Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c23.s3.36

v2.c23.s3.36

² Barbosa, I, Dames, p. 217, and n. (1); Stanley, p. 93. To assert the following, relying only on the evidence of Nuniz, without corroborating it with that given by other contemporary witnesses and inscriptions, is a very undesirable method of judging the past. "Great laxity seems to have prevailed in matters of diet; and although Nuniz writes that the Brahmans, whom he describes as the cream of Vijayanagar population, never killed or ate any live thing". Iswari Prasad, *Med. Ind.*, p. 438. The Brahmans were "the cream of the Vijayanagar population" only to a certain extent: there were others and equally venerable classes, the Jainas and the Liṅgāyats. It is wrong to say that only the Brahmans "never killed or ate any live thing". Barbosa thus writes about the Liṅgāyas: "They also eat no flesh nor fish". Dames, I, p. 218; Stanley p. 94. Although foreigners have ignored the existence of the Jainas, yet it is obvious that they too were as careful and considerate as the Brahmans and the Liṅgāyats in their diet. For Nuniz's notices of the royal kitchen, see Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 371 op. cit.