Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c19.s3.31

v2.c19.s3.31

We shall see in the next chapter what Paes has to say about the Brahman women; meanwhile we may pass on to the accounts of Nuniz. "And in this kingdom of Bisnaga there is a class of men, natives of the country, namely Brahmans, who the most part of them never kill or eat any live thing, and these are the best that there are amongst them. They are honest men, given to merchandise, very acute and of much talent, very good at accounts, lean men and well-formed, but little fit for hard work. By these and by the duties they undertake the kingdom is carried on. They believe that there are Three Persons and only One God, and they call the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity *Tricebemca* "1. Then again he says: "These people have such devotion to cows that they kiss them everyday, some they say even on the rump—a thing I do not assert for their honour—and with the droppings of these cows they absolve themselves from their sins as if with holy water. They have for a commandment to confess their sins to the Brahman priests, but they do not do it, except only those who are very religious...They give in excuse that they feel a shame to confess themselves to another man, and say that it is sufficient to confess themselves alone after approching God, for he who does not do so does not acquire grace; thus they fulfil the command in one way or another. But they do it so seldom (in reality) that they (may be said to) neglect this command to confess".² These details given by Nuniz about confession among Brahmans are rather strange: the chronicler evidently belongs to the earlier school of Portuguese writers who shared the belief that "the Hindus were Christians of a sort".³