Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s5.65

v1.c9.s5.65

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