Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c25.s2.114

v2.c25.s2.114

There is one point which may be noted here—whether hawks were used in hunting and whether they were unknown to the Hindus before they were introduced by the Muhamadans. Firishtah tells us, as we already remarked, that Aḥmad Shāh Bāhmani gave to the son of Dēva Rāya, among other presents, "dogs for the chase and a leash of hawks; to which last, the people of Carnatic had been till then strangers".³ In the reply which Dēva Rāya sent to Alā-ud-din Aḥmad Shāh, according to ‘Abdur Razzāq, there is evidence of the existence of falconers in Vijayanagara. The king says: "Now let all that my enemy can seize from out my dominions be considered as booty, and made over to his saiyids and professors; as for me, all that I can take from his kingdom I will make over to my falconers and brahmans".⁴ If hawks had been introduced into Vijayanagara only in the reign of Dēva Rāya, we would not have met with the word Sāḷuva in Indian history in early times. But as we have already seen, one of the relatives of Harihara Rāya II was called Sāḷuva Rāma Dēva. In the record dated about A. D. 1434 which has been cited above, Sāḷuva Tippa Rāya Oḍeyar is styled as a hawk to royal birds—rāya-pakshi-sāḷuva.⁵ We may, therefore, accept Firishtah's assertion with some reservation.