Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s3.t2.7.3

v2.c18.s3.t2.7.3

We may allow two or three years for this campaign, and place the event in A. D. 1498 or 1499. Barbosa could never have been in the Hindu capital while the ruler undertook a war against the "King of Otisa", for the earliest date given to Barbosa is, as related above, A.D. 1500. There is one more point which we may note in this connection. Rāja-nātha, in spite of the fact that he describes the conventional tour of his royal master to Benares (Kāśi), does not mention anywhere the Sultans of the Deccan in the course of his narrative. These significant details make it impossible for one to believe that the ruler referred to by Barbosa could have been Sāḷuva Nṛisiṃha. As regards Vira Narasimha, it is not impossible that affairs at the capital were too engrossing to allow him to think of extending his frontiers in the north. We come now to Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya, who, as is well known, led his campaigns against the Sultans of the Deccan and the king of Orissa. The ruler mentioned by Barbosa has, therefore, rightly been identified with Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya.¹ This monarch ruled from A. D. 1509 to 1529.² We conclude, therefore, that Barbosa could not have any opportunity of witnessing the death of a Vijayanagara king who waged wars against the "King of Daquen and the King of Otisa"—in or about A. D. 1509 or A. D. 1514.³