A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c15.20

c15.20

The war was probably undertaken in revenge for a cruel massacre of Muhammadans which took place in this year A.D. 1469, according to Barros.² At this period the coast trade was altogether in the hands of the Muhammadans, and they used to import large numbers of horses, principally for the use of the great contending armies in the Dakhan and Vijayanagar. The Hindu king depended on this supply to a large extent. In 1469 the Moors at Batecala (Bhatkal) having sold horses to the "Moors of Decan," the king of Vijayanagar ordered his vassal at Onor (Honawar) "to kill all those Moors as far as possible, and frighten the rest away." The result of this was a terrible massacre, in which 10,000 Musulmâns lost their lives. The survivors fled and settled themselves at Goa, thus founding the city that afterwards became the capital of Portuguese India. Nuniz alludes to the loss of "Goa, Chaull, and Dabull" by Vijayanagar in the reign of "Verupaca."³ (Purchas states that the massacre took place in 1479 A.D.)