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
And after this fortress was taken he departed and went against
Comdovy,[520] which was one of the principal cities of the kingdom
of Orya, and besieged it; and, learning this, the King of Orya
came against him to defend his territories, and brought with him one
thousand three hundred elephants, and twenty thousand horsemen, and he
brought five hundred thousand foot-soldiers. Crisnarao, being aware of
the approach of the king of Orya, left the city without assaulting it,
saying that he preferred to fight the King in person and his army
rather than to attack the city, and that there would be plenty of
time afterwards to take it; and he went forward four leagues from it,
leaving a force to prevent the escape of the people from the city
if they should seek to flee to the coast. And he arrived at a large
river of salt water crossed by a ford,[521] and on the other side of
the river was the King of Orya with his army. King Crisnarao halted
his army on this side of the river, and sent the King a message that
if he desired to fight with him he would retire from the river two
leagues, so that he (the king of Orya) might pass the river unmolested,
and as soon as he had passed he would join battle; to which message
the King of Orya gave no reply, but on the contrary made ready to
give battle. And King Crisnarao, seeing his determination, crossed
the river with all his forces and elephants, and in the crossing of
the river there were heavy encounters on both sides, and many were
slain. Notwithstanding this, King Crisnarao crossed the river, and
on the bank fought so bravely that he defeated the King of Oria and
put him to flight, in which defeat he took many horses and elephants.
And after the King had done this he told Salvatinea his minister
that he purposed to turn back to the fortress, which had not yet
experienced his strength, and he went against it, and stopped there
two months besieging it; and he took it.
And he gave the command of it to Salvatinea, who left in it, from his
army, for captain one of his brothers, in order that he himself might
go forward with the King through the kingdom of Orya. And the King,
passing the river once more in pursuit of the King of Orya, and taking
and ravaging all the country which had no reason for expecting him,
arrived at a city called Comdepallyr,[522] where were all the chiefs
of the kingdom, it being the chief city in that kingdom. And he laid
siege to it, and remained there three months without being able to
capture it, and in the end he took it more by reason of his numbers
than by force of arms; in which fortress he found many people of
high rank whom he made captive, amongst whom was a wife of the King,
and one of his sons who was a prince, and seven principal captains
of the kingdom, all of whom he sent by road to Bysnaga.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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