A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c14.32

c14.32

If this be correct, the reign of Deva Râya II., granting that it lasted as stated by Nuniz for twenty-five years, ended in A.D. 1444. Now the chronicle tells us a story of how this Deva Râya's son and successor, "Pina Rao,"² was attacked by his nephew with a poisoned dagger, and died from the effects of his wounds after a lapse of six months. Abdur Razzâk, more reliable because he was not only a contemporary but was at Vijayanagar at the time, relates the same anecdote of Deva Râya II. himself, making the would-be assassin the king's brother, and definitely fixing the date beyond a shadow of a doubt. The event occurred on some day between November 1442 and April 1443—the outside limits of Razzâk's visit to Calicut—during his stay at which place he says it happened. Abdur Razzâk does not mention the king's death, and this therefore had not supervened up to the time of the traveller leaving the capital in December 1443. On the assumption that we need not be too particular about Nuniz's "six months," we may conclude that the attack was made about the month of April 1443, and that Deva Râya II. died early in 1444 A.D. There is still, however, a difficulty, as will be noticed below, inscriptions giving us the name of a Deva Râya as late as 1449 A.D., but it is just possible that this was another king of the same name.