Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c9.s3.28

c9.s3.28

A practice peculiar to the wars of the period was that of setting fire to the temporary cities made for the army on the route of its march. Barbosa mentions the practice, but curiously enough he says that the king issued a proclamation ordering the whole city to be set fire to except the palaces, fortresses, temples and the houses of certain lords that were not thatched, so that all men might attend with their wives, sons, and households.¹⁰⁷ Dames has shown how ridiculous this statement of Barbosa is, and says that it was evidently the interpolation of an intelligent copyist and adds that what Barbosa said was, “not that the king set fire to his capital, but that when he was on the march before starting for the next camping ground, he had the temporary town of grass huts which had been erected for the accommodation of his army burnt.”¹⁰⁸ The inscriptions do not throw any direct light on this interesting question.¹⁰⁹