A History of Agriculture in India v2.c65.s19: Observations of Fernao Nuniz
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c65.s19
- Language
- English
Observations of Fernao Nuniz
v2.c65.s19.1
Vijayanagar was visited by another Portuguese, Fernao Nuniz, in A.D. 1535. ‘By means of this water they made round about the city,’ observed Nuniz, ‘a quantity of gardens and orchards and great groves of trees and vineyards, of which this country has many, and many plantations of lemons and oranges and roses, and other trees which in this country bear very good fruit.’
v2.c65.s19.2
Nuniz further observes, ‘In both these cities there is no provision or merchandise whatever, for all comes from outside on pack-oxen, since in this country they always use beasts for burden; and every day there enter by these gates 2,000 oxen, and every one of these pays three vintees, except certain polled oxen without horns, which never pay anything in any part of the realm.
v2.c65.s19.3
‘Outside these two cities are fields and places richly cultivated with wheat and gram and rice and millet, for this last is the grain which is most consumed in the land; and next to it betel, which is a thing that in the greater part of the country they always eat and carry in the mouth.
v2.c65.s19.4
‘Everything has to be sold alive so that each one may know what he buys—this at least so far as concerns game—and there are fish from the rivers in large quantities. The markets are always overflowing with abundance of fruits, grapes, oranges, limes, pomegranates, jack-fruit, and mangoes, and all very cheap. It is said that in the markets they give twelve live sheep for a pardao, and in the hills they give fourteen or fifteen for a pardao.’