Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8.s3.2

v1.c8.s3.2

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.