Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8.s1.27

v1.c8.s1.27

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