Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c23.s2.9

v2.c23.s2.9

There was one new feature, therefore, in the dress of the monarch which did not exist in the days of Deva Raya II, and this was the high cap worn "like a Galician helmet". Paes in his description of the twenty women-porters already cited elsewhere, tells us that they also wore high caps called 'collaes' (kullāyi), "and on these caps they wear flowers made of large pearls".⁵ Nuniz confirms him in this detail of the high caps worn by the kings. "The King never puts on any garment more than once, and when he takes it off he at once delivers it to certain officers who have charge of this duty, and they render an account; and these garments are never given to any one. This is considered to show great state. His cloths are silk cloths (pachois) of very fine material and worked with gold, which are worth each one ten pardaos; and they wear at times bajuris of the same sort, which are like shirts with a skirt; and on the head they wear caps of brocade which they call *culaes*, and one of these is worth some twenty cruzados. When he lifts it from his head he never again puts it on."¹ Duarte Barbosa and Caesar Frederick, as we shall presently narrate, also speak of these high caps which, according to them, were worn by the common people. From the statues of Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya the Great and of the Nāyakas of Madura found in the temples of the south, it is evident that these high caps were the rule of the day from Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya's times.²