A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c21.s2: Narrative of Domingos Paes (Written Probably A.D. 1520-22)
A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c21.s2
- Language
- English
Narrative of Domingos Paes (Written Probably A.D. 1520-22)
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OF THE THINGS WHICH I SAW AND CONTRIVED TO LEARN CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF NARSIMGA, ETC.¹
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¹ The "kingdom of Narsinga" is the name often given by the Portuguese and others to Vijayanagar.
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ON leaving India² to travel towards the kingdom of Narsymga from the sea-coast, you have (first) to pass a range of hills (*serra*), the boundary of the said kingdom and of those territories which are by the sea. This *serra* runs along the whole of the coast of India, and has passes by which people enter the interior; for all the rest of the range is very rocky and is filled with thick forest. The said kingdom has many places on the coast of India; they are seaports with which we are at peace, and in some of them we have factories, namely, Amcola, Mirgeo, Honor, Batecalla, Mamgalor, Bracalor, and Bacanor. And as soon as we are above this *serra* we have a plain country in which there are no more ranges of hills, but only a few mountains, and these small ones; for all the rest is like the plains of Ssantarem.³ Only on the road from Batecalla⁴ to a town called *Zambuja*, there are some ranges with forests; nevertheless the road is very even. From Batecala to this town of Zambur¹ is forty leagues; the road has many streams of water by its side, and because of this so much merchandise flows to Batecala that every year there come five or six thousand pack-oxen.
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² The term here is limited to the small territory of Portuguese India immediately round the city of Goa. Thus Linschoten (A.D. 1583) wrote, "At the end of Cambaya beginneth India, *and* the lands of Decam and Cuncam," meaning that immediately south of the territories of Cambay began those of Portuguese India, while other countries on the border were the Dakhan and the Konkan.
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³ In Portugal.
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⁴ This was apparently the usual route for travellers from the coast to Vijayanagar. Fr. Luis used it for his journey from Cochin to the capital in 1509 (above, p. 123, and note).
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¹ Probably Sandûr, about 120 miles from the coast at Bhatkal. Sandûr is a small Mahratta state 25 miles from Vijayanagar.
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Now to tell of the aforesaid kingdom. It is a country sparsely wooded except along this *serra* on the east,² but in places you walk for two or three leagues under groves of trees; and behind cities and towns and villages they have plantations of mangoes, and jack-fruit trees, and tamarinds and other very large trees, which form resting-places where merchants halt with their merchandise. I saw in the city of Recalem³ a tree under which we lodged three hundred and twenty horses, standing in order as in their stables, and all over the country you may see many small trees. These dominions are very well cultivated and very fertile, and are provided with quantities of cattle, such as cows, buffaloes, and sheep; also of birds, both those belonging to the hills and those reared at home, and this in greater abundance than in our tracts. The land has plenty of rice and Indian-corn, grains, beans, and other kind of crops which are not sown in our parts; also an infinity of cotton. Of the grains there is a great quantity, because, besides being used as food for men, it is also used for horses, since there is no other kind of barley; and this country has also much wheat, and that good. The whole country is thickly populated with cities and towns and villages; the king allows them to be surrounded only with earthen walls for fear of their becoming too strong. But if a city is situated at the extremity of his territory he gives his consent to its having stone walls, but never the towns; so that they may make fortresses of the cities but not of the towns.
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² That is, on the east of Portuguese India, west of the territory of Vijayanagar.
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³ Unidentified. The great tree was of course a banyan.
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And because this country is all flat, the winds blow here more than in other parts. The oil which it produces comes from seeds sown and afterwards reaped, and they obtain it by means of machines which they make. This country wants water because it is very great and has few streams; they make lakes in which water collects when it rains, and thereby they maintain themselves. They maintain themselves by means of some in which there are springs better than by others that have only the water from rain; for we find many quite dry, so that people go about walking in their beds, and dig holes to try and find enough water, even a little, for their maintenance. The failure of the water is because they have no winter, as in our parts and in (Portuguese) India, but only thunder-storms that are greater in one year than in another. The water in these lakes is for the most part muddy, especially in those where there are no springs, and the reason why it is so muddy is because of the strong wind and the dust that is in this country, which never allows the water to be clear; and also because of the numbers of cattle, buffaloes, cows, oxen, and other small cattle that drink in them. For you must know that in this land they do not slaughter oxen or cows; the oxen are beasts of burden and are like sumpter-mules; these carry all their goods. They worship the cows, and have them in their pagodas made in stone, and also bulls; they have many bulls that they present to these pagodas, and these bulls go about the city without any one causing them any harm or loss. Further, there are asses in this country, but they are small, and they use them only for little things; those that wash clothes lay the cloths on them, and use them for this more than for anything else. You must know that this kingdom of Narsymga has three hundred *graos* of coast, each *grao* being a league, along the hill-range (*serra*) of which I have spoken, until you arrive at Ballagate and Charamãodel,¹ which belong to this kingdom; and in breadth it is one hundred and sixty-four *graos*; each large *grao* measures two of our leagues, so that it has six hundred leagues of coast, and across it three hundred and forty-eight leagues . . . across from Batacalla to the kingdom of Orya.²
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¹ Coromandel. This name was applied by the Portuguese to the Eastern Tamil and Southern Telugu countries. It had no well-defined limits, and often was held to extend even as far north as to the Krishnâ river, or even to Orissa. Yule and Burnell adhere to the now generally received definition of the name from *Chola-mandala*, the country of the Cholas (Glossary, *s.v.* Coromandel).
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² Orissa.
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And this kingdom marches³ with all the territory of Bengal, and on the other side with the kingdom of Orya, which is to the east, and on the other side to the north with the kingdom of Dakhan, belonging to which are the lands which the Ydallcão⁴ has, and Ozemelluco.⁵ Goa is at war with this Ydallcão, because that city was his, and we have taken it from him.
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³ *Comquista com* is evidently an error for *confina com*. The same word is used three times in the next paragraph.
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⁴ The Âdil Khân, Sultan of Bîjapûr. The name is sometimes written by the Portuguese *Idalxa* (*xa* for *Shâh*). We have numberless spellings in the old chronicles, thus, *Hidalcan, Adelham, &c.*
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⁵ For Nizâm-ul-Mulk, or the Nizâm Shâh, the Sultan of Ahmadnagar. Similarly the Qutb Shâh of Golkonda is called in these chronicles “Cota-maluco.” The Imâd Shâh of Bîrâr is called the “Imademaluco,” or even “Madremaluco,” by the Dutch (Linschoten) and Portuguese. The Barîd Shâh of Bîdar is styled “Melique Verido.”
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And this kingdom of Orya, of which I have spoken above, is said to be much larger than the kingdom of Narsymga, since it marches with all Bengal, and is at war with her; and it marches with all the kingdom of Pegu and with the *Mallaca* Sea. It reaches to the kingdom of Cambaya, and to the kingdom of Dakhan; and they told me with positive certainty that it extends as far as Persia. The population thereof is light coloured, and the men are of good physique. Its king has much treasure and many soldiers and many elephants, for there are numbers of these in this country. (My informants) know this well, and they say that there is no ruler greater than he. He is a heathen.
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Coming back to our subject, I say that I will not mention here the situation of the cities, and towns, and villages in this kingdom of Narsymga, to avoid prolixity; only I shall speak of the city of Darcha,¹ which has a monument such as can seldom be seen elsewhere. This city of Darcha is very well fortified by a wall, though not of stone, for the reason that I have already stated. On the western side, which is towards (Portuguese) India, it is surrounded by a very beautiful river, and on the other, eastern, side the interior of the country is all one plain, and along the wall is its moat. This Darcha has a pagoda, which is the monument I speak of, so beautiful that another as good of its kind could not be found within a great distance. You must know that it is a round temple made of a single stone, the gateway all in the manner of joiners' work, with every art of perspective. There are many figures of the said work, standing out as much as a cubit from the stone, so that you see on every side of them, so well carved that they could not be better done—the faces as well as all the rest; and each one in its place stands as if embowered in leaves; and above it is in the Romanesque style, so well made that it could not be better. Besides this, it has a sort of lesser porch upon pillars, all of stone, and the pillars with their pedestals¹ so well executed that they appear as if made in Italy; all the cross pieces and beams are of the same stone without any planks or timber being used in it, and in the same way all the ground is laid with the same stone, outside as well as in. And all this pagoda, as far round as the temple goes, is enclosed by a trellis made of the same stone, and this again is completely surrounded by a very strong wall, better even than the city has, since it is all of solid masonry. It has three entrance gates, which gates are very large and beautiful, and the entrance from one of these sides, being towards the east and facing the door of the pagoda, has some structures like verandahs, small and low, where sit some *Jogis*;² and inside this enclosure, which has other little pagodas of a reddish colour, there is a stone like the mast of a ship, with its pedestal four-sided, and from thence to the top eight-sided, standing in the open air. I was not astonished at it, because I have seen the needle of St. Peter's at Rome, which is as high, or more.³
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¹ The spelling of this name in the original is very doubtful. First it reads Archa, on the next occasion it is undoubtedly Darcha. The third mention of the place calls it Larcha. But in each case the r is not very clear, and might be an i undotted. Moreover, the c may possibly be an e, and the name may be Areha or Dareha. If we should accept the latter, we may identify it with Dhárwár, and believe it to be the same as the Duree of Nuniz (below, p. 292).
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¹ *Pranhas* in original, probably for *pianhas* or *peanhas* (see below, p. 288). ² *Jogis*, Hindu ascetics. ³ This probably refers to the Egyptian obelisk at St. Peter's. ⁴ Evidently the god *Ganesa*.
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These pagodas are buildings in which they pray and have their idols; the idols are of many sorts, namely, figures of men and women, of bulls, and apes, while others have nothing but a round stone which they worship. In this temple of Darcha is an idol in the figure of a man as to his body, and the face is that of an elephant with trunk and tusks,⁴ and with three arms on each side and six hands, of which arms they say that already four are gone, and when all fall then the world will be destroyed; they are full of belief that this will be, and hold it as a prophecy. They feed the idol every day, for they say that he eats; and when he eats women dance before him who belong to that pagoda, and they give him food and all that is necessary, and all girls born of these women belong to the temple. These women are of loose character, and live in the best streets that there are in the city; it is the same in all their cities, their streets have the best rows of houses. They are very much esteemed, and are classed amongst those honoured ones who are the mistresses of the captains; any respectable man may go to their houses without any blame attaching thereto. These women (are allowed) even to enter the presence of the wives of the king, and they stay with them and eat betel with them, a thing which no other person may do, no matter what his rank may be. This betel is a herb which has a leaf like the leaf of the pepper, or the ivy of our country; they always eat this leaf, and carry it in their mouths with another fruit called areca. This is something like a medlar, but it is very hard, and it is very good for the breath and has many other virtues; it is the best provision for those who do not eat as we do. Some of them eat flesh; they eat all kinds except beef and pork, and yet, nevertheless, they cease not to eat this betel all day.
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Afterwards, going from this city of Darcha towards the city of Bisnaga,¹ which is eighteen leagues distant, and is the capital of all the kingdom of Narsymga, where the king always resides, you have many cities and walled villages; and two leagues before you arrive at the city of Bisnaga you have a very lofty *serra* which has passes by which you enter the city. These are called “gates” (*portas*). You must enter by these, for you will have no means of entrance except by them. This range of hills surrounds the city with a circle of twenty-four leagues, and within this range there are others that encircle it closely. Wherever these ranges have any level ground they cross it with a very strong wall, in such a way that the hills remain all closed, except in the places where the roads come through from the gates in the first range, which are the entrance ways to the city. In such places there are some small pits (or caves?)¹ which could be defended by a few people; these *serras* continue as far as the interior of the city. Between all these enclosures are plains and valleys where rice is grown, and there are gardens with many orange-trees, limes, citrons, and radishes (*rabãos*), and other kinds of garden produce as in Portugal, only not lettuces or cabbages. Between these hill-ranges are many lakes by which they irrigate the crops mentioned, and amongst all these ranges there are no forests or patches of brushwood, except very small ones, nor anything that is green. For these hills are the strangest ever seen, they are of a white stone piled one block over another in manner most singular, so that it seems as if they stood in the air and were not connected one with another; and the city is situated in the middle of these hills and is entirely surrounded by them.
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¹ “Bisnaga,” the Portuguese rendering of *Vijayanagar*, the “city of victory.” The spellings adopted by different writers have been endless. We have Beejanugger and Beejnugger in the translations of Firishtah; Bisnagar, Bidjanagar, Bijanagher, amongst the Portuguese; Bicheneger in the writings of the Russian Nikitin; Bizenegalia in those of the Italian Nicolo dei Conti.
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¹ *Buqueyrôis*. The word implies something dug out, as opposed to redoubts, which would be built up.
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The *serras* reach as far as the kingdom of Daquem,² and border upon the territories belonging to the Ydallcão, and upon a city called Rachol that formerly belonged to the king of Narsymga; there has been much war over it, and this king took it from the Ydallcão. So that these ranges are in a way the cause (of the two kingdoms) never uniting and always being at war; and even on the side of Orya also there are ranges, but they are different from these, since like ours they have scrub and small patches of brushwood; these ranges are low and between them are great plains. On the extreme east of these two kingdoms you must know that the country is all covered with scrub, the densest possible to be seen, in which there are great beasts, and (this) forms so strong a fortress for it that it protects both sides; it has its entrances by which they pass from one kingdom to the other. In these passes on the frontier the king of Narsymga has a captain with a quantity of troops, but on the side of (Portuguese) India he has none, except as I have said.
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² Dakhan.
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Now turning to the gates of the first range, I say that at the entrance of the gate where those pass who come from Goa, which is the principal entrance on the western side, this king has made within it a very strong city¹ fortified with walls and towers, and the gates at the entrances very strong, with towers at the gates; these walls are not like those of other cities, but are made of very strong masonry such as would be found in few other parts, and inside very beautiful rows of buildings made after their manner with flat roofs. There live in this many merchants, and it is filled with a large population because the king induces many honourable merchants to go there from his cities, and there is much water in it. Besides this the king made a tank² there, which, as it seems to me, has the width of a falcon-shot,³ and it is at the mouth of two hills, so that all the water which comes from either one side or the other collects there; and, besides this, water comes to it from more than three leagues by pipes which run along the lower parts of the range outside. This water is brought from a lake which itself overflows into a little river. The tank has three large pillars handsomely carved with figures; these connect above with certain pipes by which they get water when they have to irrigate their gardens and rice-fields. In order to make this tank the said king broke down a hill which enclosed the ground occupied by the said tank. In the tank I saw so many people at work that there must have been fifteen or twenty thousand men, looking like ants, so that you could not see the ground on which they walked, so many there were; this tank the king portioned out amongst his captains, each of whom had the duty of seeing that the people placed under him did their work, and that the tank was finished and brought to completion.
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¹ This is Nâgalâpur, the modern Hospett (*Epig. Ind.*, iv. 267).
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² This tank or lake is described by Nuniz (see p. 364).
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³ *Hūu tiro de fallcão*, a shot from a falcon, an old piece of artillery.
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The tank burst two or three times, and the king asked his Brahmans to consult their idol as to the reason why it burst so often, and the Brahmans said that the idol was displeased, and desired that they should make a sacrifice, and should give him the blood of men and horses and buffaloes; and as soon as the king heard this he forthwith commanded that at the gate of the pagoda the heads of sixty men should be cut off, and of certain horses and buffaloes, which was at once done.
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These Brahmans are like friars with us, and they count them as holy men—I speak of the Brahman priests and the lettered men of the pagodas—because although the king has many Brahmans, they are officers of the towns and cities and belong to the government of them; others are merchants, and others live by their own property and cultivation, and the fruits which grow in their inherited grounds. Those who have charge of the temples are learned men, and eat nothing which suffers death, neither flesh nor fish, nor anything which makes broth red, for they say that it is blood. Some of the other Brahmans whom I mentioned, who seek to serve God, and to do penance, and to live a life like that of the priests, do not eat flesh or fish or any other thing that suffers death, but only vegetables¹ and butter and other things which they make of fruit,² with their rice.
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¹ Bredos, "blites," an insipid kitchen vegetable. But as the word is not common, and as Brahmans make use of most vegetables, I have preferred the more general term.
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² Maçaas, literally "apples."
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They are all married, and have very beautiful wives; the wives are very retiring, and very seldom leave the house. The women are of light colour, and in the caste of these Brahmans are the fairest men and women that there are in the land; for though there are men in other castes commonly of light complexion, yet these are few. There are many in this country who call themselves Brahmans, but they lead a life very different from those of whom I have spoken, for these last are men to whom the king pays much honour, and he holds them in great favour.
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This new city that the king made bears the name of his wife for love of whom he made it,¹ and the said city stands in a plain, and round it the inhabitants make their gardens as the ground suits, each one being separate. In this city the king made a temple with many images. It is a thing very well made, and it has some wells very well made after their fashion; its houses are not built with stories like ours, but are of only one floor, with flat roofs and towers,² different from ours, for theirs go from storey to storey. They have pillars, and are all open, with verandahs inside and out, where they can easily put people if they desire, so that they seem like houses belonging to a king. These palaces have an enclosing wall which surrounds them all, and inside are many rows of houses. Before you enter the place where the king is there are two gates with many guards, who prevent any one from entering except the captains and men who have business there; and between these two gates is a very large court with its verandahs round it, where these captains and other honoured people wait till the king summons them to his presence.
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¹ It was generally called Nâgalâpur, but Nuniz says that the lady's name was Chinnadevî (below, p. 362).
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² Coruchees. See p. 260, note 3.
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This king is of medium height, and of fair complexion and good figure, rather fat than thin; he has on his face signs of small-pox. He is the most feared and perfect king that could possibly be, cheerful of disposition and very merry; he is one that seeks to honour foreigners, and receives them kindly, asking about all their affairs whatever their condition may be He is a great ruler and a man of much justice, but subject to sudden fits of rage,¹ and this is his title— "Crisnarão Macação,² king of kings, lord of the greater lords of India, lord of the three seas and of the land." He has this title³ because he is by rank a greater lord than any, by reason of what he possesses in (?) armies and territories, but it seems that he has (in fact) nothing compared to what a man like him ought to have, so gallant and perfect is he in all things. This king was constantly at war with the king of Orya, and entered his kingdom, taking and destroying many cities and towns; he put to rout numbers of his soldiers and elephants, and took captive his son, whom he kept for a long time in this city of Bisnaga, where he died; and in order to make a treaty and (preserve) peace, the king of Orya gave him a daughter whom the king of Bisnaga married and has as his wife.
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¹ Grandes supitos.
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² A mixture, apparently, of Mahā, "great," and "Shāh."
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³ The passage that follows is not very clear in the original.
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This king has twelve lawful wives, of whom there are three principal ones, the sons of each of these three being heirs of the kingdom, but not those of the others; this is (the case) when there are sons to all of them, but when there is only one son, whosesoever he may be, he is heir. One of these principal wives is the daughter of the king of Orya, and others daughters of a king his vassal who is king of Serimgapatão; another wife is a courtezan whom in his youth he had for mistress before he became king, and she made him promise that if he came to be king he would take her to wife, and thus it came to pass that this courtezan became his wife. For love of her he built this new city, and its name was . . . (sic in orig.) . . . Each one of these wives has her house to herself, with her maidens and women of the chamber, and women guards and all other women servants necessary; all these are women, and no man enters where they are, save only the eunuchs, who guard them. These women are never seen by any man, except perhaps by some old man of high rank by favour of the king. When they wish to go out they are carried in litters shut up and closed,¹ so that they cannot be seen, and all the eunuchs with them, fully three or four hundred; and all other people keep a long distance from them. They told us that each of these queens has a very large sum of money and treasure and personal ornaments, namely armlets, bracelets, seed-pearls,² pearls and diamonds, and that in great quantity: and they also say that each of them has sixty maidens adorned as richly as could possibly be with many jewels, and rubies and diamonds and pearls and seed-pearls. These we afterwards saw, and stood astonished; we saw them at certain festivals which I will afterwards speak of, and of the manner in which they came. Within, with these maidens, they say that there are twelve thousand women; for you must know that there are women who handle sword and shield, and others who wrestle, and others who blow trumpets, and others pipes, and others instruments which are different from ours; and in the same way they have women as bearers (*boois*) and washing-folk, and for other offices inside their gates, just as the king has the officers of his household. These three principal wives have each the same, one as much as the other, so that there may never be any discord or ill feeling between them; all of them are great friends, and each one lives by herself. It may be gathered from this what a large enclosure there must be for these houses where so many people live, and what streets and lanes they must have.
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¹ The word last used is sellados, literally “sealed.”
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² Aljofar. This word is constantly used in the chronicles. Garcia da Orta (Colloq. xxxv.) derives it from Cape Julfar in Arabia, near Ormuz. Cobarruvias says it is from Arabic jauhar, “jewel” (Yule and Burnell, Dict.). Da Orta writes: “Chama-se perla em castelhano e perola em portuguez, e em latim unio, e isto no aljofar grande; porque o miudo chama-se em latim margarita, e em arabio lulu, e em persio e nest’ outras gerações da India moti, e em malavar mutu, e em portuguez e castelhano aljofar;” i.e. a large pearl is called perla in Spanish, perola in Portuguese, unio in Latin; a small pearl is called in Latin margarita, in Arabic lulu, in Persian and many Indian languages moti, in Malayâlam mutu, and in Portuguese and Spanish aljofar.
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The king lives by himself inside the palace, and when he wishes to have with him one of his wives he orders a eunuch to go and call her. The eunuch does not enter where she is, but tells it to the female guards, who make known to the queen that there is a message from the king, and then comes one of her maidens or chamber-women and learns what is wanted, and then the queen goes where the king is, or the king comes where she is, and so passes the time as it seems good to him without any of the others knowing. Amongst these eunuchs the king has some who are great favourites, and who sleep where he sleeps; they receive a large salary.
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This king is accustomed every day to drink a *quartilho* (three-quarter pint) of oil of *gingelly*¹ before daylight, and anoints himself all over with the said oil; he covers his loins with a small cloth, and takes in his arms great weights made of earthenware, and then, taking a sword, he exercises himself with it till he has sweated out all the oil, and then he wrestles with one of his wrestlers. After this labour he mounts a horse and gallops about the plain in one direction and another till dawn, for he does all this before daybreak. Then he goes to wash himself, and a Brahman washes him whom he holds sacred, and who is a great favourite of his and is a man of great wealth; and after he is washed he goes to where his pagoda is inside the palace, and makes his orisons and ceremonies, according to custom. Thence he goes to a building made in the shape of a porch without walls, which has many pillars hung with cloths right up to the top, and with the walls handsomely painted; it has on each side two figures of women very well made. In such a building he despatches his work with those men who bear office in his kingdom, and govern his cities, and his favourites talk with them. The greatest favourite is an old man called Temersea;¹ he commands the whole household, and to him all the great lords act as to the king. After the king has talked with these men on subjects pleasing to him he bids enter the lords and captains who wait at the gate, and these at once enter to make their salaam to him. As soon as they appear they make their salaam to him, and place themselves along the walls far off from him; they do not speak one to another, nor do they chew betel before him, but they place their hands in the sleeves of their tunics (cabayas) and cast their eyes on the ground; and if the king desires to speak to any one it is done through a second person, and then he to whom the king desires to speak raises his eyes and replies to him who questions him, and then returns to his former position. So they remain till the king bids them go, and then they all turn to make the salaam to him and go out. The salaam, which is the greatest courtesy that exists among them, is that they put their hands joined above their head as high as they can. Every day they go to make the salaam to the king.
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¹ *Emgellym*, sesamum or gingelly, an oil seed.
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¹ This was the great Sâluva Timma, Krishna Deva's minister. The termination -rsea probably represents Arasa, the Kanarese form for Râjah. Temersea = Timmarasa = Timma Râjah.
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When we came to this country the king was in this new town, and there went to see him Christovão de Figueiredo¹ with all of us Portuguese that came with him, and all very handsomely dressed after our manner, with much finery; the king received him very well, and was very complacent to him. The king was as much pleased with him as if he had been one of his own people, so much attention did he evince towards him; and also towards those amongst us who went with him he showed much kindness. We were so close to the king that he touched us all and could not have enough of looking at us. Then Christovão de Figueiredo gave him the letters from the Captain-Major² and the things he had brought for him, with which he was greatly delighted; principally with certain organs³ that the said Christovão de Figueiredo brought him, with many other things (peças). The king was clothed in certain white cloths embroidered with many roses in gold, and with a *pateca*¹ of diamonds on his neck of very great value, and on his head he had a cap of brocade in fashion like a Galician helmet, covered with a piece of fine stuff all of fine silk, and he was barefooted; for no one ever enters where the king is unless he has bare feet, and the majority of the people, or almost all, go about the country barefooted. The shoes have pointed ends, in the ancient manner, and there are other shoes that have nothing but soles, but on top are some straps which help to keep them on the feet. They are made like those which of old the Romans were wont to wear, as you will find on figures in some papers or antiquities which come from Italy. The king gave to Christovão de Figueiredo on dismissing him a *cabaya* (tunic) of brocade, with a cap of the same fashion as the king wore,² and to each one of the Portuguese he gave a cloth embroidered with many pretty figures, and this the king gives because it is customary; he gives it in token of friendship and love.
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¹ According to Correa, Christovão de Figueiredo had been sent by the governor, Lopo Soares, in 1517 to Vijayanagar as factor, with horses and elephants (Lendas da India, ii. 509-510); but Senhor Lopes points out (Introduction to his Chronica, lxxxii. note) that we do not know how far this assertion is true. He certainly lived at Goa, and not long after this battle was made chief Tanedar of the mainlands of Goa, with residence at the temple of Mardor. He was several times in peril at the hands of the Mussalmâns, and in 1536 was present at the battles which took place between the Portuguese and Asada Khân of Belgaum, with whom he was on terms of friendship. Mr. Danvers (ii. 507) states that he was also at one time attorney of the factory of Goa.
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² This apparently refers to Ruy de Mello (see above, p. 142 ff.). If De Sequeira were meant he would have been called "Governor."
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³ Horgãos. Mr. Ferguson points out that these were undoubtedly musical instruments. Castanheda (v. xxviii.), describing the embassy to "Prester John" under Dom Roderigo de Lima in 1520 (the same year), states that among the presents sent to that potentate were "some organs and a clavichord, and a player for them." These organs are also mentioned in Father Alvares's account of their embassy (Hakluyt Society Trans., p. 10).
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¹ *Pateca*, something worn round the neck. There appears to be some mistake here, as *pateca* means "a sort of long robe or gown (worn) in India" (Michaelis' Dict.).
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² Varthema says, "The king wears a cap of gold brocade two spans long." This was Krishna Deva's predecessor, Narasimha.
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When Christovão de Figueiredo had been dismissed by the king we came to the city of Bisnaga, which is a league from this new city, and here he commanded us to be lodged in some very good houses; and Figueiredo was visited by many lords and captains, and other persons who came on behalf of the king. And the king sent him many sheep and fowls, and many vessels (*calões*) full of butter and honey and many other things to eat, which he at once distributed amongst all the foot-soldiers and people whom he had brought with him. The king said many kind and pleasant things to him, and asked him concerning the kind of state which the king of Portugal kept up; and having been told about it all he seemed much pleased.
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Returning then to the city of Bisnaga, you must know that from it to the new city goes a street as wide as a place of tourney, with both sides lined throughout with rows of houses and shops where they sell everything; and all along this road are many trees that the king commanded to be planted, so as to afford shade to those that pass along. On this road he commanded to be erected a very beautiful temple of stone,¹ and there are other pagodas that the captains and great lords caused to be erected.
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¹ This may refer to the handsome temple of Anantasâyana, a mile or so from Hospett on the road to Kâmalâpur. The trees still stand in parts.
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So that, returning to the city of Bisnaga, you must know that before you arrive at the city gates there is a gate with a wall that encloses all the other enclosures of the city, and this wall is a very strong one and of massive stonework; but at the present time it is injured in some places. They do not fail to have citadels² in it. This wall has a moat of water in some places, and in the parts where it was constructed on low ground. And there is, separate from it, yet another (defence) made in the following manner. Certain pointed stones of great height are fixed in the ground as high as a man's breast; they are in breadth a lance-shaft and a half, with the same distance between them and the great wall. This wall rises in all the low ground till it reaches some hill or rocky land. From this first circuit until you enter the city there is a great distance, in which are fields in which they sow rice and have many gardens and much water, which water comes from two lakes. The water passes through this first line of wall, and there is much water in the lakes because of springs; and here there are orchards and a little grove of palms, and many houses.
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² *Fortalezas*. Probably the writer refers either to bastions or towers, or to strongly fortified places of refuge on the hilltops. The passage is obscure.
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Returning, then, to the first gate of the city, before you arrive at it you pass a little piece of water and then you arrive at the wall, which is very strong, all of stonework, and it makes a bend before you arrive at the gate; and at the entrance of this gate are two towers, one on each side, which makes it very strong. It is large and beautiful. As soon as you pass inside there are two little temples; one of them has an enclosing wall with many trees, while the whole of the other consists of buildings; and this wall of the first gate encircles the whole city. Then going forward you have another gate with another line of wall, and it also encircles the city inside the first, and from here to the king's palace is all streets and rows of houses, very beautiful, and houses of captains and other rich and honourable men; you will see rows of houses with many figures and decorations pleasing to look at. Going along the principal street, you have one of the chief gateways,¹ which issues from a great open space² in front of the king's palace; opposite this is another which passes along to the other side of the city; and across this open space pass all the carts and conveyances carrying stores and everything else, and because it is in the middle of the city it cannot but be useful.
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¹ Four words, *temdes hũa porta primcipal*, have been accidentally omitted in the printed copy.
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² *Terreiro*. The gateway here spoken of is most probably the great entrance to the palace enclosure, just to the north of the village of Kâmalâpur.
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This palace of the king is surrounded by a very strong wall like some of the others, and encloses a greater space (*teraa moor cerca*) than all the castle of Lisbon.
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Still going forward, passing to the other gate you see two temples connected with it, one on each side, and at the door of one of these they kill every day many sheep; for in all the city they do not kill any sheep for the use of the heathen (Hindus), or for sale in the markets, except at the gate of this pagoda. Of their blood they make sacrifices to the idol that is in the temple. They leave the heads to him, and for each sheep they give a *saco* (*chakram*), which is a coin like a *cartilha* (*quartilha*—a farthing).
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There is present at the slaughter of these beasts a *jogi* (priest) who has charge of the temple, and as soon as they cut off the head of the sheep or goat this *jogi* blows a horn as a sign that the idol receives that sacrifice. Hereafter I shall tell of these *jogis*, what sort of men they are.¹
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¹ The writer forgot to fulfil this promise.
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Close to these pagodas is a triumphal car covered with carved work and images, and on one day in each year during a festival they drag this through the city in such streets as it can traverse. It is large and cannot turn corners.
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Going forward, you have a broad and beautiful street, full of rows of fine houses and streets of the sort I have described, and it is to be understood that the houses belong to men rich enough to afford such. In this street live many merchants, and there you will find all sorts of rubies, and diamonds, and emeralds, and pearls, and seed-pearls, and cloths, and every other sort of thing there is on earth and that you may wish to buy. Then you have there every evening a fair where they sell many common horses and nags (*rocis e semdeiros*), and also many citrons, and limes, and oranges, and grapes, and every other kind of garden stuff, and wood; you have all in this street. At the end of it you have another gate with its wall, which wall goes to meet the wall of the second gate of which I have spoken, in such sort that this city has three fortresses, with another which is the king's palace. Then when this gate is passed you have another street where there are many craftsmen, and they sell many things; and in this street there are two small temples. There are temples in every street, for these appertain to institutions like the confraternities you know of in our parts,¹ of all the craftsmen and merchants; but the principal and greatest pagodas are outside the city. In this street lodged Christovão de Figueiredo. On every Friday you have a fair there, with many pigs and fowls and dried fish from the sea, and other things the produce of the country, of which I do not know the name; and in like manner a fair is held every day in different parts of the city. At the end of this street is the Moorish quarter, which is at the very end of the city, and of these Moors there are many who are natives of the country² and who are paid by the king and belong to his guard. In this city you will find men belonging to every nation and people, because of the great trade which it has, and the many precious stones there, principally diamonds.
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¹ *Por que são como as comfraryas que nas nossas partes haa.*
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² *A muytos naturaes da terra.*
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The size of this city I do not write here, because it cannot all be seen from any one spot, but I climbed a hill whence I could see a great part of it; I could not see it all because it lies between several ranges of hills. What I saw from thence seemed to me as large as Rome, and very beautiful to the sight; there are many groves of trees within it, in the gardens of the houses, and many conduits of water which flow into the midst of it, and in places there are lakes (*tamques*); and the king has close to his palace a palm-grove and other rich-bearing fruit-trees. Below the Moorish quarter is a little river, and on this side are many orchards and gardens with many fruit-trees, for the most part mangoes and areca-palms and jack-trees, and also many lime and orange trees, growing so closely one to another that it appears like a thick forest; and there are also white grapes. All the water which is in the city comes from the two tanks of which I have spoken, outside the first enclosing wall.
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The people in this city are countless in number, so much so that I do not wish to write it down for fear it should be thought fabulous; but I declare that no troops, horse or foot, could break their way through any street or lane, so great are the numbers of the people and elephants.
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This is the best provided city in the world, and is stocked with provisions such as rice, wheat, grains, Indian-corn, and a certain amount of barley and beans, *moong*,¹ pulses, horse-gram,² and many other seeds which grow in this country which are the food of the people, and there is large store of these and very cheap; but wheat is not so common as the other grains, since no one eats it except the Moors. But you will find what I have mentioned. The streets and markets are full of laden oxen without count, so that you cannot get along for them, and in many streets you come upon so many of them that you have to wait for them to pass, or else have to go by another way. There is much poultry; they give three fowls in the city for a coin worth a *vintem*,³ which coins are called *favaos*;⁴ outside the city they give four fowls for a *vintem*.
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¹ *Munguo*. “Moong . . . green gram . . . a kind of vetch” (Yule and Burnell, Dict.). ² *Macharuỹ*. ³ A *vintem* = 1 1/20 of a penny. ⁴ Probably for *fanaos*. But the plural of *fanao* is usually given as *fanoes*.
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In this country there are many partridges, but they are not of the same sort or quality as ours: they are like the *estarnas*¹ of Italy.
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¹ *Estarna*. "A sort of small partridge with black feet" (Michaelis' Dict.).
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There are three sorts of these: one class has only a small spur such as those of Portugal have; another class has on each foot two very sharp spurs, almost as long and thick as one's finger; the other class is painted, and of these you will find the markets full; as also of quails, and hares, and all kinds of wild fowl, and other birds which live in the lakes and which look like geese. All these birds and game animals they sell alive, and they are very cheap, for they give six or eight partridges for a *vintem*, and of hares they give two and sometimes one. Of other birds they give more than you can count, for even of the large ones they give so many that you would hardly pay any attention to the little ones they give you, such as doves and pigeons and the common birds of the country. The doves are of two kinds; some are like those in Portugal, others are as large as thrushes; of the doves they give twelve or fourteen for a *favao*; the pigeons are the same price as the other birds. Then the sheep that they kill every day are countless, one could not number them, for in every street there are men who will sell you mutton, so clean and so fat that it looks like pork; and you also have pigs in some streets of butchers' houses so white and clean that you could never see better in any country; a pig is worth four or five *fanams*.² Then to see the many loads of limes that come each day, such that those of Povos are of no account,³ and also loads of sweet and sour oranges, and wild *brinjals*, and other garden stuff in such abundance as to stupefy one. For the state of this city is not like that of other cities, which often fail of supplies and provisions, for in this one everything abounds; and also the quantity of butter and oil and milk sold every day, that is a thing I cannot refrain from mentioning; and as for the rearing of cows and buffaloes which goes on in the city, there is so much that you will go very far before you find another like it. There are many pomegranates also; grapes are sold at three bunches a *fanam*, and pomegranates ten for a *fanam*.
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² Here we have the plural *fanões*.
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³ Povos is a place near Lisbon.
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On the north side of the city is a very great river with much water, in which are many fish, which fish are very unwholesome, and in this river there is that which passes for . . . (*sic. in orig.*); other streams flow into it, which make it very large.
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Now as to the places on the bank of this river. There is a city built there which they call *Senagumdym*,¹ and they say that of old it was the capital of the kingdom, but there now live in it few people; it still has good walls and is very strong, and it lies between two hill-ranges which have only two entrances. A captain lives in this city for the king. People cross to this place by boats which are round like baskets;² inside they are made of cane, and outside are covered with leather; they are able to carry fifteen or twenty persons, and even horses and oxen can cross in them if necessary, but for the most part these animals swim across. Men row them with a sort of paddle, and the boats are always turning round, as they cannot go straight like others; in all the kingdom where there are streams there are no other boats but these.³
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¹ Ânegundi.
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² Below, pp. 292, 293.
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³ The stone bridge, built on rows of rough monolithic uprights, the remains of which are still to be seen near the temple of Vitthalasvâmi, appears, from the absence of allusion to it, to have been constructed at a later date.
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There are also in this city places where they sell live sheep; you will see the fields round the city full of them, and also of cows and buffaloes—it is a very pretty sight to see,—and also the many she-goats and kids, and the he-goats so large that they are bridled and saddled. Many sheep are like that also, and boys ride them.
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Outside the city walls on the north there are three very beautiful pagodas, one of which is called Vitella,¹ and it stands over against this city of Nagumdym; the other is called Aôperadianar,² and this is the one which they hold in most veneration, and to which they make great pilgrimages.
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¹ This clearly alludes to the beautifully sculptured temple of Vitthalasvâmi, which is in the situation described.
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² This word is a puzzle. If the temple be, as seems most probable from the description, the principal temple at Hampe, still in use, I suggest that Aôpe represents “Hampi” or “Hampe.” Radi may be “râjah,” or radian may be “râjyam.” The name was perhaps given to Paes by some one who described it as “the royal Hampe temple,” and this would accurately describe it. It was dedicated to Virûpâksha, and was the cathedral of the great city.
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In this pagoda, opposite to its principal gate which is to the east, there is a very beautiful street of very beautiful houses with balconies and arcades, in which are sheltered the pilgrims that come to it, and there are also houses for the lodging of the upper classes; the king has a palace in the same street, in which he resides when he visits this pagoda. There is a pomegranate tree³ above this first gate; the gate has a very lofty tower all covered with rows of men and women and hunting scenes and many other representations, and as the tower goes narrowing towards the top so the images diminish in size. Passing this first gate, you come at once into a large courtyard with another gate of the same sort as the first, except that it is rather smaller throughout; and passing this second gate, there is a large court with verandahs all round on pillars of stone, and in the middle of this court is the house of the idol.
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³ The word used is romeyra, which may mean either a pomegranate tree or a female pilgrim. The allusion is to the plaster figures and designs on the tower (corucheo) above the gate.
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Opposite the principal gate stand four columns, two gilded and the other two copper, from which, owing to their great age as it seems to me, the gold has worn off; and the other two are also of copper, for all are of copper. That which stands nearest the gate of the temple was given by this King Crisnarão who now reigns here, and the others by his predecessors. All the outer side of the gate of the temple up to the roof is covered with copper and gilded, and on each side of the roof on the top are certain great animals that look like tigers, all gilt. As soon as you enter this idol-shrine, you perceive from pillar to pillar on which it is supported many little holes in which stand oil lamps, which burn, so they tell me, every night, and they will be in number two thousand five hundred or three thousand lights. As soon as you pass this shrine you enter another small one like the crypt (*cinzeyro*)¹ of some church; it has two doors at the sides, and thence onward this building is like a chapel, where stands the idol which they adore. Before you get to it there are three doors; the shrine is vaulted and dark without any light from the sky; it is always lit with candles. At the first gate are doorkeepers who never allow any one to enter except the Brahmans that have charge of it, and I, because I gave something to them, was allowed to enter. Between gate and gate are images of little idols. The principal idol is a round stone without any shape; they have great devotion for it. This building outside is all covered with copper gilt. At the back of the temple outside, close to the verandahs of which I have spoken, there is a small idol of white alabaster with six arms;¹ in one it has a . . .² and in the other a sword, and in the others sacred emblems (*armas de casa*), and it has below its feet a buffalo, and a large animal which is helping to kill that buffalo. In this pagoda there burns continually a lamp of *ghee*, and around are other small temples for houses of devotion.
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