Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c23.s3.23

v2.c23.s3.23

Nuniz confirms the evidence of inscriptions which, as we have already related in connection with the officials of the Government, speak of an official who carried the betel-pouch (*haḍapa*), in his description of the high dignitaries around the king. "The page who served the King with betel had fifteen thousand foot and two hundred horse, but he had no elephants."2 Next to millet which, according to Nuniz, as already seen, was "mostc onsumed in the land", came "betel (*betre*), which is a thing that in the greater part of the country they always eat and carry in the mouth".³