Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c9.s2.2

c9.s2.2

In ancient India the army was divided into four divisions, namely, infantry, cavalry, elephants and war chariots. But gradually the chariots fell out of use, and by the days of Śrī Harṣa they had disappeared. The Vijayanagar epigraphs refer only to the other three divisions. A record of A.D. 1347 in the Sorab taluk of the Shimoga district mentions, for instance, that the army of the Kadamba king was composed of horsemen, elephants and foot-soldiers.⁴⁵ The Bitraguṇṭa grant of Saṅgama II mentions him as the lion to the troops of the furious elephants of the lords of elephants and horses and men.⁴⁶ Ibn Baṭūṭa, the Muhammadan traveller, says that the ruler of Hinawr (Honavar), Sultan Jalāl-ad-Dīn, who was a tributary of Haryab (Harihara I), had an army composed of horses and foot.⁴⁷ We have no reference to the chariots in that period. But artillery as a division of the army came into existence in the later Vijayanagar days thus making the division again four.