Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s5.49

v1.c9.s5.49

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