Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s5.68

v1.c9.s5.68

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