A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar by Robert Sewell (short story to read TXT) 📕

means of entrance except by them. This range of hills surrounds the city with a circle of twenty-four leagues, and within this range there are others that encircle it closely. Wherever these ranges have any level ground they cross it with a very strong wall, in such a way that the hills remain all closed, except in the places where the roads come through from the gates in the first range, which are the entrance ways to the city. In such places there are some small pits (or caves?)[389] which could be defended by a few people; these SERRAS continue as far as the interior of the city. Between all these enclosures are plains and valleys where rice is grown, and there are gardens with many orange-trees, limes, citrons, and radishes (RABAOS), and other kinds of garden produce as in Portugal, only not lettuces or cabbages. Between these hill-ranges are many lakes by which they irrigate the crops mentioned, and amongst all these ranges there are no forests or patches of brushwood, except very small ones, nor anything that is green. For these hills are the strangest ever seen, they are of a white stone piled one block over another in manner most singular, so that it seems as if they stood in the air and were not connected one with another; and the city is situated in the middle of these hills and is entirely surrounded by them.

The SERRAS reach as far as the kingdom of Daquem,[390] and border upon the territories belonging to the Ydallcao, and upon a city called Rachol that formerly belonged to the king of Narsymga; there has been much war over it, and this king took it from the Ydallcao. So that these ranges are in a way the cause (of the two kingdoms) never uniting and always being at war; and even on the side of Orya also there are ranges, but they are different from these, since like ours they have scrub and small patches of brushwood; these ranges are low and between them are great plains. On the extreme east of these two kingdoms you must know that the country is all covered with scrub, the densest possible to be seen, in which there are great beasts, and (this) forms so strong a fortress for it that it protects both sides; it has its entrances by which they pass from one kingdom to the other. In these passes on the frontier the king of Narsymga has a captain with a quantity of troops, but on the side of (Portuguese) India he has none, except as I have said.

Now turning to the gates of the first range, I say that at the entrance of the gate where those pass who come from Goa, which is the principal entrance on the western side; this king has made within it a very strong city391 fortified with walls and towers, and the gates at the entrances very strong, with towers at the gates; these walls are not like those of other cities, but are made of very strong masonry such as would be found in few other parts, and inside very beautiful rows of buildings made after their manner with flat roofs. There live in this many merchants, and it is filled with a large population because the king induces many honourable merchants to go there from his cities, and there is much water in it. Besides this the king made a tank392 there, which, as it seems to me, has the width of a falcon-shot,[393] and it is at the mouth of two hills, so that all the water which comes from either one side or the other collects there; and, besides this, water comes to it from more than three leagues by pipes which run along the lower parts of the range outside. This water is brought from a lake which itself overflows into a little river. The tank has three large pillars handsomely carved with figures; these connect above with certain pipes by which they get water when they have to irrigate their gardens and rice-fields. In order to make this tank the said king broke down a hill which enclosed the ground occupied by the said tank. In the tank I saw so many people at work that there must have been fifteen or twenty thousand men, looking like ants, so that you could not see the ground on which they walked, so many there were; this tank the king portioned out amongst his captains, each of whom had the duty of seeing that the people placed under him did their work, and that the tank was finished and brought to completion.

The tank burst two or three times, and the king asked his Brahmans to consult their idol as to the reason why it burst so often, and the Brahmans said that the idol was displeased, and desired that they should make a sacrifice, and should give him the blood of men and horses and buffaloes; and as soon as the king heard this he forthwith commanded that at the gate of the pagoda the heads of sixty men should be cut off, and of certain horses and buffaloes, which was at once done.

These Brahmans are like friars with us, and they count them as holy men — I speak of the Brahman priests and the lettered men of the pagodas — because although the king has many Brahmans, they are officers of the towns and cities and belong to the government of them; others are merchants, and others live by their own property and cultivation, and the fruits which grow in their inherited grounds. Those who have charge of the temples are learned men, and eat nothing which suffers death, neither flesh nor fish, nor anything which makes broth red, for they say that it is blood. Some of the other Brahmans whom I mentioned, who seek to serve God, and to do penance, and to live a life like that of the priests, do not eat flesh or fish or any other thing that suffers death, but only vegetables394 and butter and other things which they make of fruit,[395] with their rice. They are all married, and have very beautiful wives; the wives are very retiring, and very seldom leave the house. The women are of light colour, and in the caste of these Brahmans are the fairest men and women that there are in the land; for though there are men in other castes commonly of light complexion, yet these are few. There are many in this country who call themselves Brahmans, but they lead a life very different from those of whom I have spoken, for these last are men to whom the king pays much honour, and he holds them in great favour.

This new city that the king made bears the name of his wife for love of whom he made it,[396] and the said city stands in a plain, and round it the inhabitants make their gardens as the ground suits, each one being separate. In this city the king made a temple with many images. It is a thing very well made, and it has some wells very well made after their fashion; its houses are not built with stories like ours, but are of only one floor, with flat, roofs and towers,[397] different from ours, for theirs go from storey to storey. They have pillars, and are all open, with verandahs inside and out, where they can easily put people if they desire, so that they seem like houses belonging to a king. These palaces have an enclosing wall which surrounds them all, and inside are many rows of houses. Before you enter the place where the king is there are two gates with many guards, who prevent any one from entering except the captains and men who have business there; and between these two gates is a very large court with its verandahs round it, where these captains and other honoured people wait till the king summons them to his presence.

This king is of medium height, and of fair complexion and good figure, rather fat than thin, he has on his face signs of small-pox. He is the most feared and perfect king that could possibly be, cheerful of disposition and very merry; he is one that seeks to honour foreigners, and receives them kindly, asking about all their affairs whatever their condition may be He is a great ruler and a man of much justice, but subject to sudden fits of rage,[398] and this is his title — “Crisnarao Macacao,[399] king of kings, lord of the greater lords of India, lord of the three seas and of the land.” He has this title400 because he is by rank a greater lord than any, by reason of what he possesses in (?) armies and territories, but it seems that he has (in fact) nothing compared to what a man like him ought to have, so gallant and perfect is he in all things. This king was constantly at war with the king of Orya, and entered his kingdom, taking and destroying many cities and towns; he put to rout numbers of his soldiers and elephants, and took captive his son, whom he kept for a long time in this city of Bisnaga, where he died; and in order to make a treaty and (preserve) peace, the king of Orya gave him a daughter whom the king of Bisnaga married and has as his wife.

This king has twelve lawful wives, of whom there are three principal ones, the sons of each of these three being heirs of the kingdom, but not these of the others; this is (the case) when there are sons to all of them, but when there is only one son, whosesoever he may be, he is heir. One of these principal wives is the daughter of the king of Orya, and others daughters of a king his vassal who is king of Serimgapatao; another wife is a courtezan whom in his youth he had for mistress before he became king, and she made him promise that if he came to be king he would take her to wife, and thus it came to pass that this courtezan became his wife. For love of her he built this new city, and its name was … (SIC IN ORIG.) ... Each one of these wives has her house to herself, with her maidens and women of the chamber, and women guards and all other women servants necessary; all these are women, and no man enters where they are, save only the eunuchs, who guard them. These women are never seen by any man, except perhaps by some old man of high rank by favour of the king. When they wish to go out they are carried in litters shut up and closed,[401] so that they cannot be seen, and all the eunuchs with them fully three or four hundred; and all other people keep a long distance from them. They told us that each of these queens has a very large sum of money and treasure and personal ornaments, namely armlets, bracelets, seed-pearls,[402] pearls and diamonds, and that in great quantity: and they also say that each of them has sixty maidens adorned as richly as could possibly be with many jewels, and rubies and diamonds and pearls and seed-pearls. These we afterwards saw, and stood astonished; we saw them at certain festivals which I will afterwards speak of, and of the manner in which they came. Within, with these maidens, they say that there are twelve thousand women; for you must know that there are women who handle sword and shield, and others who wrestle, and others who blow trumpets, and others pipes, and others instruments which are different from ours; and in the same