Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c19.s2.t2.45

v2.c19.s2.t2.45

In political matters, too, the Brahmans could turn out into deceitful diplomats. An example of a wicked Brahman-diplomat of this type is that of Rāmayya Bhāskaruḍu, a subordinate of Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya. It was he who managed to have all the seventy-two nobles, the subordinates of the Reḍḍi kings, beheaded in the temple of Gōpinātha at Koṇḍavīḍu. The local chronicles contain the following details in connection with this dastardly incident. The Brahman was furnished with money, and directed to restore the magnificent temple of Gōpinātha Svāmi at the foot of Koṇḍavīḍu. A new image was to be consecrated and set up, and for the celebration of these rites, the presiding priest invited the seventy-two chiefs to descend from their hill fortress. “They came—the three score and twelve—and were all seated in the great hall. From thence one by one the officiating priest led them to the inner shrine to view the new representation of deity, and to bow before the image that the great Krishna Dēva Rāyalu had set up. As they stepped into the *antaralikam* or inner hall, and bowed at the threshold, two ruffians, who were concealed in the chamber, stepped forward, and before the victim had time to raise a cry, precipitated him into a deep well whose mouth it was impossible to discover amid the surrounding gloom. One by one each Reḍḍi Chieftain approached the shrine, and all shared one common fate, one common grave, and then all was easy for Krishna Dēva Rāyalu to seize the fort”.¹