Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8.s4.1

v1.c8.s4.1

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