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
Another Bajapanayque is captain of Mumdoguel,[644] which was a
fortress of the Ydalcao, and was taken from him by Crisnarao when
he took Rachol,[645] which was a boundary of it. This fortress of
Mumdoguel with other territories yields him four hundred thousand
PARDAOS, and he serves with a thousand cavalry and ten thousand foot
and fifty elephants, and pays the King every year one hundred and
fifty thousand PARDAOS.
In this way the kingdom of Bisnaga is divided between more than two
hundred captains who are all heathen,[646] and according to the lands
and revenues that they have so the King settles for them the forces
that they are compelled to keep up, and how much revenue they have
to pay him every month during the first nine days of the month of
September. He never gives any receipts to them, only, if they do
not pay they are well punished, and are ruined and their property
taken away. All the captains of this kingdom make use of litters
and palanqueens. These are like biers and men carry them on their
shoulders, but people are not allowed to make use of litters unless
they are cavaliers of the highest rank, and the captains and principal
persons use palanqueens. There are always at the court where the King
is twenty thousand litters and palanqueens.
These matters concerning (I.E. the power and greatness of) the kingdom
of Bisnaga, though it may seem to you that I have exaggerated, yet the
people of this country assert them to have been even more notable[647]
in times past, and greater than they now are.
And in this kingdom of Bisnaga there is a class of men, natives of
the country, namely Brahmans, who the most part of them never kill
or eat any live thing, and these are the best that there are amongst
them. They are honest men, given to merchandise, very acute and of
much talent, very good at accounts, lean men and well-formed, but
little fit for hard work. By these and by the duties they undertake
the kingdom is carried on. They believe that there are Three Persons
and only One God, and they call the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity
"TRICEBEMCA." There is another class who are Canarese who have pagodas
in which are (images of?) monkeys, and cows, and buffaloes, and devils,
to whom they pay much honour, and these idols and monkeys which they
adore they say that in former times this land belonged all to the
monkeys, and that in those days they could speak. They have books full
of fine stories of chivalry, and many foolish tales about their idols,
such as it is out of reason for men to believe. But because of this,
neither in the kingdom of Bisnaga nor in all the land of the heathen
are any monkeys killed, and there are so many in this country that
they cover the mountains. There is another class of men called
Telumgalle;[648] when these die their wives are buried alive with them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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