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
Now the MAHANAVAMI festival begins in these tracts on the 1st of
the month of Asvina, and the New Year's Day in the time of Paes was
evidently celebrated on the 1st of the month Karttika, as was often the
case in former years both days being the days following the moment of
new moon. In what year, then, during the reign of Krishna Deva Raya,
did the 1st of Asvina and the 1st of Karttika fall respectively on
September 12 and on October 12? I have worked these dates out for all
the years of the reign, and I find that in no year except A.D. 1520
did this occur. In 1521 the MAHANAVAMI fell on September 2, and the
New Year's Day on October 1; in 1522 the former fell on September 20,
and the latter on October 20. This shows that Paes assisted at the
festivals of A.D. 1520, and that therefore the battle and capture
of Raichur must have taken place before the month of September in
that year.
This again throws fresh light on the magnificent reception accorded
to Christovao de Figueiredo by the king, and the latter's exceptional
kindness to the Portuguese at the time of these feasts.[219] Krishna
Raya cherished an especial fondness for Christovao on account of his
invaluable aid at the siege of the city, and for the fact that but
for him the war might have lasted much longer.
Let us now turn to the other Portuguese writers, and see whether they
confirm our date, 1520, for the fall of Raichur.
The decision of this question turns mainly on the date when the
Portuguese obtained the mainlands opposite the island of Goa,
consisting of the tracts called Salsette, Ponda, and Bardes. It seems
certain that this capture of the mainlands took place by Krishna Deva's
connivance shortly after the fall of Raichur, at a time when Diogo
Lopes de Sequeira, the governor-general, was away at the Red Sea,
and when Ruy de Mello was governor of Goa. Now Sequeira left Goa for
the Red Sea on February 13, A.D. 1520, and arrived again before Diu
in India on February 9, 1521.
Castanheda tells us (and he is a good authority, since he was in
India in 1529) that while Sequeira was absent at the Red Sea war
broke out between the king of Vijayanagar and the Adil Shah,[220]
at the close of which the latter was defeated and put to flight,
while the Hindus took Raichur and other places
"so that many of the TANADARIS[221] near Goa on the mainland were left
undefended. And since the king of Narsinga was very rich, and had no
need of these lands, and wanted that all the horses that came to Goa
should come to him and none to the HIDALCAO, he sent to say to Ruy
de Mello, captain of Goa, that he had taken Belgaum by force of arms
from the Hidalcao, with all the land appertaining to it as far as the
sea, in which were TANADARIS yielding more than 500,000 gold pardaos,
of which he desired to make a present to the king of Portugal ... and
that he wanted all the horses that came to Goa. He therefore said that
the captain of Goa could enter and take possession of the TANADARIS."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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