Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s5.18

v1.c9.s5.18

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.