Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c25.s1.76

v2.c25.s1.76

Although Linschoten improves upon Conti's version by saying that "all the country people, both men and women," merely pulled the large cables or ropes, and that they did not "hang themselves to the chariot by way of ornament," as the latter asserts, yet the account we have given above cannot be accepted as accurate for the following reasons: Linschoten says that "under it (the image in the chariot) sit the King's wives" playing on musical instrument. Paes speaks of the dancing-women going in front of the cars. If this was the custom in the capital, it could not have been that the "king's wives" sat in the temple chariot on the coast of Coromandal. Further, Linschoten speaks of those who sacrificed themselves by falling under the wheels of the chariot "being kept and preserved for great and holy Reliques". This incredible assertion needs no refutation.