Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8.s2.31

v1.c8.s2.31

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