A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c18.37

c18.37

Our information on conditions of industry, trade and travel becomes more copious and precise after the foundation of Vijayanagar and Bāhmani kingdoms, thanks to the many interested foreigners who visited these famous kingdoms and left records of what they saw. And the establishment of the Portuguese power followed by the advent of the trading companies of other European nations, whose factors gained intimate knowledge of the industries of the country, also resulted in the collection and recording of much valuable information on the economic conditions of South India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Much of this material still awaits critical study, and here we must rest content with a brief reference to some outstanding observations. Abdur Razzak (1443) described the kingdom of Vijayanagar as a place extremely large and thickly peopled, and its king as ‘possessing greatness and sovereignty to the highest degree, whose dominion extends from the frontier of Serendib (Ceylon) to the extremities of the country of Kalbergah’. The country was for the most part well cultivated and very fertile. It contained about 300 ports and its army included 1,000 elephants and eleven lakhs of troops.