Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8.s2.61

v1.c8.s2.61

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.