Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c25.s2.65

v2.c25.s2.65

Nuniz confirms both Barbosa and Castenheda in their account of the duelling in Vijayanagara. We have seen that according to Nuniz great honour was done to those who fought in a duel, and to those who won they gave the estate of the dead man. Although the versions of Barbosa and Castanheda differ from each other as regards the person who authorized people to fight duels—the former tells us that "no one fights a duel without first asking leave of the minister," the latter asserts that "those who fight ask the King for a field,"—yet the descriptions of Castanheda and Barbosa may be supplemented by the following account of the duel between the Gajapati Prince Virabhadra and one of the king's own men. Nuniz here, it must be noted, commits an error in saying that that Prince lost his life in a duel, thereby contradicting the evidence of inscriptions which speak of Prince Virabhadra as a provincial governor in the Karṇāṭaka. Nevertheless the account of Nuniz is not without its interest. "And he (i.e., Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya) sent to call the son of the king of Orya who was taken captive in the first fortress, and told him that as people said he was a very active man and was very dexterous with both sword and dagger, he would be pleased to see him fence.