During three consecutive days, from sunrise to sunset, the royal festival was prolonged in a style of the greatest magnificence. Fireworks, games, and amusements went on. On the third day the writer was presented to the king. "The throne, which was of extraordinary size, was made of gold, and enriched with precious stones of extreme value.... Before the throne was a square cushion, on the edges of which were sown three rows of pearls. During the three days the king remained seated on this cushion. When the fete of Mahanawi was ended, at the hour of evening prayer, I was introduced into the middle of four ESTRADES, which were about ten ghez both in length and breadth.[147] The roof and the walls were entirely formed of plates of gold enriched with precious stones. Each of these plates was as thick as the blade of a sword, and was fastened with golden nails. Upon the ESTRADE, in the front, is placed the throne of the king, and the throne itself is of very great size." The descriptions given by these travellers give us a good idea of the splendours of this great Hindu capital in the first half of the fifteenth century; and with this in our minds we return to the history of the period. CHAPTER 8 Close of the First Dynasty (A.D. 1449 to 1490) Mallikarjuna and Virupaksha I. -- Rajasekhara and Virupaksha II. -- The Dakhan splits up into five independent kingdoms -- The Bijapur king captures Goa and Belgaum -- Fighting at Rajahmundry, Kondapalle, and other parts of Telingana -- Death of Mahmud Gawan -- The Russian traveller Nikitin -- Chaos at Vijayanagar -- Narasimha seizes the throne. I have already stated that the period following the reign of Deva Raya II. is one very difficult to fill up satisfactorily from any source. It was a period of confusion in Vijayanagar -- a fact that is clearly brought out by Nuniz in his chronicle. A.D. 1449 is the last date in any known inscription containing mention of a Deva Raya, and Dr. Hultzsch[148] allots this to Deva Raya II. It may be, as already suggested, that there was a Deva Raya III. on the throne between A.D. 1444 and 1449, but this remains to be proved. Two sons of Deva Raya II., according to the inscriptions, were named Mallikarjuna and Virupaksha I. respectively. There are inscriptions of the former dated in A.D. 1452 -- 53 and 1464 -- 65,[149] and one of the latter in 1470.[150] Mallikarjuna appears to have had two sons, Rajasekhara, of whom we have inscriptions in the years A.D. 1479 -- 80 and 1486 -- 87, and Virupaksha II., mentioned in an inscription dated A.D. 1483 -- 84, three years earlier than the last of Rajasekhara.