Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c23.s2.1

v2.c23.s2.1

Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya remarks thus about dress and ornaments: "Take a gem that is flawless and wear it always. On all the days of the week a king should wear the dress and ornaments made of gems befitting his own greatness and the occasions."³ 'Abdur Razzāq describes the dress of the monarch when he sat in the audience-hall ready to receive foreign ambassadors. "The king (Dēva Rāya II) was seated in great state in the forty-pillared hall, and a great crowd of Brahmans and others stood on the right and left of him. He was clothed in a robe of *zaitūn* (olive coloured?)⁴ satin, and he had round his neck a collar composed of pure pearls of regal excellence, the value of which a jeweller would find it difficult to calculate."¹ Evidently the maxim of Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya had already found favour with his predecessors.