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

about A.D. 1566 was Malik Rahiman Khan, who resided there for nearly thirty-nine years. His tomb is still kept up by a grant annually made by the Government in continuation of the old custom, and is in good preservation, having an establishment with a priest and servants. Navab Siddi Masud Khan was governor when the great mosque, called the Jumma Musjid, was completed (A.D. 1662). The Bijapur Sultan, the last of his line, sent to him a marble slab with an inscription and a grant of a thousand bold pieces. The slab is still to be seen on one of the arches in the interior, and the money was spent in gilding and decorating the building. Aurangzib of Delhi annexed Bijapur in 1686, and appointed Navab Ghazi-ud-Din Khan governor of Adoni, who had to take the place from the Bijapur governor, Siddi Masud Khan. This was done after a fight, in consequence of the Delhi troops firing (blank) on the great mosque from their guns; which so terrified the governor, who held the Jumma Musjid dearer than his life, that he surrendered. The new governor’s family ruled till 1752, when the country was given to Bassalat Jung of Haidarabad. He died and was buried here in 1777, and his tomb is still maintained. The place was ceded to the English by the Nizam in 1802 with the “Ceded Districts.”

[351] — Briggs, iii. 416, ff.

[352] — “Lists of Antiquities, Madras” (Sewell), ii. 6, 7, Nos. 45,

46.

[353] — OP. CIT., ii 139 — 140.

[354] — The Italian traveller Pietro della Valle was at Ikkeri at the close of the year 1623, and gives an interesting account of all that he saw, and what befell him there. He went with an embassy from Goa to that place. “This Prince VENKTAPA NAIEKA was sometime Vassal and one of the ministers of the great King of VIDIA NAGAR ... but after the downfall of the king … Venktapa Naieka … remain’d absolute Prince of the State of which he was Governour, which also, being a good souldier, he hath much enlarged.”

[355] — CARTARIO DOS JESUITOS (Bundle 36, packet 95, No. 22, in the National Archives at Lisbon, ARCHIVO DA TORRE DO TOMBO). Compare Antonio Bocarro, DECADA xiii. p. 296. Mr. Lopes also refers me to an as yet inedited MS., DOCUMENTOS REMETTIDOS DA INDIA, or LIVROS DAS MONCOES, t. i. 359, and t. ii. 370 — 371, as relating to the same tragic events.

[356] — See the genealogical table on p. 214. Venkata I. was son of Tirumala, the first real king of the fourth dynasty. The nephew, “Chikka Raya,” may have been Ranga III., “Chikka” (young) being, as Barradas tells us, a name usually given to the heir to the throne. In that case Ranga’s son, Rama IV., “one of several brothers,” would be the boy who survived the wholesale massacre related in the letter.

[357] — The name “Chikka Raya” in Kanarese means “little” or “young” Raya.

[358] — Chandragiri.

[359] — It is not known to whom this refers. The name is perhaps “Obala.”

[360] — This youth was only a great-nephew of Jaga Raya’s by a double marriage. His wife was niece of King Venkata, and therefore by marriage niece of Queen Bayama, who was Jaga Raya’s daughter.

[361] — BREDOS. See note, p. 245.

[362] — Perhaps Ite Obalesvara.

[363] — Chinna Obala Raya.

[364] — Written in 1616.

[365] — This was Muttu Virappa, Nayakka (or Naik) of Madura from 1609 to 1623. Mr. Nelson (“The Madura Country”) mentions that in his reign there was a war with Tanjore. Nuniz, writing in 1535, does not mention Madura as amongst the great divisions of the Vijayanagar kingdom; and this coincides with the history as derived from other sources. But by 1614 the Naik of Madura had become very powerful, though the people still occasionally recognised their old sovereigns, the Pandiyans, one of whom is mentioned as late as 1623 (“Sketch of the Dynasties of Southern India,” 85).

[366] — Trichinopoly.

[367] — Close to Madras, often called “Melliapor” by the Portuguese, its native name being Mailapur. Linschoten, writing at the end of the sixteenth century, a few years earlier than the date of the events described, says, “This towne … is now the chiefe cittie of Narsinga and of the coast of Choromandel.”

[368] — See above, p. 214.

[369] — “Sketch of the Dynasties of Southern India,” p. 112.

[370] — “He” here is Domingo Paes.

[371] — The “kingdom of Narsinga” is the name often given by the Portuguese and others to Vijayanagar.

[372] — The term here is limited to the small territory of Portuguese India immediately round the city of Goa. Thus Linschoten (A.D. 1583) wrote, “At the end of Cambaya beginneth India, AND the lands of Decam and Cuncam,” meaning that immediately south of the territories of Cambay began those of Portuguese India, while other countries on the border were the Dakhan and the Konkan.

[373] — In Portugal.

[374] — This was apparently the usual route for travellers from the coast to Vijayanagar. Fr. Luis used it for his journey from Cochin to the capital in 1509 (above, p. 123, and note).

[375] — Probably Sandur, about 120 miles from the coast at Bhatkal. Sandur is a small Mahratta state 25 miles from Vijayanagar.

[376] — That is, on the east of Portuguese India, west of the territory of Vijayanagar.

[377] — Unidentified. The great tree was of course a banyan.

[378] — Coromandel. This name was applied by the Portuguese to the Eastern Tamil and Southern Telugu countries. It had no well-defined limits, and often was held to extend even as far north as to the Krishna river, or even to Orissa. Yule and Burnell adhere to the now generally received definition of the name from CHOLA-MANDALA, the country of the Cholas (Glossary, S.V. Coromandel).

[379] — Orissa.

[380] — COMQUISTA COM is evidently an error for CONFINA COM. The same word is used three times in the next paragraph.

[381] — The Adil Khan, Sultan of Bijapur. The name is sometimes written by the Portuguese IDALXA (XA for Shah). We have numberless spellings in the old chronicles, thus, HIDALCAN, ADELHAM, &c.

[382] — For Nizam-ul-Mulkh, or the Nizam Shah, the Sultan of Ahmadnagar. Similarly the Qutb Shah of Golkonda is called in these chronicles “Cotamaluco.” The Imad Shah of Birar is called the “Imademaluco,” or even “Madremaluco,” by the Dutch (Linschoten) and Portuguese. The Barid Shah of Bidar is styled “Melique Verido.”

[383] — The spelling of the name in the original is very doubtful. First it reads ARCHA, on the next occasion it is undoubtedly DARCHA. The third mention of the place calls it LARCHA. But in each case the R is not very clear, and might be an I undotted. Moreover, the C may possibly be an E, and the name may be ARCHA or DAREHA. If we should accept the latter, we may identify it with Dharwar, and believe it to be the same as the DUREE of Nuniz (below, p. 292).

[384] — PRANHAS in original, probably for PIANHAS or PEANHAS (see below, p. 288).

[385] — JOGIS, Hindu ascetics.

[386] — This probably refers to the Egyptian obelisk at St. Peter’s.

[387] — Evidently the god GANESA.

[388] — “Bisnaga,” the Portuguese rendering of VIJAYANAGAR, the “city of victory.” The spellings adopted by different writers have been endless. We have Beejanugger and Beejnugger in the translations of Firishtah; Bisnagar, Bidjanagar, Bijanagher, amongst the Portuguese; Bicheneger In the writings of the Russian Nikitin; Bizenegalia in those of the Italian Nicolo dei Conti.

[389] — BUQUEYROIS. The word implies something dug out, as opposed so redoubts, which would be built up.

[390] — Dakhan.

[391] — This is Nagalapur, the modern Hospett (EPIG. IND., iv. 267).

[392] — This tank or lake is described by Nuniz (see p. 364).

[393] — HUU TIRO DE FALLCAO, a shot from a falcon, an old piece of artillery.

[394] — BREDOS, “blites,” an insipid kitchen vegetable. But as the word is not common, and as Brahmans make use of most vegetables, I have preferred the more general term.

[395] — MACAAS, literally “apples.”

[396] — It was generally called Nagalapur, but Nuniz says that the lady’s name was Chinnadevi (below, p. 362).

[397] — CORUCHEES. See p. 200, note 3.

[398] — GRANDES SUPITOS.

[399] — A mixture, apparently, of MAHA, “great,” and “Shah.”

[400] — The passage that follows is not very clear in the original.

[401] — The word last used is SELLADOS, literally “sealed.”

[402] — ALJOFAR. This word is constantly used in the chronicles. Garcia da Orta (COLLOQ. xxxv.) derives it from Cape Julfar in Arabia, near Ormuz. Cobarruvias says it is from Arabic jauhar, “jewel” (Yule and Burnell Dict.). Da Orta writes: “CHAMA-SE perla EM CASTELHANO E perola EM PORTUGUEZ, E EM LATIM unio, E ISTO NO aljofar GRANDE; PORQUE O MIUDO CHAMA-SE EM LATIM margarita, E EM ARABIO lulu, E EM PERSIO E NEST’ OUTRAS GERACOES DA INDIA moti, E EM MALAVAR mutu, E EM PORTUGUEZ E CASTELHANO aljofar;” I.E. a large pearl is called PERLA in Spanish, PEROLA in Portuguese, UNIO in Latin; a small pearl is called in Latin MARGARITA, in Arabic LULU, in Persian and many Indian languages MOTI, in Malayalam MUTU, and in Portuguese and Spanish ALJOFAR.

[403] — EMGELLYM, sesamum or gingelly, an oil seed.

[404] — This was the great Saluva Timma, Krishna Deva’s minister. The termination -RSEA probably represents ARASA, the Kanarese form for Rajah. TEMERSEA = TIMMARASA = TIMMA RAJAH.

[405] — According to Correa, Christovao de Figueiredo had been sent by the governor, Lopo Soares, in 1517 to Vijayanagar as factor, with horses and elephants (LENDAS DA INDIA, ii. 509 — 510); but Senhor Lopes points out (Introduction to his CHRONICA, lxxxii. note) that we do not know how far this assertion is true. He certainly lived at Goa, and not long after this battle was made chief TANEDAR of the mainlands of Goa, with residence at the temple of Mardor. He was several times in peril at the hands of the Mussalmans, and in 1536 was present at the battles which took place between the Portuguese and Asada Khan of Belgaum, with whom he was on terms of friendship. Mr. Danvers (ii. 507) states that he was also at one time attorney of the factory of Goa.

[406] — This apparently refers to Ruy de Mello (see above, p. 142 ff.). If De Sequeira were meant he would have been called “Governor.”

[407] — HORGAOS. Mr. Ferguson points out that these were undoubtedly musical instruments. Castanheda (v. xxviii.), describing the embassy to “Prester John” under Dom Roderigo de Lima in 1520 (the same year), states that among the presents sent to that potentate were “some organs and a clavichord, and a player for them.” These organs are also mentioned in Father Alvares’s account of their embassy (Hakluyt Society Trans., p. 10).

[408] — PATECA, something worn round the neck. There appears to be some mistake here, as PATECA means “a sort of long robe or gown (worn) in India” (Michaelis’ Dict.).

[409] — Varthema says, “The king wears a cap of gold brocade two spans long.” This was Krishna Deva’s predecessor, Narasimha.

[410] — This may refer to the handsome temple of Anantasayana, a mile or so from Hospett on the road to Kamalapur. The trees still stand in parts.

[411] — FORTALEZAS. Probably the writer refers either to bastions or towers, or to strongly fortified places of refuge on the hilltops. The passage is obscure.

[412] — Four words, TEMDES HUA PORTA PRIMCIPAL, have been accidentally omitted in the printed copy.

[413] — TERREIRO. The gateway here spoken of is most probably the great entrance to the palace enclosure, just to the north of the village of Kamalapur.

[414]