Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8.s4: Section 4. The Cities of the Empire
Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8.s4
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Section 4. The Cities of the Empire
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The records of foreign travellers are full of remarks on the briskness of trade and the consequent prosperity of the different parts of the Vijayanagara Empire. They write in almost all instances after personal observation of the commercial life in the cities, some of which, like those in the south, could lay good pretensions to antiquity. The Vijayanagara monarchs did not introduce the system of building towns.⁶ To the Tamils it was already a familiar art. But in mediaeval days a new life was infused into the cities of southern India. Whether on the western, eastern or southern coast, or in the interior, these centres of commercial and intellectual activity contributed to the wealth of the Empire. Barbosa gives us a list of "good-sized" cities. They were the following: Mergen (Mirjān), Honor (Honnāvūru), Baticala (Bhaṭkal), Majandur (Baindūr), Bacanor (Bārakūr), Bracelore (Basrūr), Mangalor (Mangalore), Cumbola (Kumbla).¹ Faria y Sousa confirms Barbosa about "Onor, Baticale, Barcalor, Baranor and others on the Province of Canara subject to the king of Bisnaga".²
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⁶ Read C. P. Venkataramanaya, Town Planning in Ancient Dekhan, p. 5 seq.; Binode Behari Dutt, Town Planning in Ancient India, (1925).
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¹ Barbosa, Dames, II, pp. 185-97.
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² Faria y Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, I, p. 95. (Trans. by Capt. John Stevens).
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Among these Onor or Honor or Honnāvūru was well known for its antiquity. It was the chief city of the Hanuvara Dvīpa over which ruled the famous ally of Rāma, Hanumanta.³ In about A.D. 1170 the great minister Heggaḍe Lakumayya, having freed the kingdom of his royal master Hoysala Narasimha from enemies, gave grants of land for the worship of the god Keśava of Honnāvūru.⁴ Towards the end of the fourteenth century this city was under a Muhammadan governor named Jamāl-ud-din Muhammad Ibn Hasan, who was, according to Ibn Baṭūṭah, "subject to an infidel king, whose name is Haraib" (i.e., Hariappa Oḍeyar).⁵ Soon the little town rose into prominence as a centre of foreign trade. It was under a Vijayanagara viceroy whom Varthema styles "a pagan and is subject to the king of Narsinga"⁶ (i.e., Vijayanagara). This traveller has, as we have already seen in connection with the description of the fauna of the country, something to say about the general condition of the city. "There is," says he, "a great deal of rice here, as is usual in India, and some kinds of animals. . . . The air of this place is most perfect, and the people here are longer lived than we are".⁷ It came into some prominence in the history of the Portuguese and their relations with the Vijayanagara monarchs. Dom Francisco de Almeida burnt it in A.D.
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³ Rice, My. Ins., Intr., p. xxx.
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⁴ E.C., V. P.I. Hn. 66, p. 20.
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⁵ Ibn Baṭūṭah, Travels, pp. 165-6. (Lee.)
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⁶ Varthema, Jones, pp. 121-2.
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⁷ Varthema, Temple, p. 50.
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1505.¹ Soon after in A.D. 1510 "the King of Garsopa and Timoja had an interview with Albuquerque" at that place.² The Portuguese captured it in A.D. 1569;³ and it was still under their influence in the days of Pietro della Valle.⁴
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¹ Danvers, The Portuguese in India, I, p. 120.
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² Ibid., p. 207.
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³ Ibid., p. 547.
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⁴ Pietro della Valle, Travels, II, p. 202, n (7).
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Another flourishing city on the same coast was Bhatkal (Baṭṭakaḷa). The travellers have a word of praise for it. Varthema says that "Bathacala" was "a very noble city of India", "walled, and very beautiful, and almost a mile distant from the sea. Its king is subject to the King of Narsinga. The city has no seaport, the only approach to it being a small river".⁵ Barbosa supplements this account with more details. He writes: "This town is situated in level country, it is very populous, and not walled; it is surrounded with many gardens, very good estates, and very fresh and abundant water".⁶ Though in this account he contradicts Varthema's remark that the city had a wall, yet he admits that Bhatkal was "large town", "of very great trade in merchandise, inhabited by many Moors and Gentiles, very commercial people. And at this port congregate many ships from Orguz (Ormuz), to load very good white rice, sugar in powder, of which there is much in this country, for they do not know how to make it in loaves; and it is worth at the rate of two hundred and forty maravedis the arroba (i.e., quarter of hundredweight)." About its viceroy he says: "This town produces much revenue to the King. Its governor is a Gentile: he is named Damaqueti. He is very rich in money and jewels. The King of Narsinga has given this place and others to a nephew of his, who rules and governs them, and lives in great State, and calls himself king, but is in obedience to the king his uncle".⁷ To the Portuguese this was an important centre of influence. Barbosa speaks of the ships bound for Aden, in the harbour of Bhatkal, "risking themselves, although it is forbidden them by the Portuguese", who prohibited the importation of spices and drugs. Bhatkal paid an annual tribute to the king of Portugal.⁸
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⁵ Varthema, Jones, 119; Temple, 49.
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⁶ Barbosa, Stanley, p. 81.
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⁷ Ibid., pp. 79-80; Dames, I, pp. 187-8.
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⁸ Ibid., p. 81; Dames, ibid., pp. 189-90.
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Another city of some commercial importance on the same coast was Aṅkōlā. Varthema calls it "Centacola".¹ In the times of Caesar Frederick it belonged to the Queen of Gērsoppe, whom he calls "Queen of Gargopam", who paid tribute to the king of Bezeneger (Vijayanagara).²
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¹ Varthema, Jones, p. 120, n. (2).
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² Caesar Frederick, Purchas, Pilgrims, X, p. 99.
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But a more important town than Aṅkōlā was Maṅgalūr (Mangalore). In the days of 'Abdur Razzāq, it marked the limits of the Vijayanagara Empire on the Malabar coast.³ When Barbosa visited it, it was already a flourishing town. He writes thus about it: "The banks of this river (i.e., Nētrāvati) are very pretty, and very full of woods and palm trees, and are very thickly inhabited by Moors and Gentiles, and studded with fine buildings and houses of prayer of the Gentiles, which are very large and enriched with large revenues. There are also many mosques, where they greatly honour Mahomed".⁴ As we remarked in an earlier connection, Maṅgalūr was the headquarters of the Vijayanagara fleet on the Tuḷuva coast under its officer who was called Nāvigada-Prabhu (Lord of Ships). In A.D. 1514, however, it was looted by the Portuguese captain, Luiz de Mello de Silva.⁵
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³ Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 103; Sewell, For. Emp., p. 88.
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⁴ Barbosa, Stanley, p. 83.
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⁵ Burgess, Chronology, p. 38.
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The boundaries of the Vijayanagara Empire to the north of Malabar, however, in the days of Barbosa, were marked by the small town of Kumbla. ". . . here the Kingdom of Narsinga comes to end along the coast of this province of Tulināt (i.e., Tuḷu-nāḍu)".⁶
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⁶ Barbosa, ibid., p. 83; Dames, I, pp. 195-6.
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There were prosperous cities in Tuḷuva besides Maṅgalūr. The chief among them was Saṅgitapura, also named Hāḍuhaḷḷi. An inscription dated A.D. 1488 sings its praise thus: ". . . the abode of fortune, having splendid chaityālayas, a place of descent in the female line, inhabited by happy, generous, and pleasure-loving people, filled with elephants, horses, and powerful warriors, resplendent with lofty mansions is Saṅgitapura, worthy of all praise. With bands of clever persons, poets, disputers, orators, and declaimers, a place for the production of elegant literature, renowned for all the fine arts, was Saṅgitapura".¹ That this was no "conventional bombast" which the engraver wrote will be evident when we shall see something about the literary activities of the times.
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¹ E.C., VIII, Sa. 163, p. 123.
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Both according to foreign travellers and inscriptions, the regions on the Western Ghauts were dotted with rich cities. Speaking in general about these, Barbosa remarks: "This range is peopled in several parts, with good towns and villages, very luxuriant in water and delicious fruit".² Among such thriving cities mention must be made Uddhare. It was the capital of the Eighteen Kaṃpaṇas. An inscription dated A.D. 1380 says the following about it: *adu nānā-dēva-harmya-pryutav atula-vāpilaṭakāñchitam sampadamam tāld-irppa viprādy-akhila-jana-samētam lasat-purpa-vāṭi viditōdyānādi-yuktam prakaṭa-kalam-jāla-prasū tātōrppuda sakala-muni-prēma-dharmmābhirāmam ene mere Uddhare.*³
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² Barbosa, Stanley, p. 84.
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³ E.C., VIII, Sb. 152, text, p. 22.
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Equally famous was another city, Gērasoppe. About A.D. 1274 Ādiyaṇṇa, son of Gōvinda Seṭṭi of Gērasape, and lay disciple of Prabhāchandra Bhaṭṭāraka Dēva, granted as a perpetual endowment four gadyāṇas to provide for milk for the daily anointment of Gommaṭa Dēva at Belgola.⁴ From the thirteenth century onwards Gērasoppe constantly exerts a steady influence in the commercial, literary, and religious life of the people, "On the southern petal of the great lotus Jambu-dvipa is the Bhārata country, in which, on the eastern side of the western ocean, is the great Taulava country. In it, on the south bank of the Ambu river, shining like the *śri-puṇḍra* (or central sectarian mark on the forehead of Vaiṣṇavas) is Kṣēmapura, (i.e., Gērasoppe), like Purandhara (Indra's city), with glittering gōpuras (or temple towers). With five Jina Chaityas, king's palaces, abode of yōgis, lines of merchants' houses, with crowds of people devoted to acts of merit and liberality, groups of gurus and yatis, bands of poets and learned men, multitudes of excellent Bhavyas (or Jainas)—what city in the world was so celebrated as Gērasoppe?"⁵ No wonder this city, which was thus praised in about A.D. 1560, figured conspicuously in the annals of the Portuguese in India under its able rulers of Tuḷuva origin.¹
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⁴ E.C., II. No. 247. p. 104. (2nd ed.).
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⁵ E.C., VIII, Sa. 55. p. 100.
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¹ Danvers, *The Portuguese*, I. 191, and passim; *My. Arch. Report for 1916-17*, p. 69. As a famous water-fall, this place has received praise even at the hands of modern travellers. Forbes, *I.A.*, XLII, pp. 285-6; Bowring, *Eastern Experiences*, p. 115; Rice, *My. Gaz.*, II, p. 470, seq. (*Rev.* ed.); *J.A.S.B.*, XIV. P. I. p. 421.
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Bhāraṅgi was another mountain city which may be noted. It was in Nāgarakhaṇḍa, and, according to an inscription dated A.D. 1415, it was also a centre of pious and learned men. "Among the islands Jambu-dvīpa, and among countries Kannaḍa country, are distinguished for beauty, wealth, and truthfulness. In Jambu-dvīpa in the Karṇāṭaka-vishaya, adorned with all manner of trees (named) is Nāgarakhaṇḍa. A head-ornament to that nāḍu is Bhāraṅgi, filled with wise Bhavyas (or Jainas), learned men, just men and wealthy people, so that it seemed the abode of goddess of fortune".²
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² *E.C.*, VIII, Sb. 329, p. 58; Sb. 330, p. 59.
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That the praise which the Hindu composers gave to these cities filled with good buildings and intelligent people was not exaggerated is shown by the account of another important city on the hills, Bidrūr (Bednore), which 'Abdur Razzāq saw on his way to the great Hindu capital. On leaving a huge mountain, "the base of which cast a shadow on the sun", says he, "and whose sword (peak) sheathed itself in the neck of Mars", and crossing a forest, he arrived at "the city of Bidrūr, of which the houses were like palaces and its beauties like houries. In Bidrūr there is a temple so high that you can see it at a distance of several parasangs. It is impossible to describe it without fear of being charged with exaggeration. In brief, in the middle of the city, there is an open space extending for about ten jaribs, charming as the garden of Iram. In it there are flowers of every kind, like leaves. In the middle of the garden there is a terrace (kursi), composed of stones, raised to the height of a man; so exquisitely cut are they and joined together with so much nicety, that you would say it was one slab of stone, or a piece of blue firmament which had fallen upon the earth. In the middle of this terrace there is a lofty building comprising a cupola of blue stone, on which are cut figures, arranged in three rows, tier above tier. Such reliefs and pictures could not have been represented upon it by the sharp style and deceptive pencil. From the top to the bottom there was not a space of the palm of a hand on that lofty building which was not adorned with paintings of Europe and Khatā (China). The building was constructed on four terraces of the length of thirty yards, and of the breadth of twenty yards, and its height was about fifty yards. All the other edifices, small and great, are carved and painted with exceeding delicacy. In that temple, night and day, after prayers unaccepted by God, they sing and play musical instruments, enjoy concerts, and give feasts. All the people of the village enjoy pensions and allowances from the building; for offerings are presented to it from distant cities. In the opinion of these irreligious men, it is the ka'ba of the infidels".¹
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¹ Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, pp. 104-5.
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Beyond the Western Ghauts too the land could boast of prosperous towns. Barbosa continues to remark on the state of the country thus: "After passing this mountain range, the country is almost entirely plain, very fertile and abundantly supplied in the inland districts, which belong to the kingdom of Narsinga in which there are many cities and villages and forts. . .".² One of these last mentioned was Eragana-halli or Koṭe Eragana-halli in the Koṅgunāḍu, nine miles west of Tālavāḍi, in the forest country between the Satyamangala tāluka of the Coimbatore district and the Chāmarājanagar tāluka of the Mysore State. This was in the middle ages between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries of the Christian era an important place, a military station, and a land of heroes, landlords, and religious institutions. The Jaṅgama choultry,—the landed property of which was, according to an inscription dated Saka 1454 (A.D. 1532-3) of the times of Achyuta Rāya, apportioned between Bhōga Nañjayya, a trustee of a choultry and Dēvaṇnayya of a Brahman feeding-house,—and the fact of its having possessed abundant share of land in the Eragana-halli village make us believe that that place must have enjoyed considerable repute as a centre of both Jaṅgama and Brahman influence. One of the viragals found in the same village dated in A.D. 1386-7, during the days of Harihara Rāya II. commemorates the death of Chikkatamma, son of Killi Gauda of Eragana-halli, while fighting single-handed against thieves who had concealed themselves on the Toṇḍanabeṭṭa hill. The death of this hero and the existence of many sculptured hero-stones in the neighbourhood suggest that the village of Eragana-haḷḷi of the modern days may have been a place of some consequence in Vijayanagara times.¹
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² Barbosa, Stanley, p. 85.
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¹ Ep. Report for 1911, p. 3. Here some interesting details are given to prove that Eragana-haḷḷi was an important centre in mediaeval days.
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Striking across the country we reach Penugoṇḍa, which, according to Nicolo dei Conti, was "a very noble city". "The very noble city of Pelagonda (i.e., Penugoṇḍa) is subject to the same king (i.e., of Vijayanagara); it is ten miles in circumference, and is distant eight days' journey from Bizenegalia (i.e., Vijayanagara)".²
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² Major, India, p. 7.
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An equally famous hill-fortress was Gingee or Señji. Its location is thus given in an inscription of Saka 1545: Señji in Veṇbar-nāḍu which was a sub-division of Karikāla-kaṇṇa-valanāḍu in Magada-maṇḍalam.³ Even in Hoysala times it was reckoned to be a well known hill-fortress. In A.D. 1187 Viṣṇuvardhana is said to have conquered a great many strongholds, among which the name "Chengiri" appears. That illustrious Hoysala ruler is said to have destroyed the serpent of Chengiri, which has been identified by Rice with Señji.⁴ It continued to be an important military station during and after the Vijayanagara times. In A.D. 1597 it was the seat of Kṛṣṇa Nāyaka. It was here that Pimenta was taken into the presence of the Nāyaka by two hundred Brahmans who went "in a ranke to sprinkle the house with Holy water, and to prevent Sorcerie against the King which they use to doe every day that the King first entereth into any house".⁵
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³ 1 of 1913.
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⁴ E.C., V.P. I, Intr., pp. xii, xiii, n. (1).
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⁵ Pimenta, Purchas, Pilgrims, X, p. 208; Heras, Aravidu, p. 105. For further history of Gingee or Jinjee, called also Chandi, see Edwardes, I.A., LV, pp. 1-4.
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Reaching the south of the peninsula, we come to the ancient city of Madura. Since this powerful centre of Vijayanagara influence has left a deep mark on the history of the country, we may be permitted to record something about its origin as given in the *Pandyan Chronicle*. "In the times of *Kulasekara-Pandion* (Kulaśēkhara Pāṇḍya), who ruled in *Manavur*, a merchant, named Tanen-sheyan, in the course of his journeys on commercial business was benighted in a forest of *cadambu* trees; and being unable to proceed further took up his abode at the foot of one of them. He was surprised at the sight of an unusual splendour; and, going to look, was favoured by the god with the view, because he had been very virtuous in a former birth. As it was Monday, the gods were performing homage and anointing the image, as though it had been the night of *Siva*. The merchant bathed in the tank and worshipped: when the gods had disappeared, he saw the stone image only; and next day went and told the king aforesaid what he had seen. The god also appeared to the king the following night by a vision, in a form of a religious ascetic, and commanded him to build a temple in the aforesaid wilderness. The king finding the vision and the statement of the merchant accord, went to the place and had the forest cleared. Being uncertain how to build the temple and town, the god again appeared and gave instructions; in obedience to which workmen were employed, and a temple was built with seven enclosures, having a king's street, *Brahmins'* streets, and also streets for the other three castes and for the temple servants; also *choultries*, *mandabams*, tanks and the like. The whole being splendidly finished, with a palace also for the king, on the north-east quarter, an embarrassment arose as to how these numerous buildings could all be purified preparatory to residence at once, so as to ensure an entrance on a fortunate day; this difficulty the god *Siva* was pleased to remove by causing *Ganga*, abiding in the hair on his head, to pour forth copious streams on the whole place, and the god was pleased to give it the name of *Mathurai* (or pleasant,) and he then disappeared. The king placed guards at the four cardinal points of the city, which were all four of them deities".¹
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¹ Taylor, O.H.MSS., I, pp. 57-8.
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What an important part this seat of the Vijayanagara viceroy in the south played² in the history of mediaeval times will be discussed at length in a subsequent connection. Ever since the days of Kumāra Kampaṇa, who liberated it from the Muslim yoke, it continued to be the great city it had been before Vijayanagara times. Even in A.D. 1662 it failed not to attract the attention of foreigners. In that year John Nieuhof wrote thus about it: "The Capital City and ordinary residence of the Nayk, is Madure, five Days journy's to the North of Koylang; being adorned with many most magnificent Pagodes or Pagan Temples, which have very high Turrets Gilt on the top".¹
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² Ibid., II, p. 190, seq.
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¹ Churchill, Voyages, II, p. 297, op. cit.; Visvanatha, Nayaks, p. 330 op. cit.
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The Coromandel coast too was lined with towns. Faria y Sousa gives us a long list of some of the cities in A.D. 1506 from Cape Comorin to Orissa. "The first the Kingdom of Bisnaga contains 200 Leagues, and these Towns: Tarancurii, Manapar, Vaipur, Trechendur, Caligrande, Charcacale, Tucucurii, Benbar, Calicare, Beadala, Manancort, and Cannameira, whence takes the name that Cape that stretches out there in 10 degrees of North Latitude; then Negapatan, Habor, Triminapatan, Tragambar, Trimenava, Colororam, Puduchiera, Calapate, Connumeira, Sadrapatam, and Meliapur, now called St. Thomas because that Apostle's Body was found there. From St. Thomas to Palicata are nine Leagues, then go on Chiricole, Aremogan, Coleturo, Calecirco, Pentipolii, where ends the Kingdom of Bisnagur, and begins that of Orixa...".² Barbosa is more precise not only as regards the names of some of the most important of the Vijayanagara cities on the eastern coast but also as regards their general prosperity. "Twelve leagues further on the coast turns to the north, the country is called Cholmender (i.e., Chōḷamaṇḍala or Coromandel), and it extends seventy or eighty leagues along the coast. In it there are many Gentile cities, towns and villages, and it belongs to the King of Narsinga; it is a land abounding in rice, meat, and wheat, and all sorts of vegetables, because it is a country which has very beautiful plains. And many ships of Malabar come here to load rice, and they bring goods from Cambay to this country, that is to say, copper, quicksilver, vermilion, pepper and other goods. And throughout all this Cholmender much spice and drugs, and goods of Malaca, China, and Bengal are to be met with, which the Moorish ships bring here from those parts, since they do not venture to pass to Malabar from dread of the Portuguese. And although this country is very abundantly provided, yet if it should happen any year not to rain, it falls into such a state of famine that many die of it, and some sell their children for a few provisions, or for two or three fanoes, each of which will be worth thirty-six maravedis. And in these times the Malabars carry rice and cocoa nuts to them, and return with their ships laden with slaves, and all the chetis, Gentile merchants, who live throughout India, are natives of this country of Cholmender; as they are very sharp, great accountants, and dexterous merchants. And many country-born Moors, mercantile and sea-faring men, live in the seaports".¹
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² Faria y Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, I, p. 97. It is regrettable that in the hands of this writer the names of the cities have suffered such a distortion as to elude all identification. B.A.S.
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¹ Barbosa, Stanley, p. 174; Dames, II, p. 125.
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Pulicat was a town inhabited by great traders in the days of Barbosa. "Proceeding yet further and leaving the town of Mailapur there is on the coast another City belonging to the King of Narsyngua, inhabited by both Moors and Heathen, great traders".² Its government and trade are thus described by the same traveller. "In this city the King of Narsyngua maintains a Governor under his orders, and collects his duties. Here are made great abundance of printed cotton cloths, which are worth much money in Malaca, Peegu, Cumatra, and in the Kingdom of Guzarate and Malabar for clothing. Here also copper, quicksilver, and vermilion as well as other Cambaya wares, dyes in grain (Meca velvets) and especially rose-water".³
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² Ibid., Dames, II, pp. 129-30.
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³ Ibid., p. 132.
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Negapatam was also a port of some significance. About it we have from the pen of Caesar Frederick: "From the Iland of Zeilan men are to goe with small ships of Negapatan, within the firme land, and seventie two miles off is a very great Citie, and very populous of Portuguals and Christians of the Countrey, and part Gentiles : it is a Countrey of small trade".⁴
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⁴ Caesar Frederick, Purchas, Pilgrims, X, p. 108; Heras, Aravidu, p. 175.
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No account of the cities of Vijayanagara on the eastern coast may be said to be adequate without mention being made of Mailāpūr. Its ancient name was Vāmanāthapura, and its history is thus described in tradition. "Anciently this town was wholly inhabited by Jainas, who had a fane with an image of Nemi or Alli Tir'thacar (Ādi-Tirthaṅkara). One of these sages had a dream in which he was informed that, within a few days, the town would be overwhelmed by the sea. The image was removed further inland; and, three days after, the old town was swallowed up by the sea. The Jainas appear afterwards to have had fanes, with many images in each, in a town which was called Mailamanagara. Another night vision announced the submerging also of this town, within three days; connected with a command to remove the image further inland. This command was obeyed. At a later period Brahmans came from the western Chola country; and, by superior skill in astrological, and astronomical calculations, with their knowledge of the A'tharvana vēda (or arts of magic), they succeeded in turning the people from the Jaina credence. The image was taken away by some of its votaries, towards the west, as far as Chitambūr".¹
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¹ Taylor, Cat. Rais., III, p. 372.
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In the sixteenth century it was under the Vijayanagara authority, but it had already won for itself fame by its association with the memories and achievements of the great Apostle, St. Thomas. When Barbosa speaks of it, much of its ancient wealth had disappeared. "Further along this coast", says this traveller while dealing with Coromandel, "which makes a bend to the north-west, and then turns to the north-east, having left the Cholmendel country, at a distance of twelve leagues there is a city almost uninhabited and very ancient, which is called Mylepur; in former times it was a considerable place of the Kingdom of Narsinga".²
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² Barbosa, Stanley, p. 174; Dames, II, p. 126.
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The good feeling that existed between the different communities in the times of Barbosa is very well illustrated in the following story told by him in connection with Mailāpūr and St. Thomas, the Apostle. "In this city is buried the body of the Apostle St. Thomas, in a small church near the sea. And the Christians of Coulam, who are of his doctrine, say that when St. Thomas left Coulam, on being persecuted by the Gentiles, he met with a few companions going to that country, and settled in this city of Maylepur, which at that period was twelve leagues distant from the sea, which later eat away the land, and came in upon it. And there he began to preach the faith of Christ, to which he converted some, whilst others persecuted and wished to kill him, and he separated himself from the people, and went about frequently among the mountains. And one day as he wandered about in that manner, a gentile hunter, with a bow, saw many peacocks together upon the ground in that mountain, and in the midst of them one very large and very handsome standing upon a stone slab; this hunter shot at it, and sent an arrow through its body, and they rose up flying, and in the air it turned into the body of a man. And this hunter stood looking until he saw the body of the said apostle fall. And he went to the city where he related that miracle to the governors, who came to see it, and they found that it was indeed the body of St. Thomas, and then they went to see the place where he had been wounded, and they saw the impression of human feet marked on the slab, which he left impressed when he rose wounded. And when the governors of the country saw so great a miracle, they said that this man was holy, and we did not believe him; and they took him and buried him in the church where he now is, and they brought the stone upon which he left the said foot-marks, and they placed it close to his grave; and they say that on burying him they could never put his right arm in the tomb, and it always remained outside; and if they buried him entirely, next day they found the arm above the earth, and so they let it be. The Christians, his disciples and companions who built the said church, and the Gentiles already held him for a saint, and honoured him greatly. He remained thus with his arm outside of the grave for a long time, and they say that many people came there from many parts in pilgrimage, and that some Chinese came also, who wished to cut off his arm and carry it away as a relic, and that when they were about to strike at it with a sword, he withdrew his arm inside, and it was never seen again. So he remains still in that hermitage, very humbly, and lighted up by the grave of God, because the Moors and Gentiles light him up, each one saying that he is something belonging to them. And the house and church are ordered in our fashion, with crosses on the altar, and at the top of the vault a great wooden cross, and peacocks for a device. . . ¹
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¹ Barbosa, Stanley, pp. 175-6; Dames, II, p. 129.
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On the eve of the Vijayanagara Empire this ancient city passed completely into the hands of the Portuguese, who converted it into one of the finest cities in the East. John Nieuhof in A.D. 1662 thus describes its beauty, and explains why it was called Mailāpūr. "Meliapor Signifies in their Language as much as a Peacock, intimating, that as this Bird is the most beautifull of all others, so, this city did in Beauty excell all the rest of the East. Some will have the City of St. Thomas, or Meliapor, to be the same called Mapura by Ptolemy. The City was quite desolate, when the Portuguese first came there, who rebuilt it in 1545. Since which it has Encreased to that Degree, that not many Years after, she was Accounted one of the finest Cities in all the Indies: Both in respect of the Magnificence of its Buildings, and the Number of rich Inhabitants. It is Fortified with Stone-wall, strengthened by several Bastions, and has under its Jurisdiction above 300 Villages and Towns. It is one of the Richest Sea Ports of all the East Indies, its situation being in the midst of all the best Harbours of these Parts, which renders in the more Convenient for the East Indian trade".¹
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¹ Churchill, Voyages, II, p. 245.
Linked texts (3)
- Epigraphia Indica
- Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit
- Epigraphia Carnatica