Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c23.s3.5

v2.c23.s3.5

In the stately reception which was at first accorded to the Persian ambassador, as already remarked in connection with the foreign relations of Vijayanagara, provision was made for a daily supply of two sheep, four couple of fowls, five maunds of rice, one maund of butter, one maund of sugar and two varāha in gold.¹ According to Paes, whose notices of the nature of the country also have been cited,—" These dominions are very well cultivated and very fertile, and are provided with quantities of cattle, such as cows, buffaloes, and sheep; also of birds, both those belonging to the hills and those reared at home, and this in greater abundance than in our tracts. The land has plenty of rice and Indian corn, grains, beans, and other kind of crops which are not sown in our parts; also an infinity of cotton. Of the grains there is a great quantity, because, besides being used as food for men, it is also used for horses, since there is no other kind of barley; and this country has also much wheat and that good."²