A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c21.s2.76

c21.s2.76

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*.