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

not from the Muhammadans, but from the king of Orissa.

[211] — Firishtah’s account of this is that Ismail Adil joined with Amir Barid in an attack on Telingana and laid siege to Kovilkonda. Vijayanagar had no part in the causes of the campaign.

[212] — Firishtah tells this story of Jamshid Qutb Shah, Quli’s successor (1543 — 50).

[213] — So says Nuniz, but, as before stated, Firishtah differs. In my opinion we must accept the former as correct, for his account is so graphic and detailed that it is impossible to believe that he could have been mistaken. Firishtah did not write for many years later and was much more liable to en on Several Portuguese were present at the siege, and, if I am not mistaken, either Nuniz was there himself, or obtained his information from those who were so. The story bears all the marks of a personal narrative.

[214] — Pp. 323 to 347 below.

[215] — On the Ordnance Map I observe on the river-bank, thirteen miles N.N.E. of Raichur, a plan of what appears to be a large fortified camp, with its base on the river, the average of its west, south, and east faces being about a mile each It lies just below the junction of the Bhima and Krishna rivers, and two miles west of the present railway station on the latter river. What this may be I know not, but it looks like the remains of an entrenched camp erected in some former year. Perhaps some one will examine the place.

[216] — Below, p. 263. “These feasts begin on the twelfth of September, and they last nine days.”

[217] — Below, p. 281. “At the beginning of the month of October when eleven of its days had passed…. On this day begins their year; it is their New Year’s Day…. They begin the year in this month with the new moon, and they count the months always from moon to moon.”

[218] — Below, p. 243.

[219] — “On the upper platform, close to the king, was Christovao de Figueiredo, with all of us who came with him, for the king commanded that he should be in such a place, so as best to see the feasts and magnificence.” (Paes, p. 264 below.)

[220] — Lib. v. c 57.

[221] — TANADARIS are small local divisions of the kingdom, each under its own petty official. A THANAH is a police-station in modern parlance. I can think of no English word exactly suitable, but, as far as area is concerned, perhaps the term “parish” would best express the meaning.

[222] — LENDAS DA INDIA, ii. 581.

[223] — Menezes assumed charge of the Viceroyalty on January 22, 1522. A short summary of Sequeira’s career is given in the interesting MS. volume called the LIVRO DAS FORTALEZAS DA INDIA, of which the text was written by Antonio Bocarro, and the numerous portraits and plans were drawn and coloured by Pero Barretto de Rezenda. The British Museum copy is in the Sloane Collection and bears the number “197.”

[224] — Dec. III. 1. in cap. 4.

[225] — IDEM, cap. 5.

[226] — IDEM, cap. 8.

[227] — IDEM, cap. 9.

[228] — IDEM, cap. 10.

[229] — “Asia Portugueza” of Faria y Souza, I. Pt. iii. cap. 4 (Stevens’ translation).

[230] — Compare Nuniz (text, p. 329).

[231] — These numbers are probably taken from Barros, who copied Nuniz.

[232] — “Asia Portugueza,” I. Pt. iii. cap. 4, sec. 5. “Ruy de Mello, que estava a Goa, viendo al Hidalchan divertido con sus ruinas o esperancas, o todo junto, y a muchos en perciales remolinos robando la tierra firme de aquel contorno, ganola facilmente con dozientos y sincuenta cavallos, y ochocientos peones Canaries”

[233] — “Histoire des Descouvertes et Conquestes des Portugais” (Paris, 1733).

[234] — Danvers, “The Portuguese in India,” i. 347, gives us the same dates for Sequeira’s absence, and mentions De Figueiredo’s presence at the battle of Raichur.

[235] — The corresponding actual new moon day in May 1521 was Monday, May 6, and the new moon was first visible on Wednesday. In 1522 the actual new moon day was Sunday, May 25, and it was first visible on Tuesday.

[236] — Paes says that on an emergency he could raise even two millions.

[237] — “Handbook of Indian Arms,” pp. 15 — 16.

[238] — Above, p. 12.

[239] — OP. CIT., p. 18.

[240] — Below, p. 292.

[241] — Below, pp. 384 to 389.

[242] — Liv. ii. c 16.

[243] — Commander-in-chief.

[244] — Below, p. 333.

[245] — “OMDE ACHAVEIS ... HO QUE AVIEIS MISTER.”

[246] — “VERIEIS.”

[247] — “ACHAREIS.”

[248] — Below, pp, 346, 347.

[249] — Below, p. 351.

[250] — Vol. i. p. 347.

[251] — Vol. i. p. 533.

[252] — We hear nothing of this from Firishtah. But we know that the Bahmani Sultan Mahmud II., who died in 1518, had three sons, Ahmad Ala-ud-Din, and Wali-Ullah, the first of whom became Sultan in December 1517, the second in 1521, the third in the same year; in all cases only nominally.

[253] — Dec. III. l. iv. c. 10.

[254] — Correa, Stanley’s translation (Hakluyt edition, p. 387, note; Danvers, “Portuguese in India,” i. 363. The “Suffilarim” is Asada Khan.

Mr. Baden-Powell has published, in the JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY for April 1900, an interesting paper on the king of Portugal’s regulations for, and record of customs in, the newly acquired tracts, dated at Goa in A.D. 1526, and called FORAL DOS USOS E COSTUMES.

[255] — Dec. IV. 1. vii. c. 1.

[256] — Mallik Barid. The Hidalchan is the Adil Khan or the Adil Shah; Madre Maluco is the Imad Shah, and Cota Maluco the Qutb Shah.

[257] — Perhaps this matter ought to find place under the reign of Achyuta Raya, but I mention it here as it may have occurred before the death of Krishna Deva.

[258] — Article “Vijayanagar” in the MADRAS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE MAGAZINE for December 1886.

[259] — “Bellary District Manual” (Kelsall), p. 231.

[260] — “South Indian Inscriptions” (Hultzsch), p. 132; and EPIGRAPHIA INDICA, BY the same author, iv. 266.

[261] — JOURNAL, BOMBAY BRANCH, ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, xii. 336, &c.

[262] — EPIG. IND., i. 398; iv. p. 3, note 4.

[263] — I have broadly declared this relationship, but, as a matter of fact, almost every inscription and literary work in the country differs as to the genealogy of the sovereigns who reigned from this time forward. Nuniz, however, as a contemporary writer residing at the capital, is an excellent authority.

[264] — EPIG. IND., iv. 3, note 4 (Professor Kielhorn).

[265] — Scott’s edition, i. 252.

[266] — These names are discussed below.

[267] — This is apparently an error. The period was only ten years.

[268] — 16th Safar, A.H. 941 (Firishtah).

[269] — Firishtah, Briggs, iii. 374 — 375.

[270] — “Lists of Antiquities, Madras,” vol. i. p. 181 (No. 86), and p. 182 (No. 115).

[271] — Scott’s translation, i. p. 262.

[272] — Below, p. 367.

[273] — IDEM, p. 354.

[274] — Scott, i. pp. 262 ff.; Briggs, iii. p. 80.

[275] — Briggs has it “a daughter of Shew Ray.” Rama married a daughter of Krishna Deva, who was son of the first Narasimha.

[276] — Inscriptions do not give us the name of any prince of the female line at this period. Briggs calls the uncle “Bhoj” Tirumala. Couto (Dec. VI. l. v. cap. 5) renders the name as “Uche Timma,” and states that UCHE means “mad.”

[277] — Here we probably find an allusion to the reign of Achyuta. Rama was the elder of three brothers afterwards to become very famous. He and his brother Tirumala both married daughters of Krishna Deva Raya. Achyuta being, in Nuniz’s belief, brother of the latter monarch, that chronicler calls these two brothers “brothers-in-law” of King Achyuta. (Below, p. 367.) Nuniz says that King Achyuta “destroyed the principal people in the kingdom and killed their sons” (p. 369).

[278] — Achyuta had then been for about six years on the throne.

[279] — If the Sultan’s march towards Vijayanagar began in 1535 — 36, we shall perhaps not be far wrong in assigning Nuniz’s chronicle to the year 1536 — 37, seeing that the author alludes to the dissatisfaction and disgust felt by the nobles and others for their rulers, which presupposes a certain interval to have passed since the departure of the Mussalman army.

[280] — Scott’s edit., i. 265.

[281] — Scott spells the name “Negtaderee,” but I have substituted the rendering given by Briggs, “Venkatadry,” as less confusing.

[282] — Firishtah writes glowingly (Scott, i. 277) of the grandeur of Asada Khan. He “was famed for his judgment and wisdom…. For nearly forty years he was the patron and protector of the nobles and distinguished of the Dekhan. He lived in the highest respect and esteem, with a magnificence and grandeur surpassing all his contemporary nobility. The sovereigns of Beejanuggur and every country observing a respect to his great abilities, frequently honoured him with letters and valuable presents. His household servants … amounted to 250. He had sixty of the largest elephants and 150 of a smaller size. In his stables he had 400 horses of Arabia and Persia, exclusive of those-of mixed breed foaled in India. His treasures and riches were beyond amount,” &c.

[283] — Firishtah’s story of Asada Khan’s life is contained in Scott’s edition. i. pp. 236 — 278; Briggs, iii. pp. 45 — 102.

[284] — Dec. III. l. iv. cap. 5.

[285] — Dec. IV. l. vii. cap. 6.

[286] — Turugel is probably Tirakhol, north of Goa.

[287] — Couto tells us (Dec. VII. l. vii. c. 1) that Rama Raya in 1555 made an expedition against the Christian inhabitants of San Thome, near Madras, but retired without doing great harm; and it is quite possible that the king acknowledged no connection between San Thome and Goa.

[288] — EPIGRAPHIA INDICA, iii 147.

[289] — EPIGRAPHIA CARNATICA (Rice), Part i. p. 176, No. 120.

[290] — I have published a rough list of eighty-eight of these, eighty-four of which are dated, in my “Lists of Antiquities, Madras” (vol. ii. p. 134 ff.).

[291] — South Indian Inscriptions,” vol. i. p. 70.

[292] — Dec. VI. l. v. cap. 5.

[293] — “Tetarao,” “Ramygupa,” and “Ouamysyuaya” (text, below, p. 314).

[294] — Page 108.

[295] — Dec. VI. l. v. cap. 5.

[296] — EPIG. IND., iii. 236.

[297] — Firishtah (Scott, i. 252) states that Rama Raya “married a daughter of the son of Seoroy, by that alliance greatly adding to his influence and power.” If so, “Seoroy” must be the first Narasa The historian says that “Seoroy dying was succeeded by his son, a minor, who did not live long after him, and left the throne to a younger brother.” These brothers, then, were the second Narasa, called also Vira Narasimha, and Krishna Deva. The rest of Firishtah’s account does not tally with our other sources of information. As being son-in-law of Krishna Deva, Rama was called “Aliya,” which means “son-in-law,” and by this name he is constantly known.

[298] — IND. ANT., xiii. 154.

[299] — Vol. iv. pp. 247 — 249, 276 — 282.

[300] — See the pedigree above. The young son would be Venkata, and the uncle, Ranga.

[301] — Who all these were we do not know. The boy Venkata’s uncles would be either brothers of Ranga or brothers of the queen-mother, widow of Achyuta. Achyuta’s nephew referred to could not be Sadasiva, because he survived. He may have been nephew of the Rani. The assassination of the boy-king recalls to our minds the story of Firishtah of the murder of the infant prince by “Hoje”