Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c9.s2.6

c9.s2.6

But Saletore affirms that the Vijayanagar armies consisted of six divisions. He says: “The Vijayanagar rulers......unintentionally followed the mediaeval precept of Śukra⁴⁸ rather than the classical injunctions which restricted the forces to the four well known names,” and quotes the authority of an inscription of Dēva Rāya I and the Bakhair of Rāma Rāja to support his contention.⁴⁹ The inscription under reference states that “he (Dēva Rāya I) having for a long time carried out a fierce military expedition by order of his father king Harihara accompanied by the six components of the army, reached quickly the city.”⁵⁰ But it must be remarked that it is difficult to infer from the reference to the six “components” in this inscription that the Vijayanagar armies were divided into six divisions. The epigraph merely states that there were six kinds of armies (vidham) and not six divisions (aṅga). The Raghuvamśa of Kālidāsa mentions six kinds of armies. It is said that Raghu with a desire to conquer the directions started with his six kinds of armies.⁵¹ Here the armies referred to are the hereditary (maula), mercenary (bhṛtaka), belonging to guilds (śreṇi), those of an ally (mitra), those of an enemy (amitra), and those of forest tribes (āṭavi). The Vijayanagar inscription in question seems to refer to such variety of the forces that made up the Hindu army and not to its divisions. The Bakhair of Rāma Rāja gives a detailed account of the Hindu forces on the battle-field of Rakṣas Taṅgḍi, and says that there were in them large hosts of horses, camels, elephants, artillery, bulls and foot soldiers.⁵² Though the Vijayanagar armies consisted of these six parts, we do not know if they were engaged in the wars. The camels and bulls must have been only auxiliaries of the main forces that fought in the battle. Nuniz while describing the Hindu forces that marched to the battle of Raicūr says that there were in them many sumpter-mules, asses and oxen, which carried all the supplies and many other burdens such as tents and other things.⁵³ Thus these served only as auxiliaries of the main armies. In the face of such data it is difficult to agree with Saletore in his assertion that there were six divisions in the Vijayanagar armies.