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Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s5: Section 5. The Site of the Capital

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s5

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Section 5. The Site of the Capital

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Amidst such stirring surroundings was laid the site of the great capital. As custodians of Hindu Dharma it may be expected that the Hindu monarchs strictly adhered to the principles of the classical and mediaeval writers on matters connected with the general well-being of the State and its people. Their puritanism however did not prevent them from being a materialistic people. It may be interesting to see how far the people and rulers of Vijayanagara allowed ancient and mediaeval precept to over-ride their practical affairs. The capital, for example, according to the *Sukranīti* is to be built at a place that is bestirred by the movement of boats. Thus in the *Sukranīti*: "In a place that abounds in various trees, plants, and shrubs and is rich in cattle, birds and other animals, that is endowed with good sources of water and supplies and of grains, and is happily provided with resources in grasses and woods, that is bestirred by the movements of boats up to the seas, and is not far from the hills, and that is an even grounded, picturesque plain, the ruler should build his capital".¹ Excepting one or two conditions, especially that relating to the plain,—which the Vijayanagara monarchs ignored, for the capital,² judged by its ruins, can be said to have been a place that was anything but a plain,—the location of the city may be said to have been according to the rules of the Hindu theorists. Mention has already been made of the *ambigaru* or boatmen of the capital in an earlier connection. Here again it may be observed that while there was a brisk movement of boats near the city, it cannot be said that it "was up to the seas".

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¹ *Sukranīti*, I, ll. 425-8, p. 28; *Sarkar, Pos. Back.*, I, p. 34.

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² It is situated on the western bank of the Tuṅgabhadrā, in Lat. 15° 19' Long. 76° 32.' *Varthema*, Jones, p. 125.

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The Hindu writers on political matters, who understood the strategical importance of hills and mountains, said that the site of the capital was to be not far from the hills. "These are perhaps to be regarded as the store-house of mineral and other resources in normal times, as well as strong defences against foreign aggression in times of danger".³ To the mediaeval mind Vijayanagara admirably fulfilled this condition. We have mentioned the names of the five hills within the limits of ancient Kishkindhā. According to Paes, "the city is situated in the middle of these hills, and is entirely surrounded by them".⁴ "This range of hills surrounds the city with a circle of twenyfour leagues, and withn this range there are others that encircle it closely. Wherever these ranges have any level ground they cross it with a very strong wall, in such a way that the hills remain all closed, except in the places where the roads come through from the gates in the first range, which are the entrance ways to the city".¹ Other travellers as well are equally positive about the mountains in and near the capital. 'Abdur Razzāq tells us that "the fortress (of Vijayanagara) is in the form of a circle, situated on the summit of a hill . . .² Varthema states that "It (i.e., the capital) is situated on the side of a mountain, and is seven miles in circumference. . . . It occupies the most beautiful site, and possesses the best air that were even seen".³ Nicolo dei Conti remarks that it was "situated near very steep mountains".⁴

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³ *Sarkar, Pos. Back.*, I, p. 33.

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⁴ *Sewell, For. Emp.*, p. 243.

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¹ Sewell, *For. Emp.* p. 242-3.

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² Elliot, *Hist. of India*, IV, p. 106.

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³ Varthema, Jones, pp. 125-6.

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⁴ Major, *India*, p. 6.

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We may now see whether the capital possessed another requisite—that relating to forests and shrubs, which is important in the secular life of the people. The impression that may have been created while reading the earlier pages about the dearth of a vigorous and natural growth of plant life in the capital, will be dispelled when we shall presently cite the evidence from travellers testifying to the successful endeavours made by the people to fill the city with large stores of grain and food. It is true that as regards birds and animals, the capital was less supplied with these than the other parts of the Empire, which teemed with them. But about the supply of grains and grasses in the city—in other words, about the general condition of pasturage, the following remarks from Paes, we may be permitted to repeat, may be recounted: "For the state of this city is not like that of other cities, which often fail of supplies and provisions, for in this one everything abounds; and also the quantity of butter and oil sold every day, that is a thing I cannot refrain from mentioning; and as for the rearing of cows and buffaloes which goes on in this city, there is so much that you will go very far before you have another like it".⁵ While Paes is not very explicit about the existence of forests in the immediate vicinity of the capital, another traveller, Nikitin, tells us briefly something about this trifling detail: "This vast city (which he calls Bichenegher) is surrounded by three forts, and intersected by a river, bordering on one side on a dreadful jungel, on the other on a dale; a wonderful place, and to any place convenient".⁶

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⁵ Sewell, *ibid.*, pp. 258-9, op. cit.

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⁶ Major, *ibid.*, p. 29.

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While the Vijayanagara monarchs partially realized the truth of the mediaeval precept that the capital was to be near the river with an access to the sea, they did their utmost to fulfil the main purpose which the mediaeval writers had in view when these latter dealt with the nearness of the capital to the sea, viz., that relating to the growth of the inland and foreign trade of the country. The selection of the site of the capital amidst a range of hills was indeed a violation of the principle enunciated in the *Sukranīti*. But this non-fulfilment on the part of the rulers was counterbalanced by persistent efforts to comply with another demand of the mediaeval theorists. The sea, according to Sukra, "is also an element of the sovereign's political importance and dignity. The ambition of swaying the destiny of an empire from sea to sea, or ruling the world encircled by the ocean has always fired the enthusiasm of the Hindu kings and statesmen. . ."¹ No southern monarchs have so conclusively proved the truth of these words as those of Vijayanagara, with whom the sovereignty of the seas as expressed in their great title "Master of the Eastern, Western, Southern and Northern Oceans"² was a necessary adjunct to their imperial grandeur. When we have thus understood some of the principles on which the Vijayanagara kings built their Empire and affixed titles to their names, we may modify the statement that they spoke in their grants in a style which was "purely conventional bombast", and which mentioned "fictitious conquests", "corresponding exactly with the ideal of a Hindu sovereign according to Alaṅkāra Śāstra and astrological imagination."³ We have it on the authority of foreign travellers, beginning with 'Abdur Razzāq, that the Empire of Vijayanagara was bounded on its three sides by the ocean; and, therefore, it is not difficult for us to imagine that the Vijayanagara rulers indeed followed the principles of the writers on Hindu polity even in the matter of appending laudatory titles to their names.

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¹ *Sukranīti* I, ll. 425-8, n. 28, op. cit.,; *Sarkar, Post. Back.*, I, p. 36.

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² The 'Northern Ocean' referred to the river Kṛṣṇa, which during their palmy days marked the limits of their northern frontier. B.A.S.

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³ *Burnell, Elem. of S. I. Palaeography*, p. 110, (1878 ed.).

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They had good reasons to be proud of the site of their capital. Its description as given in the Hindu accounts, which otherwise might be reasonably regarded as traditional pedantry, is fortunately corroborated to a great extent by many foreign witnesses who had no other motive in their mind than that of visiting personally the famous capital and describing its grandeur. Thus is the city sung in an inscription dated A.D. 1379: "In the same city (Vijaya) did Harihara dwell, as in former times Rāma dwelt in the midst of the city of Ayōdhyā. Its rampart was Hēmakūṭa; its moat the auspicious Tuṅgabhadrā; its guardian the world-protector Virūpāksha; its ruler the great King of Kings Harihara. The golden zone of the land Kañchi, the incomparable Sākhapura, words fail to give a description of these".¹ Varthema wrote thus: "The city is situated like Milan, but not in a plain". ". . . so that it appears to me to be a second paradise".² "The city of Bijānagar is such that eye has not seen nor ear heard of any place resembling it upon the whole earth".³ In this manner wrote 'Abdur Razzāq adding to the testimony of the Hindu and Christian eulogists.

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¹ Rice, *Mys. Ins.*, Intr., pp. lxxxi, 55.

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² Varthema, Temple, pp. 51, 53.

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³ Elliot, *Hist. of India*, IV, p. 106.

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The shape of the capital⁴ was in conformity with the mediaeval principles. The *Sukranīti* enjoins that the capital should "have the beautiful shape of a half moon or a circle, or a square . . ."⁵ 'Abdur Razzāq was careful enough to note the shape of the city. "The fortress is in the form of a circle, situated on the summit of a hill".⁶ To Caesar Frederick too it appeared that the capital was circular in shape.⁷

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⁴ We have no evidence as regards the details of the plan of the capital. For a description of the plan of classical cities like Ayōdhyā, as given in the Mānasāra and other architectural treatises, see Dr. P. K. Acharya, *Indian Architecture according to the Mānasāra Silpaśāstras*, pp. 17-18.

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⁵ Sukranīti, II, ll. 429-30, p. 28; Sarkar, *Pos. Back.*, I, p. 40.

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⁶ Elliot, ibid., p. 106.

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⁷ Purchas, *Pilgrims*, X, p. 97. This shape of the capital is identical with that styled Vesara by Dr. P. K. Acharya. "The Nagar style is distinguished by its quadranglar shape; the Vesara by its round shape; and the Drāvida by its octagonal or hexagonal shape". Acharya, *Dicty. of Hindu Architecture*, p. 300.

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The capital which dazzled the eyes of foreigners was surrounded by admirable lines of defence. According to the Hindu belief everything that has some economic, religious, political or social significance is under the influence of a deity. Thus the points of the compass are presided over by different deities.¹ Every grāma has its own grāma-dēvatā.² The capital, therefore, could not exist without its guardian deity. And over Vijayanagara there was Raṇamaṇḍala Bhairava, to whom a temple and a maṇḍapa were erected by Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya.³ But it must not be imagined that that great ruler or his predecessors or his subjects left the care of the city to the caprice of a god. Raṇamaṇḍala Bhairava was perhaps the name by which the people expressed the sense of security which they felt behind the great line of defence around the capital.

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¹ Infra., p. 124.

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² Havell, Ancient and Mediaeval Architecture of India, p. 35.

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³ A.S.R. for 1908-9, p. 181, n. (1).

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The first line of defence was a belt of forest. "The country", says Firishtah, "is full of fastnesses and woods, almost impenetrable to troops".⁴ The second line of defence was an enclosure about fifty yards deep, dotted with half-sunken rocks that made it impossible for the enemy to push forward their cavalry divisions. "It is so built that it has seven fortified walls, one within the other. Beyond the circuit of the outer wall there is an esplanade extending for about fifty yards, in which stones are fixed near one another to the height of a man; one half buried firmly in the earth, and the other half rises above it, so that neither foot nor horse however bold, can advance with facility near the outer wall".⁵ Behind these stones came the third line of defence mentioned by 'Abdur Razzāq—the massive walls of stone, range within range, with fortified bastions in every one of them. These were the seven walls which encircled the city that was throbbing with life. The first circle was naturally guarded with the most scrupulous care. Foreigners like 'Abdur Razzāq could not help remarking the activity of the officials. "It (i.e., the first fortress is a fortress", says 'Abdur Razzāq, "of a round shape, built on the summit of a mountain, and constructed of stones and lime. It has very solid gates, the guards of which are constantly at their post, and examining everything with a severe inspection".⁶

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⁴ Firishtah, Briggs, The Rise, II, p. 337.

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⁵ Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, p. 106; Suryanarayana Rao, The City of Vijayanagara, p. 21.

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⁶ Major, India, p. 23; Elliot, ibid.; Cf. Sewell, For. Emp., p. 89.

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About the nature of the huge walls the following account from Paes will be found to confirm the remarks of 'Abdur Razzāq. "Now turning to the gates of the first range, I say that at the entrance of the gate where those pass who come from Goa, which is the principal entrance on the western side, this king has made within it a very strong city fortified with walls and towers, and the gates at the entrances very strong, with towers at the gates; these walls are not like those of other cities, but are made of very strong masonry, such as would be found in few other parts, and inside very beautiful rows of buildings made after their manner with flat roofs".¹

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¹ Sewell, For. Emp., p. 244.

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The distance between the first and the last wall is thus given by 'Abdur Razzāq. "From the northern gate of the outer fortress to the southern is a distance of two statute parsangas, and the same with respect to the distance between the eastern and western gates".² Paes also noticed the solid walls. ". . . you must know", says he, "that before you arrive at the city gates there is a gate with a wall that encloses all the other enclosures of the city. . .".³ "Then going forward you have another gate with another line of wall. . .". Then again, "Going along the principal street, you have one of the chief gateways. . .".⁴ "Still going forward, passing to the other gate. . .",⁵ "At the end of it (i.e., another broad and beautiful street), you have another gate with its wall, which wall goes to meet the wall of the second gate of which I have spoken in such sort that this city has three fortresses, with another which is the king's palace".⁶ About the triple circle of walls Varthema and Paes agree.⁷

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² Elliot, Hist. of India, IV, pp. 106-7; Major, India, p. 24; Sewell, ibid., p. 89. Two Parsanags = about 7 miles. Sewell, ibid., p. 90, n. (1).

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³ Sewell, ibid., p. 253.

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⁴ Ibid., p. 254.

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⁵ Ibid., pp. 254-5.

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⁶ Ibid., pp. 255-6.

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⁷ Varthema, Jones, p. 126; Temple, p. 51.

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In the matter of creating these seven lines of defence, the Vijayanagara monarchs followed the classical model. It is well known that the number seven has attracted universal attention in the east. "For an explanation or 'philosophy' of this doctrine we may hazard a hypothesis. Perhaps it is to be sought in the Theory of Mystic Numbers like three, seven, nine, etc., which had its day in both eastern and western thought. So far as seven is concerned, in India we have the seven Rishis, the seven mouths or tongues of Fire, the seven Kulaparvatas or mountains, the seven Rivers, the seven Planets or grahas, the seven Heavens, the seven Seas (salt, curd, milk, etc.), the constellation of seven Stars called saptarsimandala. . .".¹ From the political standpoint the number seven has received a classical sanction since the days of the Mahābhārata. The seven prakṛitis known to the people of the epics are explained by Nilakaṇṭha as referring to "the Commandant of the citadel (Durga-adhyaksha), Controller-general of the army (Bala-adhyaksha), Chief Justice (Dharma-adhyaksha), Commander of the army in the field (Chamū-pati), Chaplain, Physician and Astrologer".² Reverting to the topic of the gates of the capital, we may note the following in the Arthaśāstra. "The fort shall contain twelve gates, provided with both a land and water way kept and a secret passage".³ Although we are unable to determine the exact number of gates which the capital had,⁴ and its secret land and water ways, yet we may observe that in limiting their lines of defence to seven, they were not ignorant of the significance which that number had in Hindu classical thought.

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¹ Sarkar, Pol. Back., I, pp. 89-90.

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² Mahābhārata, Sabhā Parva, v, 23; p. 13 (Roy): Manu. VII, 54, p. 224 (S.B.E. Series); Ep. Ind., XV, p. 77, n. (6). See infra Chapter V on Administration.

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³ Kauṭilya, Arthaśāstra, Bk. II, Ch. IV, 55, p. 58 (1923).

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⁴ We have however seen that 'Abdur Razzāq gives the number of gates as seven, and a suspicious grant, nine; and that Caesar Frederick speaks of the nine gates of the palace. Supra. pp. 94, 122.

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Encompassed thus by massive fortifications, the city appeared to be of enormous size. Nicolo Conti visited the capital early in the fifteenth century A.D. "He arrived at the great city of Bizenegalia (i.e., Vijayanagara) situated very near steep mountains. The circumference of the city is sixty miles; its walls are carried up to the mountains and enclose the valleys at their foot, so that its height is thereby increased".⁵ Admitting that we have to make some allowance for the exaggeration in the account of Nicolo, there cannot be a doubt that the capital was indeed a city of great magnitude. According to Caesar Frederick "the circuit of this Citie is foure and twentie miles about, and within the walls are certaine mountains''.¹ There is no evidence, it must be admitted for the present, about the details of the exact position and number of the apartments in the royal palace; but it may not be wrong to assume that the Vijayanagara monarchs, who so scrupulously observed the principles of the *sāstras* in the regulation of public and private interests, and who were advised by physicians well versed in the ancient Hindu system of medicine, must have bestowed considerable attention on the question of sanitation, a true solution of which alone explains the existence of thousands of thriving citizens in and outside the capital of Vijayanagara.²

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⁵ Major, India, p. 6.

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¹ Caesar Frederick, Purchas, *Pilgrims*, X, p. 97. Sewell's estimate is 12 miles by 10. *For. Emp.*, p. 83.

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² For details about the location of royal apartments in a palace, see Sarkar, *Pos. Back.*, I, p. 20.

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As Paes relates, the city could be approached only through the circles enclosed by the seven walls. He gives us some more details about the entrance to the city. ". . . and two leagues before you arrive at the city of Bisnaga you have a very lofty *serra* which has passes by which you enter the city. These are called 'gates' (*portals*). You must enter by these, for you will have no means of entrance except by them. This range of hills surrounds the city with a circle of twenty-four leagues, and within this range there are others that encircle it closely. Wherever these ranges have any level ground they cross it with a very strong wall, in such a way that the hills remain all closed, except in the places where the roads come through from the gates in the first range, which are the entrance ways to the city. In such places there are small pits (or caves?) which could be defended by a few people; these *serras* continue as far as the interior of the city".³

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³ Sewell, ibid., pp. 242-3.

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The space between the seven walls mentioned above, in the interior of the capital, presented a spectacle that threw much light upon the nature of the government and the habits of the people. To 'Abdur Razzāq it was a thickly populated place. "Between the first, second, and third walls, there are cultivated fields, gardens and houses. From the third to the seventh fortress, shops and bazars are closely crowded together. By the palace of the king there are four bazars, situated opposite to one another".⁴

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⁴ Elliot, *Hist. of India*, IV, p. 107; Major, *India*, p. 24.

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Paes is equally eloquent about the prosperous condition in the interior of the city. "Between all these enclosures are plains and valleys where rice is grown, and there are gardens with many orange-trees, limes, citrons, and radishes (rabãos), and other kinds of garden produce as in Portugal, only not lettuces or cabbages".¹ Then again, "From this first circuit until you enter the city there is a great distance, in which are fields in which they sow rice and have many gardens and much water, which water comes from two lakes. The water passes through this first line of wall, and there is much water in the lakes because of springs; and here are orchards and a little grove of palms, and many houses".² The same traveller continues to give us interesting details about the city from the moment he arrived at the first gate of the capital. "Returning, then, to the first gate of the city, before you arrive at it you pass a little piece of water and then you arrive at the wall, which is very strong, all of stone-work, and it makes a bend before you arrive at the gate; and at the entrance of this gate are two towers, one on each side, which makes it very strong. It is large and beautiful. As soon as you pass inside there are two little temples; one of them has an enclosing wall with many trees, while the whole of the other consists of buildings; and this wall of the first gate encircles the whole city. Then going forward you have another gate with another line of wall, and it also encircles the city inside the first, and from here to the king's palace is all streets and rows of houses, very beautiful, and houses of captains and other rich and honourable men; you will see rows of houses with many figures and decorations pleasing to look at".³

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¹ Sewell, For. Emp., p. 243.

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² Ibid., pp. 253-4.

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³ Ibid., p. 254.

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Side by side with these eulogistic accounts of the foreigners, we may read the description of the capital by Gaṅgādēvī in her famous poem *Madhurāvijayam*:

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तस्यासीद् विजया नाम विजयार्जितसंपदः ।
राजधानी बुधैः श्लाघ्या शक्रस्येवामरावती ॥

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सुरलोकान्तसंक्रान्तस्वर्णदोमत्सरादिव ।
परिखाकारतां यान्या परीता तुङ्गभद्रया ॥
लक्ष्मोल्तालवालने क्षमावधूनामिशोभिना ।
चक्राचलप्रकारेण प्राकारेण परिष्कृता ॥
स्फुरन्मणि प्रभाहूत पुरुहूत शरासनैः ।
सुमेरुशृङ्गकाशैः गोपुरैः उपशोभिता ॥
उत्फुल्लचम्पकाशोकनागकेसरकेसरैः ।
बसन्तवासभवनैः आरामैः अमितो वृता ॥
कस्तूरीहरिणाक्रान्तकर्पूरकदलीतलैः ।
मनोभवमहादुर्गैः महिता केलिपर्वतैः ॥
कमलामोदमधुरैः कलहसकुलाकुलैः ।
क्रीडासरोभिः सहिता मणिसोपानमङ्गलैः ॥
यशस्तोमरिवाशेषनगरोविजयार्जितैः ।
सौधैः प्रकाशितोत्सेधा शरदम्भोदपाण्डरैः ॥
विकसदनितावल्लीविलासवनवाटिका ।
दक्षिणाशासरोक्षाक्षीफाललीलाललाटिका ॥
द्विजराजसमुल्लासनियराकानिशोधिनी ।
गन्धर्वगणसान्निध्यनव्यदिव्यवरूथिनी ॥
भुजङ्गसङ्घसंवासभूतेशमुकुटस्थली ।
सुमनस्तोम संचारसुवर्णगिरिमेखला ॥
लीलेव दिष्टवृद्धानां शालेव सकलश्रियाम् ।
मालेव सर्व रत्नानां वेलेव सुकृताम्बुधेः ॥
यस्यां प्रासादशृङ्गेषु लग्नं मार्तण्डमण्डलम् ।
संधत्ते वोक्षमाणानां सौवर्ण कलशभ्रमम् ॥

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यस्योधचन्द्रशालासु विहरन्यो मृगेक्षणाः ।
शशाङ्कमवलम्बन्ते मुक्ताकन्दुकशङ्कया ॥
यत्र सौधेषु सङ्गीतमृदङ्गप्रतिनादिषु ।
अकाण्डे ताण्डवारम्भं वितन्वन्ति शिखण्डिनः ॥
पद्मरागोपलोत्कीर्णप्रासादप्रान्तवर्तिनः ।
सततं यत्र दृश्यन्ते सान्ध्या इव बलाहकाः ॥
सन्ध्यासु यत्र निर्यान्ति जालेभ्यो धूपराजयः ।
अन्तः प्रदोपिकालोकचकितध्वान्तसन्निभाः ॥
यदीर्घिकासु माणिक्यनयसोपानचारिभिः ।
क्षदास्वपि चक्राह्वैः विरहो नानुभूयते ॥
यदङ्गनामुखाम्भोजलावण्यालाभलज्जितः ।
कलङ्कच्छलना चन्द्रो व्यनक्ति हृदयव्यथाम् ॥
यत्र स्त्रीणां कटाक्षेषु यूनां हृदयहारिषु ।
पुष्पास्त्रसंचये वाञ्छां मुञ्चते पञ्चसायकः ॥
मरालैः मञ्जुमञ्जीरशिञ्जिताकृष्टमानसैः ।
लोलागतिमिब प्राप्तुं सेव्यन्ते यत्र योषितः ॥
यत्रावलग्न सादृश्यवाञ्छाविमतमम्बरम् ।
प्रायः पयोधरोत्सेधैः निरुन्धन्ति पुरन्ध्रयः ॥
यत्र वामभुवामेव काटिन्यं स्तनमण्डले ।
कोटिल्यं कबरीभारे कार्श्यं मध्ये च दृश्यते ॥

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Making some provision for the exercise of poetical fancy which must have inevitably crept into a description like this,¹ we may compare the account of the capital as given by Gaṅgādēvī with that recorded by a foreigner like Duarte Barbosa. This traveller writes: "Forty leagues from these mountains inland, there is a very large city called Bijanaguer, very populous and surrounded on one side by a very good wall, and on another by a river, and on the other by a mountain. This city is on level ground, and the King of Narsinga always resides in it. He is a Gentile and is called Raheni: he has in this place very large and handsome palaces with numerous courts in which are many mounds, pools of water with plenty of fish, gardens of shrubs, flowers, and sweet-smelling herbs".¹

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¹ Gaṅgādēvī, *Madhurāvijayam*, I, vv. 43-66, pp. 5-8.

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¹ Barbosa, Stanley, pp. 85-6; Dames, I., pp. 201-2.

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It is hard to believe that the modern hamlet of Hampe with its rugged precipices² and scorching rocks could ever have harboured the designs of thousands of industrious people. For in the days of Varthema this very spot was throbbing with great life. "It is a place of great merchandise, is extremely fertile, and is endowed with all possible kinds of delicacies".³ Part of its wealth came from the tribute which the neighbouring kings paid to the Emperor at Vijayanagara; but much of it was due to the endeavours of the people who, if the accounts before us are true, spared no pains to have a most prosperous inland and foreign trade. It was not only in the palmy days of Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya the Great that the capital attracted foreigners by its splendour. Even so early as A.D. 1375 accounts of its magnificence reached the ears of the northern neighbours of the Hindu rulers. Sultan Mujāhid of Gulbarga desired to see the capital in that year.⁴ The Sultans of the north were in a way also responsible for the grandeur of the capital, which was enriched by the huge subsidies they paid to the imperial treasury at Vijayanagara. Ibrāhīm 'Ādil Shāh, for example, gave a subsidy of about two million sterling, besides many other valuable gifts.⁵

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² For Newbold's description of Vijayanagara in 1845 read J.A.S B. XIV, P. II, p. 518; Sewell, For. Emp., p. 83.

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³ Varthema, Temple, p. 51.

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⁴ Sewell, ibid., p. 81. According to our computation the capital must have been nearing its completion about this time. B.A.S.

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⁵ Sewell, ibid., p. 171, op. cit.

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There was one other source which was also responsible for the immense wealth of the citizens and kings of Vijayanagara. The mines in the Empire gave them a plentiful supply of gold and precious stones. It is true that our knowledge at present of the exact location, number and yield of the gold mines in the Vijayanagara Empire is extremely meagre. But there is no denying the fact that the people of Vijayanagara were aware of mines of gold and precious stones and that they worked them. The fact that the capital was built amidst hills is to be noted in this connection. According to the Hindu writers, the mountains and hills are the repositories of gems; and the capital, as we have seen, as laid down in the *Sukraniti*, was to be near a mountain. But it is not the observance of this mediaeval principle which explains the wealth of the capital so much as the profit which the monarchs made by working the mines inside the limits of the Empire.¹ Even the wilful destruction of diamonds as narrated in the following sad story of Tirumala Rāya could not empty the city of its rich contents:

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¹ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, Appendix A.—Diamonds, pp. 399-401. The subject of mines, together with other details connected with the purely economic life of the people, will be dealt with in a separate dissertation. According to Caesar Frederick, ". . . . Also six days journey from Bezenager, is the place where they get Diamants; I was not there, but it was told me that it is a great place, compassed with a wall, and that they sell the earth within the wall, for so much a squadron, and the limits are set how deepe or how low they shall digge" *Purchas, Pilgrims*, X. p. 97.

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The Muhammadan ruler, Ibrāhim, 'Ādil Shāh, had scarcely crossed the Kṛiṣhṇā, when Rāma Rāya, who had schemed to secure the throne against Tirumala Rāya, with his "confederates, who had bribed many of the troops in the city, broke their newly made vows, and hastened towards Beejanuggur, resolved to put the roy to death, on pretence of revenging the murder of his predecessor. Hoje Termul Roy, seeing he was betrayed, shut himself up in the palace, and becoming mad from despair, blinded all the royal elephants and horses, also cutting off their tails, that they might be of no use to his enemy. All the diamonds, rubies, emeralds, other precious stones, and pearls, which had been collected in a course of many ages, he crushed to powder between heavy millstones, and scattered them on the ground. He then fixed a sword-blade into a pillar of his apartment, and ran his breast upon it with such force that it pierced through and came out at the back, thus putting an end to his existence, just as the gates of the palace were opened to his enemies. Ramaraje now became roy of Beejanuggur without a rival".²

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² Firishtah quoted by Sewell, *ibid.*, p. 171.

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Sculptures on the Walls of the House of Victory. [Vol. I, p. 131.]

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And, finally, there were the foreign traders, whose contribution to the material wealth of the capital was indeed great. According to Paes it seems as if the city of Vijayanagara was the meeting-place of the traders of the world. "In this city you will find men belonging to every nation and people, because of the great trade which it has, and the many precious stones there, principally diamonds".¹ Barbosa also bears witness to the cosmopolitan nature of the citizens of Vijayanagara: "They (i.e., the wide streets and squares) are constantly filled with an innumerable crowd of all nations and creeds; for, besides many Moorish merchants and traders, and the Gentile inhabitants of the country who are very rich, an infinite number of others flock there from all parts, who are able to come, dwell, trade, and live very freely and in security. . . ."²

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¹ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 256.

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² *Barbosa*, Stanley, p. 85; Dames, I., p. 202.

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Over such a magnificent city there blew a terrible storm.³ On the battlefield of Rākshasa-Taṅgaḍi, which by a strange idiosyncrasy of history has been termed Tālikōṭa, on the 25th of January A.D. 1565⁴ the combined forces of the followers of Islām met the gallant army of the Hindu monarch. Into the causes and course of this memorable battle, the most decisive so far as the history of southern India is concerned, we shall not enter.⁵ But there is one little point that deserves an explanation, especially in a treatise like this which deals with the life of the Hindu people under the Vijayanagara kings. The crushing defeat which the Hindus sustained, the glowing description of the success of the enemy in the accounts of later Muhammadan chroniclers, and the misconception which exists in some quarters about the Vijayanagara Empire in A.D. 1565 and after—all these have been responsible for the charge of cowardice that has been levelled against the Hindu monarch and their soldiers on the battlefield of Rākshasa-Taṅgaḍi. Thus Francis wrote in the *Bellary Gazetteer*: "Deserted by their king and the commandant of their troops, the people of the capital made no effort to defend themselves and the very next day the city was looted by the hordes of wandering gipsy tribes of the country. On the third day the victorious Muhammadans arrived, and for the next five months they set themselves deliberately to destroy everything destructible within the walls of the capital".¹ How far this is an accurate estimate of the conduct of the Hindus and Muhammadans deserves now to be seen.

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³ For Sewell's conjecture about the state of the city in A.D. 1564, read ibid., p. 200.

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⁴ The date of the battle is disputed. Firishtah, Briggs, *The Rise*, III, pp. 126, 414; Hultzsch, *I.A.*, XIII, p. 154; Sewell places it on Tuesday, January 23rd. *For. Emp.*, p. 202; Francis, *Bellary Gaz.*, p. 42 follows him. (Ch. II of the Bellary Gazetteer was written by Francis with the help of Sewell, Preface). Burgess calculates it as January 25th. *Chronology*, p. 41. Heras, on the 25th January. *Aravidu*, p. 217. In the *Rāma Rāyana Bakhair*, we have the date 1st of May, A.D. 1564. *Rāma Rāyana Bakhair* Ed. by T. Tātāchāryaśarma, pp. 4-5. See also R. S. Aiyar, *J. I. H.* VI., P. I., p. 67, seq. As regards the name, the Rev. Heras, who is the only writer, so far as I know, who has rejected the name Tālikōṭa for the more correct designation given above, writes consistently Raksas-Tagdi. This, I presume, is due to his having relied on the Maratha account of the battle as given in the Maratha copy of the MS. *Rāma Rāyana Bakhair*. The correct name is *Rākshasa-Taṅgaḍi*. The printed copy of *Rāma Rāyana Bakhair* and the MS. versions in the Mack. Collection, in the India Office Library which I have examined, confirm this. B.A.S.

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⁵ See Heras, *Aravidu*, p. 202, seq.

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¹ Francis, *Bellary Gaz.*, p. 43. Sewell's remarks are too well known to be quoted here. *For. Emp.*, pp. 109; 207-8.

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We shall take the first assertion about the desertion of the Hindu Emperor. Ali 'Adil Shāh took over the command of the right wing to oppose Veṅkaṭādri, the left was entrusted to Ibrāhīm Qutb Shāh and Ali Barid Shāh, in front of Tirumala's wing, while the centre was led by Husain Nizām Shāh.² The Hindu leader, "the so-called Emperor of Vijayanagara was then a very old man : according to Ferishta he was seventy; the *Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir* says he was eighty; but the Portuguese authors who seem more reliable on this point, on account of their frequent intercourse with the court of Vijayanagara, state that he was in the 96th year of his age".³ "Before the battle, Tirumala and Venkatadri tried to persuade their aged brother Rama Raya to leave the superintendence of the army to them. His advanced years made his position precarious in battle. But Rama Raya could not be induced to change his mind; and with the valour of a man of thirty, he despatched them back to their respective wings".⁴ The gallant Hindu leader with his brave body-guard, which was, according to Heras, composed of the Rachevāḍu soldiers,¹ "almost defeated his enemies",² when there "was a movement in the Hindu army that decided the fate of the day".³

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² Heras, *Aravidu*, p. 205. I follow for the present the account of the battle as given by Fr. Heras. In a subsequent treatise, because of the new information I have been able to secure on the subject, I hope to be able to discuss the causes and course of this battle in detail. B.A.S.

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³ Heras, ibid., p. 201.

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⁴ Couto, VIII, p. 90; Heras, ibid., p. 205.

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¹ Heras, Aravidu, p. 204.

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² Faria y Sousa, Asia Port. II, pp. 252-3; Heras, ibid., p. 210.

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³ Heras, ibid., p. 211.

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It is this particular point in the history of Vijayanagara that has been ignored by most of the writers on south Indian history. The contemporary witness who supplies us with a most interesting detail about the great battle of Rākshasa-Taṅgaḍi is Caesar Frederick, who visited the capital in A.D. 1567. This shrewd traveller thus observes: "The Citie of Bezeneger was sacked in the yeere 1565 by foure Kings of the Moores, which were of great power and might. . . . And yet these foure Kings were not able to overcome this Citie and the King of Bezeneger, but by treason. This King of Bezeneger was a Gentile, and had, amongst all other of his Captaines, two which were notable, and they were Moores: and these two Captaines had either of them in charge threescore and ten or fourscore thousand men. These two Captaines being of one Religion with the foure Kings which were Moores, wrought meanes with them to betray their owne King into their hands. The King of Bezeneger esteemed not the force of the foure Kings his enemies, but went out of his Citie to wage battell with them in the fields; and when the Armies were joyned, the battell lasted but a while, not the space of foure houres, because the two traiterous Captaines, in the chiefest of the fight, with their companies turned their faces against their King, and made such disorder in his Armie, that as astonished they set themselves to flight".⁴ It was only when the tide of battle turned through the treachery of two Muhammadan captains, —one of whom 'Ain-ul-Mulk, according to Heras, "seems to have come from a family of traitors",⁵ —that "Rama Raya then attempted to make his escape on foot" only to be seized by an elephant before he was taken to the presence of Husain Nizam Shah.⁶ Husain Nizam Shah beheaded the venerable prisoner with his own hand, exclaiming: 'Now I am avenged on thee! Let God do what he will to me'." This seemingly lengthy digression into the details of the action which shattered the magnificence of Vijayanagara explains the alleged desertion by the Hindu leader and the commandant of the troops.

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⁴ Caesar Frederick, Purchas, Pilgrims, X, p. 93.

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⁵ Heras, ibid., p. 212.

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⁶ Ibid., p. 213.

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There remains the third statement made in the *Bellary Gazetteer*—the looting of the capital on "the very next day", the arrival of the Muhammadans on the "third" day, and, finally, the deliberate destruction by the victors of everything destructible within the walls of the capital for the next five months. The entry of the "hordes of wandering gipsies", by which term we suppose the author of the *Bellary Gazetteer* refers to a particular class of forest tribes, is connected with the question of the reoccupation of the capital by the Hindus after the sad event. We shall say something about it presently. We shall examine the question of the stay of the Sultans in the Hindu capital. According to Firishtah the enemies halted for ten days on the battlefield, and for six months they made their stay in the great city.² The first statement of Firishtah is corroborated by the anonymous chronicler of the *Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir* who says that the allied armies halted for ten days on the field of action.³ Couto however remarks that the Muhammadans halted only for three days.⁴ Caesar Frederick adds his testimony to that of Firishtah as regards the number of months the Sultans were in the capital. ".... And the foure Kings of the Moores entred the Citie Bezeneger with great triumph, and there they remained sixe moneths, searching under houses and in all places for money and other things that were hidden, and then they departed to their owne Kingdomes, because they were not able to maintaine such a Kingdom as that was, so farre distant from their owne Countrie".⁵ If the fact of the occupation of the capital by the enemy for a period of six months following the battle is proved beyond doubt by the evidence of two independent writers, it cannot be that the capital could ever have been looted during this time by a horde of wandering gipsies, however strong these may have been in numbers, and whatever zeal they may have evinced to out-rival the Sultans in their greed for the hidden treasures of the Hindu capital. That the Muhammadans did not "destroy everything destructible within the walls of the capital", as is expressed in the *Bellary Gazetteer*, is clear from the remarks of Caesar Frederick: "And the Citie of Bezeneger is not altogether destroyed, yet the houses stand still, but emptie, and there is dwelling in them nothing, as is reported, but Tygres and other wild beasts".¹

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¹ Couto, VIII, pp. 91-2; Heras, *Aravidu*, p. 213, n. (7). A stone representation of Rāma Rāya's head exists in the Bijapur Museum. Cousens, *Bijapur and its Architectural Remains*, p. 9 and n. (2).

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² Firishtah, Briggs, *The Rise*, III., pp. 414-5.

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³ Haig, *Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir*, *I.A.* L., p. 194. See also Heras, *Aravidu*, p. 217.

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⁴ Couto, VIII, p. 92; Heras, ibid.

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⁵ Caesar Frederick, *Purchas, Pilgrims*, X., pp. 93-4.

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¹ Caesar Frederick, *Purchas, Pilgrims*, X, p. 97. Heras, *Aravidu*, pp. 225-226. Here we have an estimate of the destruction of the capital by the Muhammadans.

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This traveller also tells us that the Vijayanagara Emperor (Tirumala) was in the capital in A.D. 1567. "In the yeer of our Lord 1567, I went from Goa", writes Frederick, "to Bezeneger the chief Citie of the kingdom of Narsinga eight dayes journey from Goa, within the Land, in the companie of two other Merchants which carried with them three hundred Arabian Horses to that King".² Indeed, it must be said to the credit of the Hindus that they tried to reoccupy the capital after the disaster. "'Tirumala returned to Vijayanagara after the departure of the Dekanese' says Anquetil du Perron".³ The return of the Regent Tirumala, in the opinion of the Rev. Heras, "is one of the outstanding events of those days. It signifies that the battle of Raksas-Tagdi (Rākhasa-Taṅgaḍi) the ruler of Vijayanagara did not despair of restoring the Empire to its ancient grandeur; to maintain the capital next to the boundaries of their enemies showed the indomitable courage that could still challenge the Deccani Muhammadans, with the sure hope of crushing them as in former days, for Vijayanagara was the city of Victory!"⁴ In this bold venture of Tirumala we have an insight into the Hindu character under the Vijayanagara kings: it was the desire to do daring deeds in spite of overwhelming disaster. If the Muhammadan Sultans were in the capital immediately after the war, and if they were followed by the Hindu Regent, who was at least for two years in the city, then, it could not have been that the wandering hordes of gipsies looted the capital on the next day of the battle.

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² Caesar Frederick, *ibid.*, p. 92.

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³ Heras, *ibid.*, p. 229.

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⁴ *Ibid.*

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When they entered the capital can be made out by ascertaining when the Hindus determined to evacuate it for ever. Tirumala in spite of his ambitious designs, was ill-fitted to carry out the great project. From the following story of the sad plight which befell the poor merchants, it is evident that Tirumala was sacrificing the principles of honesty for reasons of State. "When the kings (i.e., the Sultans) were departed from Bezeneger", writes Caesar Frederick, "this Termiragio (Tirumala) returned to the Citie, and then beganne for to repopulate it, and sent word to Goa to the Merchants, if they had any Horses, to bring them to him, and he would pay well for them; and for this cause the aforesaid two Merchants that I went in companie withall, carried those Horses that they had to Bezeneger. Also this Tyrant made an order or law, that if any Merchant had any of the Horses that were taken in the aforesaid battell (of Rākshasa-Tangadi) or warres, although they were of his owne marke, that he would give as much for them as they would: and beside he gave generall safe conduct to all that should bring them. When by this meanes hee saw that there were great store of Horses brought thither unto him, he gave the Merchants fair words, until such time as he saw they could bring no more. Then hee licenced the Merchants to depart, without giving them any thing for their Horses, which when the poore men saw, they were desperate, and as it were mad with sorrow and griefe".¹

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¹ Caesar Frederick, Purchas, Pilgrims, X, p. 94. See also Heras, Aravidu, p. 230.

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Tirumala evidently was gathering strength for another conflict with the enemy. But the City of Victory could not rejuvenate Hindu life after the fatal disaster of Rākshasa-Tangadi. Arrangements were made to evacuate it. ". . . the Natives in three days' time", writes Faria y Sousa, "had carried One Thousand Five Hundred and Fifty Elephants loaded with Money and Jewels, worth above One Hundred Millions of Gold and the Royal Chair (i.e., the famous Diamond-throne) for great Days that could not be valued".² This was the time when "after the departure of the Empire and the nobility from the capital", when there was "no garrison" "within its walls to defend it against any attack", that the "Bedues", who, according to Couto, "are jungle people", "pounced down on the helpless city, and in six different attacks looted all its houses, carrying away numberless precious things left by the nobles in their hasty flight".¹ These Bedues could only have been the Bēḍars whom Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya had tried to win over and conciliate by his generous policy. And it is these same Bedues to whom Caesar Frederick evidently refers in the following words: "For it was necessarie to rest there (i.e., in the City) untill all the wayes were cleere of Theeves, which that time arranged up and downe".²

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² Faria y Sousa, II, pp. 252-3. It must be noted here that Faria y Sousa, who wrote at a later age, connects the story of the evacuation of the capital with that which mentions the discovery of a huge diamond of the size of an egg by 'Adil Shāh. Cf. S. K. Aiyangar, Q.J.M.S. XIII, p. 625.

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¹ Heras, Aravidu, p. 223, and n. (3). ² Caesar Frederick, Purchas, Pilgrims, X, p. 94. ³ Heras, ibid., p. 242, seq. See also R.S. Aiyar J.I.H. VI: P:I, pp. 67-79, op. cit.

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Having dispensed with the erroneous assumptions made by some writers as regards the character of the Hindu leaders and of the Hindu commanders, and the sack of the capital by the Bēḍars, we may now gauge the effect of the battle of Rākshasa-Taṅgaḍi on the administration, and, therefore, on the life of the Empire. Here one may tentatively agree with the Rev. Heras, who answers the question: "What was the interior state of the Empire in the meanwhile? Both Couto and Faria y Sousa relate that after the battle of Raksas-Tagdi the whole territory of Vijayanagara was divided among the sons and nephews of Rama Raya; and several modern authors have blindly followed their statements. But we know from epigraphical records that there was at that time no such break-up of the Empire: the members of the Aravidu family remained as united as ever. That explains why the anonymous author of the life of St. Xavier, who wrote his book a little later, writes to this effect, after narrating the Battie of Raksas-Tagdi: 'Nevertheless the king of this country was not so much knocked down, for he is still very rich and powerful; and he possesses a large state, and has quite a good number of elepants and great cavalry and Infantry'."³

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But there were some who deserted the Hindu cause. "It seems, indeed, that several petty chiefs and governors of the North of the Empire, either through fear of the Muhammadans, or on account of their own ambition, proclaimed themselves independent in their cities or fortresses¹. These were the chieftains of Adōni Baṅkāpur, Dhārwar, and Tirukal. And in the south, "perhaps the only one who withdrew his allegiance" was the chief of Kalaśa-Kārkaḷa, in South Kanara.² With the loss of the northern provinces the Vijayanagara monarchs were not much concerned: their attention was now concentrated on the great problem of reconstructing and preserving the Hindu Empire, which they did from three capitals—Penugoṇḍa, Chandragiri and Vellore.

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¹ Heras, Aravidu, p. 243.

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² Ibid., and n. (5).

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