A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of IndiaSewell, Robert
History
A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India
Sewell, Robert
Vijayanagar (Empire) -- History
"As soon as it was known that Echama Naique had possession of the
King's son, there went over to him four of Jaga Raya's captains
with eight thousand men; so that he had in all sixteen thousand,
and now had good hope of defending the rightful King. He took,
therefore, measures for effecting the latter's escape. He selected
from amongst all his soldiers twenty men, who promised to attempt to
dig an underground passage which should reach to where the King lay in
prison. In pursuance of this resolve they went to the fortress, offered
themselves to the Dalavay as entering into his service, received pay,
and after some days began to dig the passage so as to gain entrance
to the King's prison. The King, seeing soldiers enter thus into his
apartment, was amazed, and even more so when he saw them prostrate
themselves on the ground and deliver him a palm-leaf letter from Echama
Naique, in which he begged the King to trust himself to these men,
as they would escort him out of the fortress. The King consented. He
took off his robes hastily and covered himself with a single cloth;
and bidding farewell to his wife, his sons, and his daughters, told
them to have no fear, for that he, when free, would save them all.
"But it so happened that at this very moment one of the soldiers
who were guarding the palace by night with torches fell into a hole,
and at his cries the rest ran up, and on digging they discovered the
underground passage. They entered it and got as far as the palace,
arriving there just when the unhappy King was descending into it
in order to escape. He was seized and the alarm given to Jaga Raya,
who sent the King to another place more confined and narrower, and
with more guards, so that the poor prisoner despaired of ever escaping.
"Echama Naique, seeing that this stratagem had failed, bribed heavily a
captain of five hundred men who were in the fortress to slay the guards
as soon as some good occasion offered, and to rescue the King. This
man, who was called Iteobleza,[362] finding one day that Jaga Raya
was leaving the palace with all his men in order to receive a certain
chief who had proffered his submission, and that there only remained
in the fortress about five thousand men, in less than an hour slew
the guards, seized three gates, and sent a message to Echama Naique
telling him to come at once and seize the fortress. But Jaga Raya was
the more expeditious; he returned with all his forces, entered by a
postern gate, of the existence of which Iteobleza had not been warned,
and put to death the captain and his five hundred followers.
"Enraged at this attempt, Jaga Raya, to strengthen the party of his
nephew, resolved to slay the King and all his family. He entrusted this
business to a brother of his named Chinaobraya,[363] ordering him to
go to the palace and tell the poor King that he must slay himself,
and that if he would not he himself would kill him with stabs of
his dagger.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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