Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8.s2.5

v1.c8.s2.5

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