A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c16.6

c16.6

Nothing has since transpired to throw light on this subject, and the whole matter has remained up to the present in its primeval darkness; but this newly-found chronicle of Nuniz gives us the entire story in most interesting form, though I can by no means vouch for its accuracy. It is, nevertheless, a *résumé* of the traditional history of the early sixteenth century, written within fifty or sixty years of the events with which it deals. He tells us that Virûpâksha Râya (“Verupacarao”) was a weak and unworthy sovereign, in whose days large tracts of land were lost to the Muhammadans, including Goa, Chaul, and Dabhôl; and this statement, at least, is historically accurate. Virûpâksha was despotic, cruel, and sensuous, “caring for nothing but women and to fuddle himself with drink,” so that the whole country was roused to indignation and rebellion. Eventually he was murdered by his eldest son, who in his turn was slain by his brother “Padearao,” in whom the nation merely found repeated the crimes and follies of his dead sire. Disgusted with this line of sovereigns, the nobles rose, deposed their king, and placed on the throne one of their own number, Narasimha—“Narsymgua, *who was in some manner akin to him.*”