A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar) Part 23

When any one suffers wrong and wishes to represent his case to the King he shows how great is his suffering by lying flat on his face on the ground till they ask him what it is he wants. If, perchance, he wishes to speak to the King while he is riding, he takes the shaft of a spear and ties a branch to it and thus goes along calling out. Then they make room for him, and he makes his complaint to the King; and it is there and then settled without more ado, and the King orders a captain, one of those who go with him, to do at once what the supplicant asks. If he complains that he was robbed in such and such a province and in such and such a road, the King sends immediately for the captain of that province, even though he be at court, and the captain may be seized and his property taken if he does not catch the thief. In the same way the chief bailiff[613] is obliged to give an account of the robberies in the capital, and in consequence very few thefts take place; and even if some are committed, you give some little present and a description of the man who stole from you, and they will soon know by the agency of the wizards whether the thief be in the city or not; for there are very powerful wizards in this country. Thus there are very few thieves in the land.

This King has continually fifty thousand paid soldiers, amongst whom are six thousand hors.e.m.e.n who belong to the palace guard, to which six thousand belong the two hundred who are obliged to ride with him. He has also twenty thousand spearmen and shield-bearers, and three thousand men to look after the elephants in the stables; he has sixteen hundred grooms[614] who attend to the horses, and has also three hundred horse trainers[615] and two thousand artificers, namely blacksmiths, masons, and carpenters, and washermen who wash clothes. These are the people he has and pays every day; he gives them their allowance at the gate of the palace. To the six thousand hors.e.m.e.n the King gives horses free and gives provision for them every month, and all these horses are marked with the King's mark; when they die they are obliged to take the piece of skin containing the mark to Madanarque, the chief master of the horse, so that he may give them another, and these horses which he gives are mostly country-breds which the King buys, twelve or fifteen for a thousand PARDAOS.[616] The King every year buys thirteen thousand horses of Ormuz, and country-breds, of which he chooses the best for his own stables, and he gives the rest to his captains, and gains much money by them; because after taking out the good Persian horses, he sells those which are country-bred, and gives five for a thousand PARDAOS, and they are obliged to pay him the money for them within the month of September; and with the money so obtained he pays for the Arabs that he buys of the Portuguese, in such a way that his captains pay the cost of the whole without anything going out of the Treasury.

This King has also within his gates more than four thousand women, all of whom live in the palace; some are dancing-girls, and others are bearers[617] who carry the King's wives on their shoulders, and the King also in the interior of the palace, for the king's houses are large and there are great intervals between one house and another. He has also women who wrestle, and others who are astrologers and soothsayers; and he has women who write all the accounts of expenses that are incurred inside the gates, and others whose duty it is to write all the affairs of the kingdom and compare their books with those of the writers outside; he has women also for music, who play instruments and sing. Even the wives of the King are well versed in music.

The King has other women besides. He has ten cooks for his personal service, and has others kept for times when he gives banquets; and these ten prepare the food for no one save for the King alone. He has a eunuch for guard at the gate of the kitchen, who never allows any one to enter for fear of poison. When the King wishes to eat, every person withdraws, and then come some of the women whose duty it is and they prepare the table for him; they place for him a three-footed stool, round, made of gold, and on it put the messes. These are brought in large vessels of gold, and the smaller messes in basins of gold, some of which are adorned with precious stones. There is no cloth on the table, but one is brought when the King has finished eating, and he washes his hands and mouth. Women and eunuchs serve him at table. The wives of the King remain each in her own chamber and are waited on by maid-servants. It is said that he has judges, as well as bailiffs and watchmen who every night guard the palace, and all these are women.

The King never puts on any garment more than once, and when he takes it off he at once delivers it to certain officers who have charge of this duty, and they render an account; and these garments are never given to any one. This is considered to show great state. His clothes are silk cloths (PACHOIIS)[618] of very fine material and worked with gold, which are worth each one ten PARDAOS; and they wear at times BAJURIS of the same sort, which are like shirts with a skirt; and on the head they wear caps of brocade which they call CULAES,[619]

and one of these is worth some twenty cruzados. When he lifts it from his head he never again puts it on.

The punishments that they inflict in this kingdom are these: for a thief, whatever theft he commits, howsoever little it be, they forthwith cut off a foot and a hand, and if his theft be a great one he is hanged with a hook under his chin. If a man outrages a respectable woman or a virgin he has the same punishment, and if he does any other such violence his punishment is of a like kind. n.o.bles who become traitors are sent to be impaled alive on a wooden stake thrust through the belly, and people of the lower orders, for whatever crime they commit, he forthwith commands to cut off their heads in the market-place, and the same for a murder unless the death was the result of a duel. For great honour is done to those who fight in a duel, and they give the estate of the dead man to the survivor; but no one fights a duel without first asking leave of the minister, who forthwith grants it. These are the common kinds of punishments, but they have others more fanciful; for when the King so desires, he commands a man to be thrown to the elephants, and they tear him in pieces. The people are so subject to him that if you told a man on the part of the King that he must stand still in a street holding a stone on his back all day till you released him, he would do it.

The officers of the King who go about the kingdom are these: -- First the minister (REGEDOR) of the kingdom, who is the second person in it, then the treasurer, with the scribes of the King's own lands,[620]

the chief treasurer, and the commander of the palace guards (O PORTEIRO MOOR), the treasurer of the jewels, the chief master of the horse. The King has no controller of the revenues nor other officers, nor officers of his house, but only the captains of his kingdom; of whom I will here mention some, and the revenues they hold, and of what territory they are lords,

Firstly Salvanayque, the present minister; he has a revenue of a million and a hundred thousand gold PARDAOS. He is lord of Charamaodel and of Nagapatao, and Tamgor, and Bomgarin, and Dapatao, and Truguel, and Caullim, and all these are cities; their territories are all very large, and they border on Ceylon.[621] Of thismoney he is obliged to give a third to the King, and two-thirds remain for him for the expenses of his LASCARIS and horses, which he is obliged to maintain for the King, viz.: thirty thousand foot and three thousand horse and thirty elephants; so that he only gets the balance after deducting the expenses of this force. But in this way he acquires much wealth because he never maintains the whole force. And the King, whenever he wishes, takes away property of these n.o.bles.

Another captain, Aj.a.parcatimapa,[622] who was minister of Crisnarao, has a revenue of eight hundred thousand PARDAOS of gold, and is lord of the city of Hudogary,[623] and of the city of Condovim,[624] and of the city of Penagundim,[625] and of Codegaral[626] of Cidaota.[627] All these large cities border on the kingdom of Oria, and some of them with Cape Comorin (CABO DE COMARY). These lands Crisnarao gave him when he made him minister and put out the eyes of Salvatinica, his minister, who was captain of them. He is obliged to serve with twenty-five thousand[628] foot, fifteen hundred horse, and forty elephants, and pays each year to the King three hundred thousand PARDAOS.

Another captain, who is called Gapanayque, is lord of these lands, namely of Rosyl,[629] and of Tipar, and of Ticalo, and of Bigolom.[630]

These lands march with the territory of the Ydallcao, and in all these there is much wheat and grains and cattle and goats and gingely and cotton; and very fine cloth made of the last, for all the cloth that is manufactured is made of it. He has a revenue from these territories of six hundred thousand PARDAOS, and is obliged to furnish two thousand five hundred horse, and twenty thousand foot, and twenty elephants, and he pays every year to the King a hundred and fifty thousand PARDAOS.

Another captain called Lepapayque, who is lord of Vimgapor,[631] a land very rich in seed-plots and cattle-breeding farms, has a revenue of three hundred thousand PARDAOS; and is obliged to furnish twelve hundred horse and twenty thousand foot and twenty-eight elephants, and he pays to the King every year eighty thousand PARDAOS.

The treasurer of the jewels, who is called Narvara is captain of the new city which is called Ondegema,[632] and is lord of the city of Diguoty and of Darguem and of Entarem,[633] and of the other lands bordering on the lands of Bisnaga; they are all fields. They yield him every year four hundred thousand PARDAOS, of which he gives the King two hundred thousand, and the rest he spends on twelve thousand foot and six hundred horse and twenty elephants.

Another captain called Chinapanayque, the King's marshal, is lord of the land of Calaly[634] in the direction of Cochim in the interior, and of many other lands that yield him three hundred thousand PARDAOS; and he is obliged to pay the King every year one hundred thousand PARDAOS, and serves with eight hundred horse and ten thousand foot (PRACOS).

Crisnapanayque is lord of Aosel,[635] which is a large city, and of other villages that I do not here mention as they have very difficult names. These lands yield him every year twenty thousand PARDAOS of gold, and he pays an annual revenue to the King of seven thousand PARDAOS, and serves with five hundred horse and seven hundred foot (PRACOS).

Also Baj.a.panarque, who is captain of the country of Bodial,[636]

which borders on Mamgalor[637] by the sea-coast. He is lord too of Guiana.[638] In this country there is much pepper and sugar-cane and cloth (of flax)[639] and much rice; but there is no wheat, nor other cloth, and it is a land of wax. It yields him three hundred thousand PARDAOS a year, and he serves with eight hundred hors.e.m.e.n and ten thousand foot and fifteen elephants. He pays the King ten thousand PARDAOS.

Mallpanarque, who was chief master of the horse to King Crisnarao, is lord of the country of Avaly,[640] which is in the interior of Calecu.[641] This land has much iron and much cotton, rice, goats, sheep, cows and buffaloes. He has a revenue of fifteen thousand PARDAOS, and is obliged to serve with four hundred horse and six thousand foot, and pays the King every year five thousand PARDAOS.

Another captain, called Adapanayque, who is the chief counsellor of the King, is lord of the country of Gate,[642] whence come the diamonds, and of many other territories which yield him three hundred thousand gold PARDAOS, excluding the precious stones which form a revenue by themselves. He pays to the King every year forty thousand PARDAOS, with the condition that all diamonds which exceed twenty MANGELINS[643]

in weight shall be given to the King for his Treasury. He serves with eight thousand foot and eight hundred horse and thirty elephants, and pays the King every year one hundred thousand PARDAOS.

Another Baj.a.panayque 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 princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.sert 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 cla.s.s 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 G.o.d, and they call the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity "TRICEBEMCA." There is another cla.s.s who are Canarese who have paG.o.das 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 cla.s.s of men called Telumgalle;[648] when these die their wives are buried alive with them.

The King of Bisnaga is a Brahman;[649] every day he hears the preaching of a learned Brahman, who never married nor ever touched a woman. He urges in his preaching (obedience to) the commandments of G.o.d, that is to say, that one must not kill any living thing, nor take anything belonging to another, and as with these so with the rest of the commandments. These people have such devotion to cows that they kiss them every day, some they say even on the rump -- a thing I do not a.s.sert for their honour -- and with the droppings of these cows they absolve themselves from their sins as if with holy water. They have for a commandment to confess their sins to the Brahman priests, but they do not do it, except only those who are very religious (AMIGUOS DE DIOS). They give in excuse that they feel a shame to confess themselves to another man, and say that it is sufficient to confess themselves alone after approaching G.o.d, for he who does not do so does not acquire grace; thus they fulfil the command in one way or another. But they do it so seldom (in reality) that they (may be said to) neglect this command to confess.

This kingdom of Bisnaga is all heathen. The women have the custom of burning themselves when their husbands die, and hold it an honour to do so. When therefore their husbands die they mourn with their relations and those of their husbands, but they hold that the wife who weeps beyond measure has no desire to go in search of her husband; and the mourning finished their relations speak to them, advising them to burn themselves and not to dishonour their generation. After that, it is said, they place the dead man on a bed with a canopy of branches and covered with flowers, and they put the woman on the back of a worthless horse, and she goes after them with many jewels on her, and covered with roses; she carries a mirror in her hand and in the other a branch of flowers, and (she goes accompanied by) many kinds of music, and his relations (go with her) with much pleasure. A man goes also playing on a small drum, and he sings songs to her telling her that she is going to join her husband, and she answers also in singing that so she will do. As soon as she arrives at the place where they are always burned she waits with the musicians till her husband is burned, whose body they place in a very large pit that has been made ready for it, covered with much firewood. Before they light the fire his mother or his nearest relative takes a vessel of water on the head and a firebrand in the hand, and goes three times round the pit, and at each round makes a hole in the pot; and when these three rounds are done breaks the pot, which is small, and throws the torch into the pit. Then they apply the fire, and when the body is burned comes the wife with all the feasters and washes her feet, and then a Brahman performs over her certain ceremonies according to their law; and when he has finished doing this, she draws off with her own hand all the jewels that she wears, and divides them among her female relatives, and if she has sons she commends them to her most honoured relatives. When they have taken off all she has on, even her good clothes, they put on her some common yellow cloths, and her relatives take her hand and she takes a branch in the other, and goes singing and running to the pit where the fire is, and then mounts on some steps which are made high up by the pit. Before they do this they go three times round the fire, and then she mounts the steps and holds in front of her a mat that prevents her from seeing the fire. They throw into the fire a cloth containing rice, and another in which they carry betel leaves, and her comb and mirror with which she adorned herself, saying that all these are needed to adorn herself by her husband's side. Finally she takes leave of all, and puts a pot of oil on her head, and casts herself into the fire with such courage that it is a thing of wonder; and as soon as she throws herself in, the relatives are ready with firewood and quickly cover her with it, and after this is done they all raise loud lamentations. When a captain dies, however many wives he has they all burn themselves, and when the King dies they do the same. This is the custom throughout all the country of the heathen, except with that caste of people called Telugas, amongst whom the wives are buried alive with their husbands when they die. These go with much pleasure to the pit, inside of which are made two seats of earth, one for him and one for her, and they place each one on his own seat and cover them in little by little till they are covered up; and so the wife dies with the husband.

CHAPTER 23

Of the ceremonies practised at the death of Brahmans.

When a Brahman is sick, before he dies, they send to call the learned Brahmans who are his priests, so that they should come to pray, and console the sick man; and they talk to him of the affairs of his soul, and what he must do to save it, bidding him spend money in alms. After this ceremony is over they make the Brahman priests shave the sick man's head, and after the shaving they bid them wash it, and after the washing it is their custom to bring into their houses a cow with a calf, -- there are very few Brahmans, however poor they be, who do not have one to live in their house, -- which cow, when they have finished washing the man's head, they take a turban and tie it to its neck and put the end of the turban into the hand of the sick man, and he gives it and the calf in alms for his soul to those priests who perform these ceremonies. On that day he gives alms according to his position, and gives to eat to some Brahmans who are invited and who come there for the purpose. They believe that when these ceremonies are made for the sick man, if he is to live he is soon cured of his infirmity, and if not that he soon dies.

After the death of the sick man they have the ground washed upon which he lay, and after the washing they take cow-dung and spread it over the ground, and place the body on the top of this dung. They hold that a sick man who dies on a cot, or on anything so-ever except only on the ground, commits a mortal sin. As soon as the body is laid on the ground they make for it a bier covered with boughs of the fig-tree, and before they place the body on the bier they wash it well with pure water, and anoint it with sandal-wood (oil); and they place by the body branches of sweet basil and cover it with a new cloth, and so place it in the bier. Then one of his relatives takes the bier on one side, and they call three other Brahmans whosoever they may be to aid them to lift it; and so they carry it to the place where they are to burn it, accompanied by many Brahmans who go singing in front of the corpse. In front of all goes his son, if he has one, or next younger brother or nearest relative, with fire in the hand for the burning. As soon as they arrive at the place where they have to burn the body, they scatter money according to their ability, and then put the fire to it; and they wait there till the whole body is consumed, and then all go and wash their bodies in a tank and afterwards return each one to his house. The son or brother or relation who put the fire is obliged to sleep on the ground where the man died for nine nights, and after the lapse of nine days from the death come the priests and learned men and they command to shave the head of this man. During these nine days, they feed the poor and they give them the dead man's clothes, and they give the cot with its bed in alms to the priests, with some money in addition; if he is a rich man they give gardens and other things in alms to many Brahmans. When ten days are finished, and the son has been shaved, he goes to the place where they burned his father or his brother, and they perform many ceremonies over the ashes and bones that remain unburned; then they put them in a small vessel and make a pit in the ground and bury them in it, and keep them thus guarded and buried in order (afterwards) to send the bones to be thrown into a sacred river, which is distant from Goa over one thousand leagues.[650] There is a very large temple there, the object of many pilgrimages, and they hold that every pilgrim who dies there is saved, and goes to Paradise, and also every dead man whose bones are thrown into that river. In spite of this they in reality take very few people there. The heir or the father or son of the dead man is obliged, from the day of the death, for eleven days to give food to twenty-seven Brahmans, and until twenty-one days to three others; until twelve days again he feeds seven Brahmans, and until twenty-seven days gives to eat to the three; on the last day of the month he gives food to three others, and thenceforward, until one year is finished, he gives meals once a month to three Brahmans. They do this in honour of the Trinity for the soul of the deceased. When this year is over he gives no more alms, except that each year, on the day on which the death happened, he feeds six Brahmans, -- namely, three in honour of the Trinity, and three for the persons of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather; who thus seemingly eat together. Thus he obtains favour with G.o.d, and for these expenses they beg alms of the Brahmans if they are poor. These give him all help for it. Before they dine they wash the feet of all six, and during the meal some ceremonies are performed by Brahman priests who come there for that purpose.

CHAPTER A

Diamonds

However much it may at first sight appear that our chroniclers have exaggerated in their description of the wealth of the Hindu sovereign and his n.o.bles, and of the wonderful display of jewels made on days of high festival by the ladies of their households, an account of which is given us by Paes, I for one see little reason for doubt. Nuniz distinctly states (p. 389) that the diamond mines, in their day the richest in the world, were farmed out on condition that all stones above twenty mangellins in weight -- about twenty-five carats -- were sent to the Raya for his personal use, and there must have been many of these. Barradas (p. 226 above) states that, according to rumour, even after the downfall of the empire the king at Chandragiri in 1614 A.D. had no less than three large chests full of diamonds in his possession; and every traveller and chronicler has something to say on the subject.

The princ.i.p.al mines were on the north bank of the Krishna river, and in the Kurnool and Anantapur countries, notably at Vajra Karur. Generically these are known as "the mines of Golkonda," and the phrase has pa.s.sed into a proverb.

Linschoten (ii. 136) writes: "They (diamonds) grow in the countrie of Decam behinde Ballagate, by the towne of Bisnagar, wherein are two or three hilles, from whence they are digged, whereof the King of Bisnagar doth reape great profitte; for he causeth them to be straightly watched, and hath farmed them out with this condition, that all diamonds that are above twenty-five Mangellyns in weight are for the King himselfe (every Mangellyn is foure graines in weight).

"There is yet another hill in the Countrie of Decam, which is called Velha, that is the old Rocke, from whence come the best diamonds and are sold for the greatest price.... Sometimes they find Diamonds of one hundred and two hundred Mangelyns and more, but very few."

As regards the diamond "as large as a hen's egg," said to have been found at the sack of Vijayanagar and presented to the Adil Shah (above, p. 208), Couto (Decade VIII. c. xv.) says that it was a jewel which the Raya had affixed to the base of the plume on his horse's head-dress. Garcia da Orta, who was in India in 1534, says that at Vijayanagar a diamond had been seen as large as a small hen's egg, and he even declares the weights of three others to have been respectively 120, 148, and 250 MANGELIS, equivalent to 150, 175, and 312 1/2 carats (Tavernier, V. Ball, ii. 433).

Dr. Ball has gone carefully into the question of the diamonds known as "Babar's," "the Mogul's," "Pitt's," "the KOH-I-NUR," and others, and to his Appendix I. I beg to refer those interested in the subject.

It is clear that this hen's egg diamond could not be the fame as Sultan Babar's, because the former was taken at Vijayanagar in A.D. 1565, whereas Sultan Babar's was received by his son Humayun at Agra in 1526, and could not have been, forty years later, in the possession of the Hindu king of the south.[651]

Dr. Ball has shown that probably the KOH-I-NUR is identical with the "Mogul's diamond." Was, then, this "hen's egg" diamond the same? Probably not. If we had been told that the "hen's egg," when found in the sack of Vijayanagar, had been cut, the proof CONTRA would be conclusive, since the KOH-I-NUR was certainly uncut in A.D. 1656 or 1657. But there is no information available on this point.

The "hen's egg" was apparently taken by the Adil Shah to Bij.a.pur in 1565, and it is not likely to have found its way, still in an uncut state, into the possession of Mir Jumla in 1656.

The KOH-I-NUR was found at Kollur on the river Krishna, probably in A.D. 1656. Mir Jumla farmed the mines at that time, and presented it uncut to the emperor, Shah Jahan. It is said to have weighed 756 English carats (Ball, ii. 444). It was entrusted to a Venetian named Hortens...o...b..rgio, and was so damaged and wasted in his hands that, when seen by Tavernier in Aurangzib's treasury in 1665, it weighed not more than 268 1/2 English carats. In 1739 Nadir Shah sacked Delhi and carried the stone away with him to Persia, conferring on it its present immortal name the "Mountain of Light." On his murder in 1747 it pa.s.sed into the hands of his grandson, Shah Rukh. Four years later Shah Rukh gave it to Ahmad Shah Durani of Kabul, and by him it was bequeathed to his son Taimur. In 1793 it pa.s.sed by descent to his son Shah Zaman, who was blinded and deposed by his brother Muhammad; but he retained possession of the stone in his prison, and in 1795 it became the property of his brother Sultan Shuja. In 1809, after Shuja became king of Kabul, Elphinstone saw the diamond in his bracelet at Peshawur. In 1812, Shuja, being dethroned by Muhammad, fled to Lah.o.r.e, where he was detained as a quasi-prisoner by Ranjit Singh, the ruler of the Panjab. In 1813 an agreement was arrived at, and Shuja surrendered the diamond to Ranjit Singh. Ranjit often wore the stone, and it was constantly seen by European visitors to Lah.o.r.e. Dying in 1839, the KOH-I-NUR was placed in the jewel-chamber till the infant Dhulip Singh was acknowledged as Ranjit's successor. In 1849 it was handed over to Sir John Lawrence on the annexation of the Panjab, and by him was sent to England to Her Majesty the Queen. In 1851 it was exhibited at the first great Exhibition, and in 1852 it was re-cut by an Amsterdam cutter, Voorsanger, in the employ of Messrs. Garrards. The weight is now 106 1/16 carats.

It would be interesting to trace the story of the "hen's egg" diamond after its acquisition by the Bij.a.pur sultan, Ali Adil.

H. de Montfart, who travelled in India in 1608, saw a very large diamond in the possession of the Mogul emperor Jahangir at Delhi,[652]

but this had been pierced. "I have seene one with the great MOGOR as bigge as a Hen's egge, and of that very forme, which he caused expressly to bee pierced like a pearle to weare it on his arme.... It weighteth 198 Mangelins."

CHAPTER B