Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c25.s2.96

v2.c25.s2.96

From the manner in which elephant hunting has been associated with one of the titles of the kings of Vijayanagara, we may assume that it was specially patronized by the princes. We know that one of the birudus of Dēva Rāya II was Gaja-bēṇṭekāra (Hunter of elephants). In earlier times as well this game attracted the attention of the rulers. Harihara Oḍeyar is said to have gone a-hunting elephants in A. D. 1349.⁴ Abdur Razzāq's detailed description of the methods by which they caught and trained elephants for hunting and other purposes, figures in one of the previous chapters of this treatise. An inscription dated Śaka 1373 expired, Prajāpati (A. D. 1451), contains the information that Dēva Rāya witnessed an elephant hunt.⁵ There is no reason to doubt that Dēva Rāya might have been justified in appending the *birudu* Gaja-bēṇṭekāra to his name.¹