, for in this city everything abounds; and also the quantity of butter and oil and milk sold every day, that is a thing I cannot refrain from mentioning; and as for the rearing of cows and buffaloes which goes on in the city, there is so much that you will go very far before you find another like it". "There are also in this city places where they sell live sheep; you will see the fields round the city full of them, and also of cows and buffaloes—it is a very pretty sight to see,—and also the many she-goats and kids, and the he-goats so large that they are bridled and saddled. Many sheep are like that also, and boys ride them".³

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² Sarkar, *ibid.*, I, p. 48.

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³ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, pp. 258-60.

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The Hindus of Vijayanagara looked upon the cow with great reverence. To a traveller come from abroad this was something remarkable. Paes writes thus: "For you must know that in this land they do not slaughter oxen or cows; the oxen are beasts of burden and are like sumpter-mules; these carry all their goods. They worship the cows, and have them in their pagodas made in stone, and also bulls; they have many bulls that they present to these pagodas, and these bulls go about the city without any one causing them any harm or loss".⁴ Nuniz, another Portuguese traveller, confirms what Paes says about the devotion with which the people of Vijayanagara looked upon the cow. "These people have such devotion to cows," writes Nuniz, "that they kiss them every day, some they say even on the rump—a thing I do not assert for their honour—and with the droppings of these cows they absolve themselves from their sins as if with holy water".¹ Admitting that the Hindus, according to the opinion of some, went, as they do go now, beyond the bounds of reason in their adoration of the cow, it remains to be seen why they have ever held it in such sacredness. The cow "typifies the all-yielding Earth. All agricultural labour depends on the ox, for no such animal as the cart-horse exists in India. There is a typical 'cow of plenty'—Kāmadhēnu, supposed to yield all desired objects, images of which are commonly seen in the bazaars, and bought as objects of reverence; and the letting loose of a bull properly stamped with the symbols of Siva, in sacred cities like Benares and Gayā, that it may be tended and reverenced by pious persons, is a highly meritorious act".² It is this latter, perhaps, to which Paes refers in his description of the bulls and the pagodas in the capital.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, p. 238.

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¹ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 391. See *infra*, Volume II, Chapter III. Brahmans.

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² Sarkar, *Pos. Back*, 1, p. 22.

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It seems as if the people of Vijayanagara, in spite of their rearing many sheep, were ignorant of the manufacturing of woollen fabrics. We gather this from Paes himself. While describing the king's palace and the "House of Victory", with its beautiful scaffoldings, he says: "Let no one fancy that these cloths were of wool, because there are none such in the country, but they are of very fine cotton".³ Perhaps because of the hot climate the people dispensed with woollen clothes.

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³ Sewell, *ibid.*, p. 264.

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However that may be, to the three animals which have become famous in the Hindu classics, because of their association with the greatness of Indra,—the cow, the horse, and the elephant,⁴—the Vijayanagara princes became very partial. The mediaeval monarchs shared with the ancients the affection which they had for the horse. According to Bāṇa, the people of the times of Harshavardhana had Gōvinda as the tutelary god of the stables,⁵ and the horse was held high in the royal estimation.⁶ The best horses in the Vijayanagara age were mostly imported from Persia. Commenting on the short life of the horses brought from abroad, Barbosa says: "These horses live but for a short time, they are not bred in this country, for all of them are brought there from the kingdom of Ormuz and that of Cambay, and on that account, and for the great need of them, they are worth so much money".¹ Varthema, too, has something to say about the Persian horses. "He (i.e., Narsinga, Emperor of Vijayanagara) is a very powerful king, and keeps up constantly 40,000 horsemen. And you must know that a horse is worth at least 300, 400 and 500 pardai and some are purchased for 800 pardai, because horses are not produced there, neither are many mares found there, because those kings who hold the seaports do not allow them to be brought together".²

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⁴ Sarkar, *ibid.*, p. 223. Indra's elephant is called Airāvata; his horse Uchchaiśravas, and his cow Kāmadughā or Nandini.

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⁵ Bāṇa, *Harshacharita*, p. 51. (Trans. by Cowell and Thomas).

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⁶ *Ibid.*, p. 50.

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¹ Barbosa, Stanley, p. 90.

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² Varthema, Temple, p. 51.

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The wars waged against the Muhammadans demanded the maintenance of an efficient contingent of cavalry; and the Hindu rulers, therefore, did not neglect the care of the horses which they bought at great price. Barbosa gives us some additional information as regards the price of these animals. "The horses", says he, "cost from three to six hundred ducats each, and some of the choicest for his (King's) personal use, nine hundred or a thousand ducats".³

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³ Barbosa, Stanley, pp. 89-90.

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The Central Government solved the question of cavalry in the following manner: the various viceroys, many of whom were given great powers of administration, were ordered to maintain the horses for the king. Defective as this system was, since it laid the king at the mercy of his nobles as regards the most important part of the army, the times, and, perhaps, the wealth of the nobles, needed such a procedure, which does not seem to have caused any inconvenience or danger to the Vijayanagara Emperor. "These horses", according to Barbosa, "are distributed amongst the great lords who are responsible for them, and keep them for the gentry and knights to whom the king bids them to be given: and he gives to each knight a horse and a groom and a slave girl, and for his personal expenses four or five pardaos of gold per month, according to who he is; and, besides that, each day's provisions for the horse and groom; and they send to the kitchen for the rations both for the elephants and horses. The kitchens are very large and numerous, they contain many cauldrons of copper, and several officials who cook the food of the elephants and horses; which, it must be said, is rice, chick-peas, and other vegetables. In all this there is much order and arrangement, and if the knight to whom the king has given a horse cares for it and treats it well, they take away that one and give him another and a better one; and if he is negligent, they take his away and give him another that is worse. And thus all the king's horses and elephants are well fed and cared for, at his cost; and the grandees, to whom he gives a great quantity of them, act in the same manner with their knights".¹

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¹ Barbosa, Stanley, p. 90.

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The fine breed of the days of Barbosa seems to have degenerated into the puny ones of the Ikkēri times which formed an epilogue to Vijayanagara history. Pietro della Valle in A.D. 1623 thus describes them: "All the rest of us rode upon Horses of the place, which are of very small size, and were sent to us for that purpose accoutr'd after their manner, with saddles pretty high to look upon, but to me very inconvenient; for they have bows and cruppers very high, and are all of hard wood, without any stuffing but with sharp wreath'd edges, cover'd with black or red Cloth lay'd with bands of Gold, or yellow, or other colour; in the cruppers are many carv'd ornaments of this figure [Figure: ], besides certain extravagant tassels hanging down to the stirrups; and, were they not so hard, they would be neither unhandsome nor unsafe to ride upon".²

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² Pietro della Valle, Travels, II, pp. 249-50.

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The importance of horses and elephants on state occasions is described by Paes. While narrating the events of a great Hindu festival, he speaks about the House of Victory thus: "You must know that when it is morning the king comes to this House of Victory, and betakes himself to the room where the idol is with its Brahmans, and he performs his prayers and ceremonies. Outside the house are some of his favourites, and on the square are many dancing-girls dancing. In the verandahs round the square are many captains and chief people who come there in order to see; and on the ground, near the platform of the house, are eleven horses with handsome and well-arranged trappings, and behind them are four beautiful elephants with many adornments. After the king has entered inside he comes out, and with him a Brahman who takes in his hand a basket full of white roses and approaches the king on the platform, and the king, taking three handfuls of these roses, throws them to the horses, and after he has thrown them he takes a basket of perfumes and acts towards them as though he would cense them; and when he has finished doing this he reaches towards the elephants and does the same to them. And when the king has finished this, the Brahman takes the basket and descends to the platform, and from thence puts those roses and other flowers on the heads of all the horses and this done, returns to the king".¹

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¹ Sewell, For. Emp., p. 266

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The royal horses, which were branded with the king's mark,² shared this unique honour at the hands of the monarch along with the State elephants. The price of the elephants was naturally exorbitant. According to Barbosa, "the elephants, (were paid) at the price of fifteen hundred to two thousand ducats each, because they are very great and well-fitted for war, and for taking about with him (the king) continually for state".³

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² Ibid., p. 381.

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³ Barbosa, Stanley, p. 89.

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Like the horse, the elephant was an animal that was imported into the country. The land which supplied Vijayanagara with elephants was, according to 'Abdur Razzāq, Ceylon.⁴ "And in this island (of Ceylon) are reared many wild elephants which the King has caught and tamed. These he sells to the merchants of Charamandel, of Narsingua (Vijayanagara), Malabar, Daquem and Cambaia, who came hither to seek them".⁵ In these words does Barbosa confirm what 'Abdur Razzāq says about the country from where elephants were imported into Vijayanagara. Why this animal, which has good claims to be called a characteristic member of the fauna of India, should have been imported from Ceylon is a matter that cannot be understood. For among the places from where Indians brought elephants, as given in the Sukraniti and in the Ā'in-Akbarī, Ceylon is not mentioned at all.⁶ The only explanation perhaps is that since the central regions of India, which were famous for their elephants, were in the hands of the Muhammadans, the Vijayanagara emperors were naturally inclined to turn their minds to Ceylon in the south, which could be approached from any one of the numerous ports of the Empire.

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⁴ Major, India, p. 29; Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 111.

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⁵ Barbosa, Dames, II, p. 113.

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⁶ Sarkar, Pol. Back., I, p. 285.

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It will be interesting to see something in detail about these animals, which figure so prominently in the designs of the Vijayanagara architects. The elephants were caught in the following manner in the days of 'Abdur Razzāq. "The manner in which they catch the elephants", says he, "is this: they dig a pit in the way by which the animal usually goes to drink, which they cover over lightly. When an elephant falls into it, no man is allowed to go near the animal for two or three days; at the end of that period a man comes up and strikes him several hard blows with a bludgeon, when suddenly another man appears to drive off the striker, and seizing the bludgeon, throws it away. He then retires, after placing forage before the elephant. This practice is repeated for several days; the first lays on the blows, and the second drives him away, until the animal begins to have a liking for his protector, who by degrees approaches the animal, and places before it the fruits which elephants are partial to, and scratches and rules the animal, until by this kind of treatment, he becomes tame, and submits his neck to the chain".¹ In the skillful practice of catching and taming an elephant, the Vijayanagara people did not introduce a new art. So far back as the times of Chandragupta, the importance of the elephant in the life of the people was seen in the institution of a law by which "the killing of an elephant was visited even with capital punishment."²

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¹ Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 110; Major, India, pp. 27-8. Cf. With the ancient method as given by Megasthenes, Book III. Fragment XXXVI; Sarkar, Pos. Back. I, p. 280.

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² Sarkar, ibid., I, p. 280.

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In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in southern India the elephants were housed in stables, and were looked after by a large number of officials, who maintained order even in the matter of feeding them. 'Abdur Razzāq informs us that the stables of these animals were opposite the offices of the Minister.³ The custom of having separate stables for the royal elephants continued till the days of the Ikkēri Nāyaks. Pietro della Valle speaks of them while narrating the events of the reign of Veṅkaṭappa Nāyaka.¹ As regards the details of the manner by which they fed the elephants in Vijayanagara times, we have to read the accounts of 'Abdur Razzāq. "Each has a separate stall; the walls are very strong and high, and are covered with strong wood. The chains on the necks and backs of the elephants are firmly attached to the beams above; if the chains were bound any other way, the elephants would easily detach themselves. Chains are also bound upon the fore-legs".² This is how they were fed: "Every morning this animal (i.e., the white elephant of the king) is brought into the presence of the monarch; for to cast eye upon him is thought a favourable omen. The balance elephants are fed on kichū, which after being cooked, is turned out from the cauldron before the elephant, and after being sprinkled with salt and moist sugar, is made into a mass, and then balls of about two mans (maunds) are dipped in butter, and are then placed by the keepers in the mouths of the animals. If any of these ingredients is forgotten, the elephant is ready to kill its keeper, and the king also severely punishes his negligence. They are fed twice a day in this way".³ We have already noted the remark of Barbosa that in all this there was "much order and arrangement".

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³ Elliot, ibid., p. 109.

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¹ Pietro dalla Valle, *Travels*, II, p 265.

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² Elliot, *Hist. of India*, IV, p. 110.

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³ Ibid., pp. 109-10.

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The people who looked with such great care after the feeding of the elephants did not neglect the matter of breeding them. The Persian ambassador informs us that "between the first and second enceinte of the city and between the northern and western faces the breeding of the elephants take place, and it is here the young ones are produced".⁴

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⁴ Ibid., p. 109. Cf. Varthema: 'The said elephant, when he wishes to generate, goes into a secret place, that is, into the water in certain marshes, and they unite and generate like human beings'. Temple, p. 53; Jones, p. 129.

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Man driven by the desire to possess more wealth and power must have been tyrannical in those days; and elephants must have broken their bondage, pursuing their mahouts as they have done in our own times. 'Abdur Razzāq gives us a story of how an elephant ran for its freedom from its keeper; and Varthema adds his remarks on the intelligence, discretion, and strength of these animals. These two accounts speak as much for the wisdom of the elephants as for the astuteness with which the Vijayanagara people curbed them. The story as given by 'Abdur Razzāq is the following:

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"They tell the following story of an elephant that fled from his bondage, and absconded to the deserts and the jungles. His keeper, in pursuit of him, dug pits in the path which he was likely to frequent. The elephant, apprehensive of his artifices, seizing a club, and holding it like a staff in his trunk, kept feeling and sounding the earth with great caution as he advanced; and so arrived at the drinking ford. The elephant-drivers despaired of taking him; but as the king was very anxious to have him caught, one of the keepers mounted a tree under which the elephant was likely to go, and there lay hid, till, at the moment of his passing underneath, he threw himself down on the back of the animal, and seizing the strong cord which they strap over the back and chest of those animals, and which had not yet been detached, he held it fast within his grasp. In spite of all the turnings and motions which the elephant made to escape and in spite of his lashing with his trunk, it was all of no avail. When he began rolling upon his sides, the keeper leapt upon the flank uppermost, and meanwhile struck the animal severe sharp blows upon the head, so that, being at last exhausted, the beast gave in, and submitted his body to the bonds, and his neck to the fetters. The keeper brought the elephant into the presence of the king, who bestowed a handsome reward upon him".¹

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¹ Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, pp. 110-11.

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Varthema's observations are also to be noted. "It occurs to me here", says he, "to touch upon a subject worthy of notice, viz., the discretion, the intelligence, and the strength of the elephant. We will first say in which manner he fights. When an elephant goes into battle he carries a saddle, in the same manner as they are borne by the mules of the kingdom of Naples, fastened underneath by two iron chains. On each side of the said saddle he carries a large and very strong wooden box, and in each box there go three men. On the neck of the elephant, between the boxes and the plank, a man sits astride who speaks to the elephant, for the said elephant possesses more intelligence than any other animal in the world; so that there are in all seven persons who go upon the said elephant; and they go armed with shirts of mail, and with bows and lances, swords and shields. And in like manner they arm the elephant with mail, especially the head and the trunk. They fasten to the trunk a sword two braccia long, as thick and wide as the hand of a man. And in that way they fight. And he who sits upon his neck orders: 'Go forward', or 'Turn back', 'Strike this one', 'Strike that one', 'Do not strike any more', and he understands as though he were a human being. But if at any time they are put to flight it is impossible to restrain them; for this race of people are great masters of the art of making fireworks; and these animals have a great dread of fire, and through this means they sometimes take to flight. But in every way this animal is the most discreet in the world and the most powerful. I have seen three elephants bring a ship from the sea to the land, in a manner I will tell you. When I was in Cananor, some Moorish merchants brought a ship on shore in this manner, after the custom of Christians. They beach ships the prow foremost, but here they put the side of the vessel foremost, and under the said ship they put three pieces of wood, and on the side next the sea I saw three elephants kneel down and with their heads push the ship on to dry land. Many say that the elephant has no joints, and I say that it is true that they have not the joints so high as other animals, but they have them low. . . and with this trunk I have seen them pull down a branch from a tree which twenty-four of our men could not pull to the ground with a rope, and the elephant tore it down with three pulls. . . .So that, in conclusion, I say that I have seen some elephants which have more understanding, and more discretion and intelligence, than any kind of people I have met with".¹

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¹ Varthema, Temple, pp. 51-3.

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From all these observations of different eye-witnesses, we are to conclude that the people of Vijayanagara must have been thoroughly conversant with all the rules as laid down in the classical books on elephants and their training, like the Pālakāpya, Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra, the Bṛhatsaṃhitā and the like.²

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² Sarkar, Pos. Back, I, p. 287, passim.

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The Vijayanagara monarchs maintained elephants for purposes of State, war and trade. The State elephant is thus described by 'Abdur Razzāq: "The King has a white elephant exceedingly large, with here and there as many as thirty spots of colour".¹ We shall see later on how elephants were made use of in the meting out of justice by the Vijayanagara administrators. It is Paes who informs us that the monarch "had eight hundred elephants attached to his person", and that the care of these elephants was given over to the captains.² We are unable for the present to form any estimate of the volume of foreign trade in connection with horses and elephants in Vijayanagara times.

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¹ Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 109.

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² Sewell, For. Emp., p. 281.

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Besides these two animals there was another one which had been since the days of Harshavardhana a native of the land. Indeed there is reason to believe that the camel has played a small but significant part in the economic life of the people from the times of Kauṭilya.³ Bāṇa acquaints us with the fact that the camel was used as a swift courier in the 7th century A.D. Harshavardhana foreboding his father's death, "in hot haste he despatched express couriers and swift camel riders one after another to procure his brother's coming".⁴ These animals have been so faithfully represented on the walls of Vijayanagara that it would not be wrong to say that they must have been an extremely common sight in the streets of the capital. From the sculptures at Hampe it can be made out that camels were used for carrying persons, and perhaps, loads as well. Judged by the profusion with which they are carved on the walls of the City of Victory, it may be said that the persons who used them must have been powerful and prosperous.⁵ Their introduction as well as that of the horse was due to the intimate relations with foreigners, especially with the Muhammadans. In fact, Nuniz relates that the ambassador from the court of 'Adil Shāh, by name "Matucotam", brought with him one hundred and fifty horses and pack animals, among which were certain camels.⁶ It is this fact, perhaps, which is illustrated in the sculptures of the capital in which a drummer, with his drum slung round his waist, is followed by persons one of whom is blowing a trumpet, and by a small person who is leading two camels that have two Muhammadans dancing behind them. In the days of Dēva Rāya II it is said that the great general whom the king selected for his southern campaigns, called Nāgama Nāyaka, possessed an imperial army which was made up of 40,000 horse, 4,000 elephants, and 10,000 camels.¹

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³ Sarkar, (quoting Law, Studies in Hindu Polity, p. 27) Pos. Back., I. p. 244.

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⁴ Bāṇa, Harshacharita, p. 145.

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⁵ Cf. Sarkar, ibid., I, pp. 244-5.

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⁶ Sewell, ibid., p. 350.

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¹ Taylor, O.H.MSS., II, p. 3; Rangachari, I.A., XLIII, p. 191.

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Foreigners with Horses at Vijayanagara (middle row.)

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We must not omit to mention asses, which also were used as beasts of burden. In the days of Paes they were common in the streets of the capital.²

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² Sewell, For. Emp., p. 238.

Section 3. The Means of Communication

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Ancient writers on polity have laid down definite rules as regards the means of communication between the city (pura) and the country (janapada). Although it is not possible at the present stage of our investigations to say in what respects the Vijayanagara monarchs and people followed in every detail the directions of the Hindu writers, yet it is not improbable that in most matters connected with the general well-being of the State, scrupulous care was bestowed by them on the observance of such of the rules that were most suited to their times. Hindu theorists like Śukrāchārya have, as is well known to students of Hindu polity, carefully considered the question of linking the capital with the country, and, consequently, the topic of building good roads for the comfort and convenience of travellers and for State purposes. An efficient government of a large empire like that of Vijayanagara for a period of nearly three centuries presupposes, in addition to other things, the existence of some means of communication. In this section we shall see to what extent the Vijayanagara people solved the question of land and water transport.

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The Vijayanagara Empire embraced the lands of the Karṇāṭaka and Tamil peoples; and to neither of these was it a new thing to traverse the seas. The Tamilians were an ancient maritime people whose influence had reached the shores of Sumatra.¹ In the days of Rājēndra I, a great army seems to have been sent across the ocean to Burma.² As regards the people of Karṇāṭaka, the activities of the Vira Baṇajas were so varied and extensive as to justify their claims to have penetrated "into the regions of the six continents" "by land routes and water routes".³ From the Tamilians and the Karṇāṭakas was handed down the impulse to trade with trans-oceanic people in the Vijayanagara age. Water transport in the mediaeval days was regulated by boats, ships, and by the maintenance of a system of ferries and fords.

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¹ Kanakasabhai, *The Tamils 1800 Years Ago*, pp. 11, 38, 185.

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² S. K. Aiyangar, *Ancient India*, p. 130.

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³ E.C., VII, Sk. 118, p. 86. See infra, Volume II, Chapter II, Section on Guilds.

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Evidence as regards the overseas trade in the Vijayanagara times may be gathered both from the accounts of Hindu and foreign writers. According to the *Harivilāsam* of Śrinātha it appears almost certain that Vijayanagra could boast of enterprising traders.⁴ This is corroborated by the remark of 'Abdur Razzāq that Vijayanagara possessed "300 seaports, every one of which is equal to Kālikot (Calicut)"—a port which in the opinion of that same traveller, was populated by bold navigators, and which was one of the greatest shipping centres of the world.⁵ From the inscriptions we can make out that at least in two parts of the Empire the Vijayanagara monarchs maintained fleets. An inscription dated A.D. 1412 speaks of Seṭṭi Gauḍa, who is styled *Navigada-Prabhu* (Lord of Ships), at Maṅgaḷūr (Mangalore).⁶ There is no doubt that in the southern part of the Empire there was a navy. This can be inferred from an inscription dated Śaka 1361 (A.D. 1439-40) which mentions Lakkaṇṇa Daṇṇāyaka Oḍeyar, the *Lord of the Southern Ocean*.⁷ We may suppose that the eastern coast of the Empire was also under the jurisdiction of a high official from the fact of Viraśri Sōvaṇṇa Oḍeyar having been mentioned as the *Lord of the Eastern Ocean* in Śaka 1275 (A.D. 1353-4).⁸

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⁴ S. K. Aiyangar, *The Sources of Vijayanagara History*, pp. 4, 57.

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⁵ Elliot, *Hist. of India*, IV, p. 103.

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⁶ E.C., VIII, Sb. 467, p. 78.

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⁷ 26 of 1913.

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⁸ 500 of 1906.

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But the inscription which gives us positive evidence of an intimate acquaintance of the people with the art of shipbuilding, prior to the advent of the Portuguese, carries us to the year A.D. 1413, when the following was written about the Jaina sages: "May they dwell in my heart—the Tīrthaṅkaras, who taking on board the ship of sacred lore,—possessed of all brilliant jewels, freed from bilge-water (otherwise saving the ignorant), containing cabins of various modes of argument, painted with the lime (or nectar) of the syāt-kāra, and furnished with the high mast of compassion for living creatures—others (found) in the middle of the ocean, of worldly existence—carry them over to the land of immortality".¹ According to Barbosa, however, southern India got its ships built also in the Maldio (Maldive) Islands, where many great ships were made of palm trunks sewn together with threads, having keels and being of great burden. "They also build smaller boats for rowing, like bargantins or fustas; these are the most graceful in the world, right well-built and extremely light".²

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¹ E.C., II, No. 258, p. 116. (Second Ed). The art of building merchant-ships can, as is well known, be dated to the earliest times of Tamil history. B.A.S.

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² Barbosa, Dames, II, pp. 107-8. Cf. Chablani, Economic Conditions, p. 64.

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River transport was a source of revenue to the monarchs. The trade of the people of southern India was retarded to some extent by the rugged beds of the rivers, especially near the capital; nevertheless, it is interesting to note that by means of ferries, fords, and a peculiar type of boat, the Vijayanagara people solved successfully the question of the rivers. They were careful to make the rivers highways of traffic and to remove the impediments presented by them as advised by Śukra.³ In this as well as in other matters, old usuage was allowed to have its own way. The custom of ferrying people across a river with and without a fee was prevalent even in the times of Rājēndra Chōḷa Dēva.⁴ To facilitate free ferrying, fords were sometimes constructed at the royal bidding. Thus in about A.D. 1383 Kumāra Kampaṇa ordered the building of easy fords across the Tuṅgabhadrā.⁵ The ferrymen and their boats, especially near the capital, have figured in the inscriptions and in the accounts of foreigners. A ferryman was called harugola and a boatman ambiga; the peculiar boat of the former was known as harigōlu, and the raft went by the name of teppa.¹ The harigōlu was a coracle or round basket-boat, covered with hides, commonly used in Mysore at the ferries. These round boats are mentioned so late as A.D. 1671 when Keladi Sōmaśēkhara Nāyaka caused to be written, and gave to Harugōl Mudaliṅga and the other boatmen of the Tuṅgabhadrā river, near Simoge, a copper-śāsana as follows: "Whereas you have applied for the grant of an umbali,—so that you may remain under the control of the Simoge fort, and keeping harigōls, ferry across passengers going to and fro, taking money from them, and will when necessity arises provide abundance of harigōls, for the service of the palace—we have granted land to you etc".² This inscription of Sōmaśēkhara Nāyaka enables us to conjecture that the harigōls of Anegundi must also have been under the direct supervision of the governor of Anegundi, since the Tuṅgabhadrā joined that ancient city with the capital at a vulnerable point. Our supposition is strengthened by a lithic record of A.D. 1453 which confirms a grant made to ambigaru,³ and especially by an unpublished inscription dated A.D. 1556 which records that the ferrymen of Anegundi were entitled by royal permission to a fee of one kāśu per head.³

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³ Śukrācharya, Nītisāra, IV, iv. ll. 125-29, p. 166; Sarkar, Pol. Back., I, p. 35.

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⁴ South Indian Ins., III, P. I, p. 15; Arch. S. of W. India, IV, p. 100.

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⁵ My. Arch. Report for 1920, p. 36.

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¹ Rice, My. Ins. p. 26. n.

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² E.C., VII, Sh, 3. p. 4.

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³ My. Arch. Report for 1920, p. 16. I am indebted to Dr. M. H. Krishna, Director of Archaeological Researches, Mysore, for this information, vide his letter dated 13-12-1929.

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What interests us more is the manner in which these curious conveyances are rowed. Paes gives us an account of the purpose to which these round basket-boats were put, and the skill with which they were used. "A captain lives in this city (Anegundi) for the king," says Paes. "People cross to this place by boats which are round like baskets: inside they are made of cane, and outside are covered with leather; they are able to carry fifteen or twenty persons, and even horses and oxen can cross in them if necessary; but for the most part these animals swim across the river. Men row them with a sort of paddle, and the boats are always turning round, as they cannot go straight like others; in all the kingdom where there are streams there are no other boats but these".⁴ That Paes was correct in his supposition that these boats were used in other parts of the kingdom is proved by the remark of Nuniz who, while describing the activities of the Sultan (Muhammad Tughlaq), narrates that that monarch after conquering "Ballagate" (Bālāghāṭ, or the region above the Ghats) passed into "the kingdom of Bisnaga" across "the river of Duree" "in basket boats without finding any one to oppose the passage".¹

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⁴ Sewell, For. Emp., p. 259.

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¹ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 292, also p. 293.

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There is every reason to believe that on the southern and eastern shores the fisher-folk swept the seas with their catamarans, which, however, do not figure prominently in Vijayanagara days. Nevertheless from a letter dated A.D. 1700 from the Jesuit Father Peter Martin we learn that he was met, on his approaching the southern coast, by a fisherman "sitting on a catimaron, or several thick Pieces of Wood fastened together in the Form of a Raft".² These catamarans (kaḷḷumaram) are to be classed with the leppa mentioned above.

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² Lockman, *The Travels of the Jesuits*, I, p. 358.

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In spite of the foregoing observations made by the foreigners and the Hindu stone-masons, our information is inadequate as regards the manner in which the Vijayanagara monarchs dealt with the important question of ocean transport. In fact, it may not be far wrong to state that they failed to handle satisfactorily this vital topic of oceanic trade and maritime activity. The Vijayanagara people were essentially a land people; and to them as well as to their rulers, the problem of land transport seemed of greater significance than that of water transport. What a profound effect this had on the fate of the Hindu Empire can only be understood when we follow the thread of political events that ushered in the maritime powers of the Occident on the southern, eastern and western parts of the peninsula. But in judging the Vijayanagara people due consideration is also to be given to the fact that, lacking as they were in all the modern means of transport, they succeeded in maintaining, according to the standards of the age, a brisk commercial and social life in all parts of their Empire.

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