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
About the year 1512 Krishna Deva Raya, who had, taken advantage of
the times to invade the Sultan's dominions, attacked the fortress of
Raichur, which at last was given up to him by the garrison; Ismail
Adil being too much employed in attending to the internal affairs of
his government to afford it timely relief. So says Firishtah.[200]
This event is not noticed by Nuniz, who writes as if the Raya's first
campaign against the Adil Shah took place in 1520, when he advanced
to attack Raichur, it being then in the Shah's possession; and here we
see a difference between the story of Nuniz and the story of Firishtah,
for the latter, writing of the same event, viz., the campaign of 1520,
states that "Ismail Adil Shaw made preparations for marching to recover
Mudkal and Roijore from the Roy of Beejanuggar," he having taken these
cities about 1512, as narrated. Which account is correct I cannot say.
It appears[201] that in 1514 A.D. Krishna Deva offered Albuquerque
[pound sterling] 20,000 for the exclusive right to trade in horses, but
the Portuguese governor, with a keen eye to business, refused. A little
later the Hindu king renewed his proposal, declaring his intention of
making war against the Adil Shah; and the Adil Shah, hearing of this
message, himself sent an embassy to Goa. Albuquerque was now placed
in a position of some political importance, and he wrote first to
Vijayanagar saying that he would give the Raya the refusal of all his
horses if he would pay him 30,000 cruzados per annum for the supply,
and send his own servants to Goa to fetch away the animals, and also
that he would aid the king in his war if he was paid the expense of
the troops; and he wrote afterwards to Bijapur promising the Sultan
the refusal of all horses that came to Goa if he would surrender to
the king of Portugal a certain portion of the mainland opposite the
island. Before this matter was settled, however, Albuquerque died.
We learn from this narrative the Krishna Deva Raya was meditating a
grand attack on the Muhammadans at least five years before his advance
to Raichur -- a year even before his expedition against Udayagiri and
the fortresses on the east, the story of which campaign is given in
our chronicle.
We have an account of what Vijayanagar was like in A.D. 1504 --
14 in the narrative of Duarte Barbosa, a cousin of Magellan, who
visited the city during that period.
Speaking of the "kingdom of Narsinga," by which name the Vijayanagar
territories were always known to the Portuguese, Barbosa writes:[202]
"It is very rich, and well supplied with provisions, and is very full
of cities and large townships."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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