A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c10.33

c10.33

The success of the early kings was phenomenal. Ibn Batuta, who was in India from 1333 to 1342, states that even in his day a Muhammadan chief on the western coast was subject to Harihara I., whom he calls “Haratb” or “Harib,” from “Hariyappa” another form of the king’s name; while a hundred years later Abdur Razzâk, envoy from Persia, tells us that the king of Vijayanagar was then lord of all Southern India, from sea to sea and from the Dakhan to Cape Comorin—“from the frontier of Serendib (Ceylon) to the extremities of the country of Kalbergah . . . His troops amount in number to eleven lak,” *i.e.* 1,100,000. Even so early as 1378 A.D., according to Firishtah,¹ the Râya of Vijayanagar was "in power, wealth, and extent of country" greatly the superior of the Bâhmanî king of the Dakhan.