A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c21.s3.t17.4

c21.s3.t17.4

The kings of this country are able to assemble as many soldiers as they want, as they have them there in their kingdom and have much wealth wherewith to pay them. This King Chitarao has foot-soldiers paid by his nobles, and they are obliged to maintain six¹ *lakhs* of soldiers, that is six hundred thousand men, and twenty-four thousand horse, which the same nobles are obliged to have. These nobles are like renters who hold all the land from the King, and besides keeping all these people they have to pay their cost; they also pay to him every year sixty *lakhs* of rents as royal dues. The lands, they say, yield a hundred and twenty *lakhs* of which they must pay sixty to the King, and the rest they retain for the pay of the soldiers and the expenses of the elephants which they are obliged to maintain. For this reason the common people suffer much hardship, those who hold the lands being so tyrannical. Of these sixty *lakhs* that the king has of revenue every year he does not enjoy a larger sum than twenty-five *lakhs*, for the rest is spent on his horses, and elephants, and foot-soldiers, and cavalry, whose cost he defrays.