Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c20.s3.53

v2.c20.s3.53

This evidence about the existence of prostitutes in the capital from ‘Abdur Razzāq and the Hindu poets may be compared with that given by other travellers. Paes, for example, visited the very quarters which ‘Abdur Razzāq has described but it is very interesting to observe that the Portuguese traveller has nothing to say about the character of the inmates of the houses. His opinion seems, in this particular instance, to run counter to that of ‘Abdur Razzāq. Paes writes thus: "Then going forward you have another gate with another line of wall, and it also encircles the city inside the first, and from here to the king's palace is all streets and rows of houses, very beautiful, and houses of captains and other rich and honourable men; you will see rows of houses with many figures and decorations pleasing to look at".³ If this description of the beautiful figures and decorations given by Paes refers to the same beautifully decorated houses about which the Persian ambassador has spoken, then, while the latter makes them houses of prostitutes, the former styles them as houses of rich and honourable men. That Paes is more intimately acquainted with the streets and parts of the city is clear from what he says in his chronicle, and especially from the manner in which he dwells on the question of streets. "That I may not forget to tell of the streets that are in the palace I here mention them. You must know that inside the palace that I have spoken of is the dwelling of the king and of his wives and of the other women who serve them, as I have clearly said, who are twelve thousand in number; and they have an entrance to these rows of houses so that they can go inside. Between this palace and the House of Victory is a gate which serves as passage to it. Inside there are thirty-four streets".¹