Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c23.s2.36

v2.c23.s2.36

Barbosa says the following about the dress of the people: "The natives of this land are Heathen like himself (i.e., the king); they are tawny men, nearly white. Their hair is long, straight and black. The men are of good height with 'physnomies' like our own: the women go very trimly clad; the men wear certain clothes as a girdle below, wound very tightly in many folds, and short white shirts of cotton or silk or coarse brocade, which are gathered between the thighs but open in front: on their heads they carry small turbans, and some wear silk or brocade caps, they wear their rough shoes on their feet (without stockings). They wear also other large garments thrown over their shoulders like capes, and are accompanied by pages walking behind them with their swords in their hands. The substances with which they are always anointed are these: white sanders-wood, aloes, camphor, musk, and saffron, all ground fine and kneaded with rose water. With these they anoint themselves after bathing, and so they are always very highly scented. They wear many rings set with precious stones and many earrings set with fine pearls in their ears. As well as the page armed with a sword, whom, as I have said, they take with them, they take also another who holds an umbrella (lit. a shade-hat with a handle) to shade them and to keep off the rain, and of these some are made of finely worked silk with many golden tassels, and many precious stones and seed-pearls. They are so made as to open and shut, and many cost three to four hundred cruzados."¹