The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s3.t2.1.3

v2.c15.s3.t2.1.3

and *talavaris* (watchmen) should be sent into the streets and the lanes. The daily life in army camps should be subjected to careful scrutiny; men with torches should go round the fort continuously at night; the captains, commanders, and all the fighting men should be well fed and properly treated, so that there may be no room for discontent.² The fourfold classification of the forts mentioned in the *Nītisāra* was known in the Kākatīya times, as is attested by the evidence of inscriptions. The Kāyastha chief Ambadēva, for instance, is described in an inscription at Tripurāntakam dated Ś. 1212 (A.D. 1290) as a *giri-durga-vajra-nipāta* (stroke of the thunderbolt to the hill-forts), a *vanadurga-dāvānala* (wild-fire to the forest forts), a *jaladurga-baḍabānala* (submarine fire to the water-forts), and a *sthaladurga-samchūrṇana* (pulverizer or smasher of land-forts).³ Anumakoṇḍa, Rāichūr, and Gaṇḍikoṭa among the *giri-durgas*; Kandūr and Nārāyaṇavanam among the *vanadurgas*; Divi and Kolanu among the *jala-durgas*; and Warangal, and Dharaṇkōṭai among thes *thala-durgas* were reckoned as the most famous strongholds in the Kākatiya period. The regulations laid down by Pratāparudra for the protection of the forts envisage only the common precautionary measures indispensable for their proper defence; it is not unlikely that he embodied in his treatise the knowledge which he had gathered from his own practical experience.