THE RISE AND FALL OF VIJAYANAGAR — AN ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS TO "HINDU

NATIONALISM" THESIS
Author(s): Aniruddha Ray
Source: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress , 2003, Vol. 64 (2003), pp. 420-433
Published by: Indian History Congress

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THE RISE AND FALL OF VIJAYANAGAR -
AN ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS TO
"HINDU NATIONALISM" THESIS
Aniruddha Ray

It has been postulated that the defeat of Vijayanagar in the battle of

Talikota in 1565 against the five (should be four) combined Muslim
kingdoms, led to the fall of that "Hindu Kingdom". In this brief paper
an attempt has been made to show that the rise and fall of Vijayanagar
had deeper causes principally arising from the consequences of the
decline of the central power as well as from the contradiction within
its polity. Here we would try to analyse this contradiction briefly
and would also see the course of the battle in which Vijayanagar
was defeated. The chief sources would be the accounts of the
contemporary Portuguese and other travellers and the extant
inscriptions of Vijayanagar . Her we briefly trace this historiograp
of the rise and fall of Vijayanagar .
In 1779, Col. Mackenzi found the ruins of the city of Vijayanaga
amidst a dense forest. His view of the ruins of the Indian city refle
the romantic awareness of the English in the late 18th century Indi
Such a view could be seen as well in the writings of Henry Creighto
on the ruins of Gaur, the medieval capital of Bengal, around t
same time. By 1856, Alexander Greenshaw had taken photograp
of the ruins of the city of Vijayanagar, which had not yet be
published.In 1880, the Survey Department of Madras began the wo
of survey of Vijayanagar .3
The publication of the book on the Vijayanagar by Robert Sewel
in 1904 showed not only the transformation of the British vis
towards India, which had by the time changed this romanticism o
the British to the Imperial vision, but also showed the skilful use
the archaeology to suit their imperialist interests in which Hindu
Muslim divide is a crucial element.5 In those early days on the stud
of urban history, generally the political history of the wars a
conquests dominated. In his long introduction, Sewell wrote in th
same vein, which was generally followed by later historians. Howev
his chief contribution lay in his translation of two Portugues
accounts of Vijayanagar .6 It is necessary to discuss the princi
focus of the introduction of Sewell, since the later historians had
followed his viewpoints without criticism.

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 Medieval India 42 1

In his introduction, Sewell show

was established in 1336 AD. With
defeated the neighbouring Hindu
According to Sewell, the growth c
the Muslim kings. The Hindus of
one flag to resist the attacks of t
of the origin of the city, Sewell h
establishment of Vijayanagar and
the resistance of the Hindus to the Muslim attaks. Sewell did not
explain the basis on which other legends had been discarded and
this one taken, excepting that it fits in well with the thesis of continual
Hindu-Muslim conflict in India during the medieval period.
This theory of "Hindu Resistance" was changed to a far more
aggressive one by another English writer A.H. Longhurt,8 who tried
to show that the Hindus in Vijayanagar had imposed their civilisation
on the Buddhists and the Jains,9 thus accusing them of destroying
"other" cultures during the formation of the Empire. If accepted,
then one could see that the establishment of the Hindu kingdom of
Vijayanagar was done through two major conflicts - one against the
Muslims and the other against the Buddhists and the Jains. The recent
researches had however shown that at Vijayanagar , there was
peaceful coexistence of the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains as seen in
the ruins of temples and monasteries.10 In other words, the extremely
aggressive Hindu theory was not there in Vijayanagar at that time.
The theory of "Hindu Resistance" as the most important factor
in the origin of Vijayanagar , propounded by Sewell, had influenced
some later historians. In 1973, on behalf of the Archaeological Survey
of India, D. Devkunjari published a tourist guidebook on Hampl."
Here the author had not only taken the theory of Sewell but also
tried to show the influence of Hindu civilisation on its art and
architecture. How quickly the village Hampi turned into an empire
has been explained by Devkunjari. According to him, the most
important factor for the growth of the Empire was due to the ideology
of "Hindu Nationalism".12 hat the architecture of Vijayanagar was
not growing on the basis of a single form of ideology remains beyond
the pale of this writer, who did not take into account the growth of
Deccani art that had a mixture of Hindu and Muslim styles.
Devakunjari was not noticed since the scholars rarely paid attention
to Tourist Guidebooks, which do not supply any evidence to
corroborate their statements. This theory of "Hindu Nationalism",
originating out of SewelPs 'Hindu resistance' theory, although Sewell
did not use it, came out again in the writing of Vasundhara Filliozat.13

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422 IHC: Proceedings, 64th Session, 2003

However, there are other sorts of writings as well. In 1933,

Venkataramannaya had shown that the theory of "Hindu
Nationalism" was based on fake inscriptions and that the rise of
Vijayanagar was associated with the decline of Tughluq Empire.14
Leaving the theory of "Hindu Nationalism", the late historian Burton
Stein15 had tried to give a different explanation of the rise of
Vijayanagar , calling it a "cosmopolitan City", although one may
not accept his viewpoints on the city of Vijayanagar . He stated that
from the early days, the city looked similar to a Muslim city than a
Hindu one.16

It has been stipulated on the basis of a copper plate inscription

that in 1336 two brothers, Harihar and Bukka, had established the
city of Vijayanagar on the advice of a Hindu saint. Later, the copper
plate inscription has been found to be a fake one, which has been
discussed fully by Venkatrammanya.17 However two stone inscription
of the middle of the 14th century and in 1378 showed the
establishment of the city of Vijayanagar.18 That the Hindus of the
southern instead of coming under one flag to resist the Muslim
attacks, had been continually fighting among themselves, had been
discussed in detail among others by Muhammad Habib and K.A.
Niżami.19 This would show that the "Hindu Nationalism" was not
the motive of the establishment of the Vijayanagar kingdom. Here
of course Sewell and his followers meant the attacks of the Tughluqs
on the Deccan kingdoms. But such attacks of the Delhi Sultan had
resulted into the formation of independent Muslim kingdoms as well.
From the third decade of the fourteenth century, the power of
the central government of the Delhi Sultanate had begun to decline
for various reasons. This had resulted in the formation of regional
powers and their declaration of independence. In Bengal, Sultan
Iliyas Shah had declared independence at his capital at Pandua in
north Bengal. In some cases the regional powers changed their capital
from the place they first occupied. The bahmani Sultan first
established his capital at Gulbarga but later on shifted to Bidar. The
Bengal Sultans later shifted capital to Gaur from Pandua. Leaving
the bid for independence of such regional ^powers and their state
formations out of consideration and taking only one Hind power
out of the context, is tantamount to the suppression of historical
facts giving us distorted history.

II

The village Hampi was under various dynasties in different times.

One could refer to rule in succession of the Chalukyas of Badami,

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 Medieval India 423

Kadamba dynasty of the Rastrku

others. In the 11th century, the
located in the west of Hampl. In
control of Muhammad Bin Tughluq. So far no ideological reason
has been found in the conquest of Kampila by Muhammad Bin
Tughluq. From the second decade of the 14th century, the Hindu
Kings of Kampila and Ballai III were fighting each other. From 1323,
Ma'bar and Telengana came under the control of Muhammad
Tughluq. In 1326-27, the Hindu of Kampila gave shelter to a rebel,
a relative of Tughluq. In pursuit of the rebel, Muhammad Bin Tughluq
conquered and destroyed Kampila.Ballal III submitted and therefore
escaped destruction.20 He died in 1342. It is stated that the Muslim
King of Bahmani dynasty had killed him. But the Bahmani dynasty
was founded in 1347 AD.21 Obviously there was hardly any element
of Hindu or Muslim ideology in all these events.
After the conquest of Kampila, Muhammad Tughluq gave the
charge of administration to a Hindu who became a Muslim. This
man was a relative of the Kanayak of Warangle. After some time he
again became a Hindu and rebelled. From the contemporary
inscription, it appears that he was Harihar I, In the inscription of
1339, it seems that Harihar was still acting as a feudatory of Delhi
administration.22 Possibly he rebelled after 1344, whose reference
could be seen in the writings of Ziauddin Barani.23 One could easily
see that the reconversion to the former religion is not equivalent to
nationalism. The date of the rebellion seems to be much later than
1336, the usually ascribed of the foundation of Vijayanagar. By the
end of 1344, Muhammad Tughluq has practically lost his victorious
army and his vast resources in his various projects as well as in the
terrible famine that regard for nearly ten years since 1334. One may
note that the foundation of Bahmani dynasty took place around 1347
at Gulbarga under the rebellion of the Sadah Amirs, who were
actually lower class Muslim bureaucrats. Such rebellions, by both
the Hindus and the Muslims, had nothing to do with ideology,
excepting to be free from the clutches of the tyrant. Even if the city
of Vijayanagar was founded in 1336 as given in the legend, it did
not necessary become independent then. One should also note that
there was no rebellion of Hindu bureaucrat during the reign of
Muhammad Tughluq.
The family history of Harihar I shows very clearly the linkages
with the Hoyasala and Kakatiya dynasties. The grandfather of Harihar
had worked as a feudatory of Prataprudra of Kakatiya dynasty. He
was probably an administrator of Nellore district since 1314. One

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424 IHC : Proceedings , 64th Session, 2003

of his grandsons, Harihar was the administrator of Kundhurkonar

By 1356, the boundary of Harihar's Vijayanagar had extended from
the eastern seacoast by suppressing the neighbouring Hindu chiefs.
There is no evidence to show that these Hindu chiefs had come under
the flag of Vijayanagar voluntarily to resist the attacks of the
Muslims.

Ill

The city of Vijayanagar was located on the south bank of the river
Tungabhadra in the village of Hampl. On the opposite bank was the
old city of Anegundi with a fort. Why the city was established on a
new location is difficult to say. Perhaps it was thought the river would
act as a barrier to the powerful kingdoms of the north. It would be
seen later that this did not act as a barrier to any invasion. From the
Map published in 1973 by the Archaeological Survey of India, it
could be seen that the city of Vijayanagar was located on the inner
bend of the river. Generally the medieval Indian cities were local on
the outer bend so that the two ends of the urban area could get
water equally. In some cases, like that of Gaur or Shahjahanabad,
the city was parallel to the riverbank. In recent research it has been
seen that the palace and the central area of Vijayanagar city were
far from the river.25 The reason is that it was not the river but the
mountains, which were acting as barriers to the invasion. This is not
unique in the medieval India. The late Prof. M. Athar Ali26 had shown
that the cities of early Delhi were located close to the mountain
than that of the river. But there the city had later moved away from
the mountain to the riverside. In case of Vijayanagar it has not
happened and the extension was always on the landside, farthest
from the river. The river therefore remains neglected in Vijayanagar
city while the problems of the water was solved by holding the water
of the mountains into big lakes with sluice gates to control the flow
and then carrying these to the city by pipes. The extension of the
city towards the southwest was perhaps linked to the extension of
the empire towards southern India.

IV

The contemporary foreign visitors have given the description of the

city of Vijayanagar. Italian traveller Niccolai Conti, the ambassador
of Persia Abdur Razzak, the Portuguese travellers Domingo Paez
and Fernao Nuniz etc. had left their description of the city in different
periods. In 1567, two years after the battle of Talikota, came Caeser

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 Medieval India 425

Frederick. Their accounts give us

structure of the city, which he
contradiction that made the fall
look only at those aspects of the accounts, which allow us to
understand this contradiction. From these accounts the social
structure of the city and the customs of the Kings of Vijayanag
become evident, which a bearing in understanding this contradict
In the Hampi village going past the Virupaksha temple along
riverbank, one would find the ruins of a wide road. On both sides
the road was located a marker called Sulai. The road is called the
Road of the Dancing Girls. There were buildings on both sides of
the road, which had now fallen. On the northwestern corner is a
pond, which is called the pond of the dancing girls.28 Every dancing
girl had a room. The Portuguese traveller Paez had not termed these
dancing girls as ordinary prostitutes. He stated that in every festival
these dancing girls used to go dancing to the temple with other ladies
Even during the festival of Navaratri , he had seen these dancing
girls moving towards the temple in two files dancing all the way
with gold and diamond jewelleries. In another place, Paez had given
the description of their wealth. They were wearing jewelleries o
gold, diamond, pearls etc. He further stated that most of these women
were given land and they had so many maids that their number
could not be counted. He referred to one such woman of the city
who had one lakh Parados in cash with her. Needless to say that
they were temples girls and the European travellers were not familiar
to this institution.28 Adbur Razzak stated that the King used to get
from women as tax annually 12,000 Fanam.29 Paez had described
the morphology of the city of Vijayanagar, which was then perhaps
the biggest city in India. He had climbed over a nearby mountain
but he confessed that he could not see the entire city.30 Paez had
compared Vijayanagar with Rome. There were many people and
the city has so many trees that it appears that it was situated in the
midst of a jungle. There were several lakes from which water used to
be brought in the city through pipes. There was a separate ward for
the Muslims below which a river used to flow. There were many
orhards including that of white grapes.31 he stated that there were so
many people in the city that it is difficult to move even with soldiers.
One could get the best grains and good food at cheap prices.
Innumerable oxen were carrying food and grains into the markets.
One would require to wait for a long time to cross the street while
they were passing. The prices were lower in the city than of the
oufside. Various kinds of birds, both living and dead, are available.

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426 IHC: Proceedings, 64th Session, 2003

Various kinds of animals are also on sale. Milk and fruits are cheap
in the market.32 This also confirmed by another Portuguese travelle
of the period, Fernao Nuniz.33 Paez had heard that there are on
lakh low houses of the same type in the city.34
Another Portuguese traveller Fernao Nuniz had mentioned the
new city of Krishnadev Ray at Nagalpur (modern Hospet). It was
walled city and there was a principal street going through the middl
The nobles were asked by the King to build house there. There are
houses on both sides of the street, which was mile and half long.35
All the goods come from outside the city since nothing is grow
within. The king farms ( Ijara ) the principal gate of Vijaynagar fo
12,000 Parados a year. For entering or going out of Nagalpur with
goods, the payment of toll is compulsory. From this poll tax, th
King gets 42,000 Parados a year.36 In these two cities, everyday 20
oxen come with goods.37 Outside the city there was cultivation
wheat and other grains including betel in sufficient quantity. Nun
furhter stated that the King has six lakh soldiers under different
nobles, who were given land in various places of the empire. These
nobles pay the King 50% of the income from these lands and keep
the rest for the maintenance of themselves and their soldiers.38 To
get this money these nobles oppress the common people.39
The travellers had not mentioned the population figure of
Vijaynagar, but we can form an estimate from their accounts. In early
16th century, Paez had compared Vijaynagar with Rome. At that time
the population of Rome was nearly 30,000.40 It is clear that he had
not compared the population of Rome with that of Vijaynagar. Paez
had given the figure of one lakh houses in Vijaynagar. If one takes
five persons per family, the number of people living in the houses
would come to five lakhes. One can add another fifty thousand
ordinary and poor people living in bamboo cottages. This figure is
twice more than those of other contemporary Indian cities like
Fathepur Sikri (two lakh twenty thousand)41 or Gaur (nearly two
lakh).42
The reason why Paez had compared it with Rome was because,
like Rome, this city also began to expand along the riverbank. If
Paez had climbed the Matanga hill, then the city would appear to
him expanding in the western side or from Hampi village to
Krishnapuram . Although this expansion stops at the wall, but one
could see another small town called Dhanapuram, which was
considered a market-town. Similar two other market towns could be
seen on the bank of the river. Since there has been no excavation, it
is difficult to date these small towns. In other words how far the

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 Medieval India 427

river was used to support the cit

It appears that the principal traf
It is difficult to determine the
Conti had taken dimension of the
as sixty square miles, then the
square mile. One would require to
walls, Palace area etc. which wou
There is no doubt that the densit
city, which is confirmed from r
doubtful in view of the accounts
found in difficult to walk on the bank of the river where the market
was located.45 The ruins of the builing on both sides of the streets
show this density even in marginal areas.
In this huge and populated city the principal problem was to
supply daily food and other necessities for which there were several
big markets. It has been noticed that Fernao Nuniz had stated that
there was no production inside the city and the food and other goods
used from outside, even as far distant as Malabar.46 As a result this
city was totally dependent on the production of the rural areas and
its transportation into the city. As seen earlier, the nobles, who were
given land in different parts of the Empire, had to pay to the King
half of their produce, with which the King used to pay for the
maintenance of soldiers, horses, elephants, etc. in the city. This
payment of revenue was made legal through the different rituals of
the Brahminical region. In other words half of the production of the
rural areas were spent on the city of Vijaynagar, which, in return, it
did not pay the rural areas anything - a typical city as enumerated
by Irfan Habib.47 This city was in another way different from other
contemporary Indian cities. In such other cities, the suburbs had
grown outside the city walls, where artisans used to live for
manufacture. But in Vijayanagar, there is no mention of such
manufacturing activities in the suburb.48 Actually there seems to be
no suburbs at all since the city was protected by seven walls within
the fold of the mountains. Only there was the expansion in the
southwest where a new city (Nagalpur) was established in the early
16th century.
What is surprising is that despite the transportation of goods
from such a huge distance by means of pack oxen and the tax to be
paid for the entry into the city, the travellers have found the prices
of commodities lower within the city than outside. If the statement
were accepted, one would say that the producers in the rural areas
were not getting their due shares of price or remuneration. In other

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428 I HC: Proceedings , 64th Session, 2003

words they were forced to sell to the merchants and the nobles at a
lower price than that of the market. With the concentration of wealth
at the capital and with such a huge population, the markets had
grown up consuming the imports. With such large importation the
unit price of the commodity was much less in the capital than outside,
where such scale of demand was absent. Therefore the price was
much more in the rural areas than in the capital.
As a result, the structure of the polity Vijaynagar Empire took
the appearance of a Pyramid on whose top was the capital. Money,
goods, food, luxury items, horses - all are concentrated in the capital.
In a sense this capital was consuming the entire resources of the
Empire and was not giving anything to the rural areas excepting to
the nobility. In Vijaynagar this contradiction became .so acute that
the city and the Empire were moving towards a disastrous future.

Another feature of the structure of the Empire was that the rigor of
the Brahminical civilisation could not be found in the capital. It is
quite possible that a large number of various religious groups were
living here that prevented the formation of a rigorous philosophy
and ritual. Not only the Muslims had a separate area, but also they
had been seen taking part in the Mahanavami festival.49 The presence
of large number of foreigners in the capital could be understood
from the features of the markets, where living and dead birds and
animals were sold. Nuniz stated that the King used to. eat meat of
living birds and animals excepting cow and buffalo. The nobles used
to give gifts of such birds and animals to the King. On the
Mahanavami day, animal sacrifices, particularly buffalo, were held.50
It was close to Sakta sect in which the rigor of the Brahminical
religion was not there.
There was a large scale trade with West Asia on the sale of horses
at Vijaynagar for which a large number of West Asian merchants
used to come as in the representation of palace murals.51 As a result,
a mixed culture was growing within the city that was far more suited
to commercial cultural mores. Here one could see the coexistence
of the Brahmins, horses and the temple girls even the prostitutes, in
the festivals. In the architecture of Vijaynagar, one would see the
strands of the Buddhist, Jain, Islamic and Hindu elements sowing
influence of mixed culture. On the one hand the commodities of the
rural areas were brought in the city to be transformed into money
and on the other there was a commercial culture of mixed elements,

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 Medieval India 429

which formed the features of th

In such a situation, the oppres
people was not lessened. The cen
new taxes or increase the existing ones in the rural areas. The
inscriptions showed that the villagers were resisting such impositions
or increase of taxes. Apart from the armed resistance, the villagers
were deserting their villages.52 The contradiction between the lower
level and the higher one in the rural areas, between the villages and
the central or local administration and the rural nobility, had always
existed. The difference of this contradiction with that of north India
is that in Vijaynagar, at least in the inscriptions, there are very few
references of the role of the small Zamindars. More the centralised
form of administration strengthened in Vijaynagar for the purpose
of concentrating the production, more this contradiction comes into
the forefront. The class distinction could also be seen within the
c±y of Vi^ynagan li the priicpal street, feeing the Vithal temple,
the Portuguese traveller had seen big buildings with verandahs in
the upper story, which were reserved for the upper class pilgrims
only.53 Abdur Razzak, the ambassador, used to stay in one such
building after his arrival from Calicut.54
Generally in the medieval Indian cities, the wholesale markets
were located just outside the walled city, which helps the suburbs.
But in Vijayanagar, the commodities were brought inside the city by
pack oxen. The establishment of the wholesale markets was therefore
within the city. As a result the suburbs had not grown and one does
not find the artisans and the merchants in the suburbs as well. It is
as if the city is completely cut off from outside. But the concentration
of such commodities in a way deprived the provinces thus creating a
further contradiction between the city and the provinces. Such
isolation was aggravated by the luxurious style of living of the Kings
and the nobility with their own value system that contradicted the
value system of the simple living of the people of the rural areas.
One would not be surprised therefore that the people living outside
the city or in the provinces did not feel sympathetic towards the
Empire, which appears to them merely a machine of extortion. This
could be seen in the fact that after the defeat of Vijaynagar in the
battle of Talikota, the tribes living outside the city began to plunder
the city. Since there was no suburb, there was no one to resist them.55

VI

The battle of Talikota fought in 1 565 between Vijaynagar and the

four combined Muslim Kings has often been termed as Hindu-Muslim

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430 IHC : Proceedings, 64th Session, 2003

struggle. As seen earlier, at least two scholars had blamed the

treachery of two Muslim captains for the defeat of Vijaynagar. One
would have to remember that one of the cardinal foreign policies of
Vijaynagar was to see that the Muslim Kings do not get united. Here
the question of religious division does not come. When Krishna Dev
Ray of Vijaynagar had attacked the Hindu King of Orissa, he did not
make any distinction between the Hindus and the Muslims.56 At that
time Orissa was fighting with the Sultan of Bengal. If Krishna Dev
Ray had made such consideration, he would have attacked Bengal
and not Orissa. But Ram Raja, who was the principal force of
Vijaynagar, had insulted the ambassador of Bijapur before the battle
of Talikota, thus allowing them to unite. Even in the battle, there is
no evidence that Vijaynagar had asked help from the neighbouring
Hindu Zamindars. After the battle, when the King had fled to
Penukonda, some of the provincial governors had rebelled. Obviously
they had not sided with Vijaynagar in the battle. From the course of
the revolts, one may conclude that some of the provincial leaders
had not supported Vijayanagar in this battle.
It may be unbelievable to some historians, like Dev Kunjari and
Vasundhara Filliozat, that the Vijaynagar army could be defeated
without treachery. These scholars had not cited their source, but it
is clear that they had taken it from the traveller Caeser Frederick,67
who came to Vijaynagar in 1567. The French traveller Vincent Le
Blanc,58 who was in India after 1575 and who had not gone to
Vijaynagar, repeated this story of treasury. However such a view was
not current even after the battle. Two contemporary historians, the
Portuguese Couto and the Persian historians Ferishta, were totally
silent on such treachery. The narrative of the battle given by Filliozat59
is also inaccurate. As a mater of fact there were about five thousand
Maratha cavalry in the allied army, while there were several thousand
Muslims in the army of Vijaynagar.60 One therefore can not call this
as a Hindu-Muslim struggle.
One of the reasons of the defeat of Vijaynagar was that Ram Raj
had allowed the combined army with large artillery to cross the
Krishna river without resistance. Even if Ram Raja had attacked after
the crossing, the situation would have been different. After receiving
the information of the enemy crossing the river, Ram Raja gave the
enemy the time to regroup and come forward ( Note 105). Also, Ram
Raja was using a palanquin instead of an elephant as suggested to
him by his captains.62
Perhaps Ram Raja was captured and beheaded.63 But Tirumal,
one of the ministers, could come back to the city and if we believe

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 Medieval India 431

the Portuguese writer Diego de

with some of their generals cam
and took away all the wealth inc
After their departure, the tribes
city and looted everything.64 It
Sadasiv, who was confined for t
come back to the palace in the
had seen the soldiers of the King
the allied army could not come
battle and that they did not des
One therefore looks at the con
the structure of the polity of the
communal factors involving eit
Vijaynagar Empire. One need n
colonial historical viewpoint tod

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1 . Edward W. Said, Orientalism, New York, 1979.

2. Henry Creighton, The Ruins of Gaur, London, 1817.
3. Anila Verghese entitled, "Archaeology: A Tool in the Historical Resear
Journal of the Mythic Society, 1993, Vol.83, N*2, 163-167.
4. Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire , National Book Trust, 1970 (2
(hereafter Sewell).
5. See for discussion the article of Ratnabali Chatterjee entitled "Arc
Nationalism: The Case of Medieval Gaur" in K.N. Panikař et al (ed.), T
History , New Delhi, 2000, 500-5 1 4.
6. Domingo Paez, c. 1 520 & Fernão Nuniz, c. 1 535 in Sewell , 228-370.
7. Sewell, 1.
8. A.H. Longhurst, Hampi Ruins , Archaeological Survey of India, 1996 (1* ed. in 1917).
2. Ibid., 25-44.
1 0. Anila Verghese, Religious Traditions at Vijayanagar, New Delhi, 1 995.
11. D. Devkunjari, Hampi, Archaeological Survey of India, 1973.
12. Ibid., 5.
13. Vasundhara Filliozat (ed.), The Vijaynagar Empire, National Book Trust, 1 980 ( 1 * ed.
1977), 11-12.
14. N. Venkataramanya, Vijayanagar : Origin of the City and the Empire, New Delhi, 1 990
(Reprint, 1st ed. 1933).
15. Burton Stein entitled "Vijaynagar, c. 1350-1564" in Tapan Raychoudhury & Irfan Habib
.(ed.), The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol.1, 1st Indian ed., New Delhi,
1984.

16. Ibid., 123-24.

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432 IHC: Proceedings, 64th Session, 2003

1 7. Vekataramanya, op. cit., 22-23. Both Filliozat and Devkunjari had traced the origin o
Vijaynagar on the basis of fake copper Plate inscription.
18. Ibid., 52-63.

1 9. Muhammad Habib & K. A. Nizami (ed. ), Comprehensive Hsitory of India , New Delhi,
1970, 1029-1045.

20. Ibid., also, Venkataramanya, op.cit., 62.

2 1 . Habib & Nizami, op.cit., 967-970; Venkataramanya, op.cit., 84-85.
22. Venkataramanya, op.cit., 91-93.
23. Ziauddin Barani, Tarikh-i Firuz Shaki (Bengali translation), Dacca, 1 982, 1 82- 1 84.
24 Venkataramanya, op.cit., 100-101.
25. Kathleen Morrison entitled "Pattern of Urban Occupation: Surface Collection at
Vijaynagar" South Asian Archaeology , 1 087, Part II, 1 1 1 - 1 25 .

26. Article of M. Athar Ali, "Capital of the Sultans: Delhi During the 13,h and the 14lh
Centuries" in R.E. Frykenberg (ed.), Delhi Through the Ages , New Delhi, 1996, 2 1 -
31.

27. Longhurst, op.cit., 1 06- 1 1 1 , for the description and the pictures.

28. Narrative of Domingo Paez in Sewell , 256-260 (ereinafter Paez).

29. Narrative of the Voyage of Abd-er Razzak, Ambassador from Shah Rukh, 1 442 AD, in
R. H. Major (ed.), Indianin the Fifteenth Century , New Delhi, 1974, Indian Ed., 30
This amount was spent on the maintenance of guards.
30. Paez, 247.
31. Ibid., 247-248.
32. Ibid., 248-250.
33. Chronicle of Fernão Nuniz in Sewell , 347 (hereinafter Nuniz).
34. Paez, 277.
35. Nuniz, 344-345.
36. Ibid., 345.
37. Ibid., 347.
38. Ibid., 354; Paez, 269.
39. Nuniz , 354.
40. Jean Luc Haroue!, Histoire de I ' Urbanism , Paris, 1 985 ( 1 st Ed. 1 98 1 ), 43-44.
4 1 . Irfan Habib, "The Economic and Social Setting: Akbar and Fathepur Sikri" in Marg,
N* 5, 73-82.
42. Anirddha Ray, "Archaeological Reconnaissance of the City of Gaur: A Preliminary
Report" in Pratna-Samiksha (Calcutta), 1992-93, Vols.2-3, 256.
43. Travels of Niccolai Conti in the East in R.H. Major, op.cit., 6.
44. Monsson, op.cit.
45. Paez, 246.
46. Nuniz, 347.
47. For a discussion, see Irfan Habib, The Agrarian system of Mughal Empire , 1556-
1 707 , Oxford University Press, 1999, 2* ed.

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 Medieval India 433

48. Paez stated that the artisans used to live

stated that the artisans were living in the
It seems however that they were merchan
precious stones.
49. Paez, 267.
50. Ibid., 264; Nuniz, 356.
51 . Sewell, 202, quoting Sasseti, who was in the late 16th century. Nuniz stated that the
King used to buy annually 13,000 horses from the Arabas and the Portuguese (360-
362).
52. T. V. Mahalingam, Administration and Social Life under Vijaynagar , Madras, 2 Vols
1, 45ff.

53. Paez,, 251.

54. Razzak , op. cit., 22.
5 5 . Se well , 1 99, quoting Diego de Couto.
56. Nuniz 308ff, for details.
57. T. Wheeler (ed.), Early Travels in India , 1 947, Indian Ed. New Delhi ( 1 * published in
1864), 137.
58. Vincent Le Blanc, Les Voyages Fameuux , Paris, 1 648, 1 09- 111. But he mentioned a
second battled between Vijaynagar and the allied army at Penukonda when Vijaynagar
King had seized of the treacherous captains.
59. Filliozat, op.cit., 12.
60. For the preparation and the course of the battle, see Harun Khan Sherwani, History of
the Qutb Shah Dynasty , New Delhi, 1974, 137ff. Also see Sewell. 195-197, who had
compared the accounts of Diego de Couto and Feristah.
61 . The battle was not fought at Talikota, which was 24 miles north of the Krishna river,
but the village of Banihatti, ten miles distant from the river (Sherwani, op.cit., 144-
145). Also see Sewell , 192, fn.2. Sewell quoted the statement of Couto that Ram Raja
was not informed of the enemy's crossing of the river ( 1 93, fn. 1 .), which is incredible.
For the reconstruction of the battle, see Jadunath Sarkar, Military History of India,
Orient Longman, 1 970 (Reprint), 9 1 - 1 02. Sarkar ascribed the defeat of Raja due to the
accurate artillery fire of the Ahniadnagar troops and the sudden charge of the Nizami
Shahi cavalry at the centre. Sarkar did not mention any treachery.
62. Sewell, 197.
63. Ibid.

64. Ibid., 198.

65. Frederick, op.cit., 134.

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