Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c20.s5: Section 5. Description of Women

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c20.s5

Language: English

Section 5. Description of Women

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Prominent as has been the part which women played in the social, political, and literary life of the people, one may be justified in placing before the reader their picture, with the aid of the materials left to us both by foreign and Hindu writers. Abdur Razzāq writes in a thoroughly oriental vein the following about the dancing-girls. "The singers were for the most part young girls, with cheeks like the moon, and faces more blooming than the spring, adorned with beautiful garments and displaying figures which ravished the heart like fresh roses. They were seated behind a beautiful curtain, opposite the king. On a sudden the curtain was removed on both sides, and the girls began to move their feet with such grace, that wisdom lost its senses, and the soul was intoxicated with delight".³

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³ Elliot, *Hist. of India*, IV, p. 118.

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Barbosa was also struck by the beauty of the women of Vijayanagara. He writes: "They teach their women from childhood to sing, play and dance, and to turn about and take many light steps. These women are very beautiful and very bold".⁴ About their dress he says: "The women wear white garments of very thin cotton, or silk of bright colours, five yards long: one part of which is girt round them below, and the other part they throw over one shoulder and across their breasts in such a way that one arm and shoulder remains uncovered, as with a scarf (*reguacho*). They wear leather shoes well embroidered in silk; their heads are uncovered and the hair is tightly gathered into a becoming knot on the top of the head, and in their hair they put many scented flowers. In the side of one of the nostrils they make a small hole, through which they put a fine gold wire with a pearl, sapphire or ruby pendant. They have their ears bored as well, and in them they wear earrings set with many jewels; on their necks they wear necklaces of gold and jewels and very fine coral beads, and bracelets of gold and precious stones and many good coral beads are fitted to their arms. Thus the most part of this people is very wealthy."¹

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⁴ Barbosa, Dames I, p. 208; Stanley, p. 88.

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¹ *Barbosa*, Dames I, pp. 207-8; Stanley, pp. 87-8. *Cf.* The account given by Ibn Batūta, who speaks of the women of Honnāvūru: "The women of this city, and of all the Indian Districts on the sea shore, never dress in clothes that have been stitched but the contrary. One of them, for example, will tie one part of a piece of cloth round her waist, while the remaining part will be placed upon head and breast". Ibn Batūta, *Travels*, pp. 165-6 (Lee.).

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Paes confirms both 'Abdur Razzāq and Barbosa about the beauty of the women. While dealing with the Brahmans, he says: "They are all married, and have very beautiful wives; the wives are very retiring, and very seldom leave the house. The women are of light colour, and in the caste of these Brahmans are the fairest men and women that there are in the land; for though there are men in other castes commonly of light complexion, yet these are few".²

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² Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 246.

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The description of the dress of the women of Vijayanagara given by Barbosa is to be read in conjunction with that given by Paes, who has the following to narrate: "They have very rich and fine silk cloths; on the head they wear high caps which they call collaes, and on these caps they wear flowers made of large pearls; collars on the neck with jewels of gold very richly set with many emeralds and diamonds and rubies and pearls; and besides this many strings of pearls, and others for shoulder-belts; on the lower part of the arms many bracelets, with half of the upper arm all bare, having armlets in the same way all of precious stones; on the waist many girdles of gold and of precious stones, which girdles hang in order one below the other, almost as far down as half the thigh; besides these belts they have other jewels, and many strings of pearls round the ankles, for they wear very rich anklets even of greater value than the rest. They carry in their hands vessels of gold each as large as a small cask of water; inside there are some loops made of pearls fastened with wax; and inside all this is a lighted lamp. They come in regular order one before the other, in all perhaps sixty women fair and young, from sixteen to twenty years of age ".¹ While describing the scaffoldings near the House of Victory, the same chronicler says: "Against the gates there were two circles in which were the dancing-women, richly arrayed with many jewels of gold and diamonds and many pearls ".²

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¹ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 273. *Collaes* = *Kullāyi*, ibid., n. (1).

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² *Ibid.*, p. 264.

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The remarks of Nuniz on the ornaments of the women of Vijayanagara are meagre. He speaks of the " thirty six of the most beautiful of the King's wives covered with gold and pearls, and much work of seed-pearls, and in the hands of each a vessel of gold with a lamp of oil burning in it . . . . . These women are so richly bedecked with gold and precious stones that they are hardly able to move ".³

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³ *Ibid.*, p. 378. On what a Hindu woman feels about her ornaments, read Anand Coomarswamy, *Arts and Crafts of India*, pp. 149-50, 152; Sarkar, *Pos. Back.*, I, pp. 79-80. Thirteen ornaments are described in an inscription of Rājēndra Chōḷa's times. *S. I. I.* II, P. I, pp. 77, 84, *seq.*; *S. I. I.* II, P. II, p. 428; *Cf.* This with a list of ornaments given in 243 of 1899 dated Ś. 1438 (but included in 1900). See *Ep. Report* 1900, pp. 40-1. For ornaments in the *Mānasāra*, Acharya, *Ind. Arch.*, p. 67. See also Watters, *Yuan Chwang*, I, p. 148-51; Abbè Dubois, *Hind. Man. & Cust.*, Ch. XV, p. 332, *seq.*

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Pietro della Valle also observed the costume of the dancing-girls. While he was walking through the city of the Ikkeri " late in the evening without the Ambassador we saw going along the streets several companies of young girls, well cloth'd after their manner, with some of the above-mentioned wrought and figur'd Silk from the girdle downwards; and from thence upward either naked, or else with very pure linen, either of one colour, or strip'd and wrought with several, besides a scarf of the same work cast over the shoulder. Their heads were deck'd with yellow and white flowers form'd into a high and large Diadem, with some sticking out like Sun-beams, and others twisted together and hanging down in several fashions, which made a pretty sight ".¹

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¹ Pietro della Valle, *Travels*, II, pp. 257-8. The note (1) which Edward Grey makes on page 258 can in no sense be applied to the average woman of southern India. The " some classes" referred to by him are, and have been, the humbler sections of the agricultural and industrial people. B. A. S.

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Inscriptions do not enlighten us on the question of the dress worn by the women of Vijayanagara. If the converse of the following is suggested, we have some few details about the general appearance of a woman. In an inscription dated A. D. 1422, the glory of the great Jaina general Irugappa Daṇṇāyaka, manifested in the woes of women of the people whom he had conquered, is thus sung: "By their ears, their earrings forgotten, by their foreheads with no marks fixed on them, by their dishevelled curls, by their breasts untouched by strings of pearls, and by their *bimba*-like lips deprived of the redness (caused) by the betel, the wives of hostile kings very often make his great prowess manifest on all sides ".²

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² E. C., II, No. 253, p. 108 (2nd ed.)

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To the above are to be added the descriptions given by poets, who, although they do not dwell with the minuteness of Bāṇa on the appearance and toilet of women,³ and are guided by a conventional uniformity which mars their accounts to some extent, yet have a few observations to make on the form, features and dress of the Hindu women. Kumāra Vālmiki, for example, who wrote the well known *Toṛave Rāmāyaṇa*, and who lived about A. D. 1500, describes women thus:

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³ The details given by Bāṇa refer to the painting of the lips with melted lac, the use of the cosmetics for the face and vermilion powder for the forehead, etc., in the seventh century A. D. Bāṇa. *Harshacharita*, pp. 68, 115, 124. An inscription of A. D. 1074 speaks of the marriage pandals of the seventy families (*elpatt-okkala maduveya pandara*) and money for the looking glasses of the dancing-girls. E. C., VII, Sk. 295, p. 150, text, p. 343. Another epigraph dated A. D. 1135 says the following about the senior queen of Viṣṇuvardhana, Bommala Dēvi: "... her lips marked with sandal powder from the toe nails of the feet of Pārvati." E. C., IV, Ng. 3, p. 113.

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ಚರಣಕಾಂತಿಗಳಿಂದ ನೂಪುರ | ಗುರುನಿತಂಬದಿ ಕಾಂಚಿ ಕೋಮಲ | ಕರದಿ ಕಂಕಣ ಬೆರಳುನಿಂದುಗುರವು ಕೊರಳಂದ || ಸರದ ಮುತ್ತುಗಳೊಲೇ ಕದಪಿಂ | ದಿರದೆ ಮೇಲಿರ್ದುವು ಸ್ವರಕರಾಂಗ | ಸ್ಫುರಿತ ಚಾಪಕಲಾಪ ಶರದಭಿಮಾನ ದೇವತೆಯ || ಹೊಳಹೊಳೆಯುವ ತನುಕಾಂತಿಯಲಿ ಗಜ | ಗಲಿಸಿದವು ಹೊಂದೊಡವುಗಳು ಫಲ | ಧಳಿಸಿದವು ಮುತ್ತುಗಳು ದಂತಪ್ರಭೆಯ ಲಹರಿಯಲಿ || ಸುಲಲಿತಾಧರ ರಾಗದಿಂದು | ಜ್ವಲಿಸಿದವು ಮಾಣಿಕಜಯವಾ | ರಳವು ಹೊಗಳಿರುವೆದ ಬುಜಗಂಧಿಯ ವಿಪುಳ ವಿಭ್ರಮವ || 1 ||

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About half a century later poet Bāhubali, author of *Nāgakumāra Kathe*, wrote thus :

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ಚಿತ್ತಜ ರತಿದೇವಿಯರಾಡುವ ಪೂನ್ನ |
ನೆತ್ತದ ಹಲಗೆಯೊ ಮೇಣು |
ಎತ್ತಿ ಬಿಚ್ಚಿದ ಬೀಸಣಿಗೆಯೊ ತಾನೇನಿ |
ಸಿತ್ತುನುಣ್ಣೆನ್ನ ಮಾನಿಯಿಯ ||
ಉದದೆ ತೊಡದೆ ಸೋಲಿಪ ಕಡುಜಲ್ಲನು |
ಮಡಗಿದ ಬಿದಿ ತನ್ನೊಳೆಂದು |
ಮಜದಿ ಮಣಿಯ ಸುಣ್ಣೆನ್ನಿಟ್ಟಿದವಯವ |
ದೊಡನೆ ಸೇಣಸಿ ಮಲೆತಿಹುದು ||
ಮೋಗಜಂದಿರನಿಗೊಪ್ಪಿಂಚಿತ ವಟಫಲ |
ಮೋಗಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಿಗೆ ರನ್ನದೊಡವು |
ಮೋಗರಸವಾರ್ಥಿಗೆ ವಿದ್ಯುಮಲತೆಯೆನೆ ||
ಸೊಗಯಿಪುದವಳ ಚೆಂಡುಟಿಯ |
ಜಂದಿರವಾಲ್ಲದಲಿಂ ಬರ್ಪಂದೊಡ |
ವಂದಮುತ್ತುಗಳೊ ಮೇಣಮೃತ ||

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¹ Kavicharite, II, p. 143. Cf. Kumāra Vyāsa's description of Draupadi, ibid., p. 67; Bommarasa's description of Parave, wife of Nambiyanna, ibid., p. 91.

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ಬೆಂದುಗಳ್ ಕಠಿನವಾಂತುವೊ ತಾವೆನಿಸಹು | ಎಂದು ಮುಖಿಯ ರದನಗಳು | ಮೊಗದಾವರೆಗೆ ಮೋಹಿಸಿ ಬಂದು ಸಂಪಗೆ || ಮುಗುಳಂಬವಳ ನಾಸಿಕವ | ಮಿಗೆ ಕಂಡು ಪೆರ್ಲಿಸಾದ್ ಮದಿರ್ದುಂಬಿಗಳೆನೆ | ಸೊಗಯಿಸಿಹವು ಪಜ್ಜಗುರುಳು || 1 ||

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The talented poet VirūpākshaPaṇḍita, who wrote *ChennabasavaPurāṇa* in A. D. 1584, also has the following to say about women :

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ನುದಿವ ಕನ್ನಡಿ ನೋಡುವುತ್ತಲಂ ಪೂಗಳಂ | ಮುದಿವ ಕಾಳಾಹಿ ಜಲಿಸದೆ ನಿಂದ ಮದಿರ್ದುಂಬಿ | ನಡೆವ ಪೂಂಬಾತಿಯರಲದ ಮೊಗ್ಗೆ ತಳರೊಲ್ಲದೆ ಪರಿಯದೆಳೆಯ ಪಾವು || ಕುಜಿವರಿಯದಿಸರ್ ಲತಿಕಾಯದ ಸುಮಂ ಸಿಂಹ | ಕಡಗದಾನೆಯ ಕುಂಭಮೆಂಬಿನವಯವ ಮಾಗಿ | ಬಿಡದೆ ಮೂಲೋಕ ವೇಹಿನಿಯರಾಗಿರತನುಜಿಯೆಡ ಬಲದೊಲಟ್ಟೆನಿಸಿದರ್ || 2 ||

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Pāyaṇṇavrati (circa 1600) may have voiced the opinion of the sober minded section of the people when he composed the concluding lines of the following stanza :

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ನಡುಸಿಂಹ ಧನು ಪುರ್ವ್ವ ಕುಚಕುಂಭ ಮೀನಾಕ್ಷಿ | ಮದದಿಮಕರ ಪತ್ರದಿಂದ || ನಡಗರದಿಂ ನಿದುಹಸ್ತದಿಂದಲಿ ಕನ್ನೆ | ಬೆಡಗಂದೊಪ್ಪಿದೊಳ್ ರಾಸಿಯಂತೆ || ಹರಿಯ ಅಂಗವು ಕಪ್ಪು ಹರನ ಕೊರಳು ಕಪ್ಪು | ಉರಗನ ಹೆಡೆಯೊಳು ಕಪ್ಪು || ವರವಾಣಹಸ್ತದ ವೀಣಿತಾ ಕಡುಕಪ್ಪು | ಕಪ್ಪಿಂದ ಕೊಲಿತೆಯೇ ನಮ್ಮ || ಹೆಣ್ಣೆಗಾಗಿ ಹರಿ ತುದಿಗಳ ಕಾದನು | ಹೆಣ್ಣೆ ನಿಂದಜನು ಕೆಟ್ಟ ||

Linked texts (6)

Mānasāra — Sanskrit
Harṣacarita — Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Sanskrit
Epigraphia Carnatica
South Indian Inscriptions
Toravĕ Rāmāyaṇa — Narahari (Kumāra Vālmīki) 1500, Kannada
Cennabasavapurāṇa — Virūpākṣapaṇḍita 1559, Kannada