Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c21.s2.t1.8

v2.c21.s2.t1.8

This mode of salutation being so different from that to which the foreign travellers were accustomed, it is not surprising that they should have keenly observed it. Nuniz gives us details about it: "The manner of the salaam which the nobles make to the King every day is this:—In the morning the nobles go to the palace at ten or eleven o'clock, at which hour the King comes out from within where his wives are, and after he has taken his seat they open to the nobles, and each one comes by himself and bows his head and raises his hands. This is what they call the 'salaam' (salema). With the king are about ten or twelve men who have the duty, on the entrance of each captain, of saying to the King: 'See, your Highness, your captain so-and-so, who makes salaam to You.'"[²]