第32章

"The inhabitants of Cambay alone use paper;all other Indians write on the leaves of trees.They have a vast number of slaves,and,the debtor who is insolvent is everywhere adjudged to be the property of his creditor.The numbers of these people and nations exceeds belief.Their armies consist of a million men and upwards."Abdur Razzak also visited,the city during the reign of Deva Raya II.,but about twenty years later than Conti.He was entrusted with an embassy from Persia,and set out on his mission on January 13,A.D.1442.At the beginning of November that year he arrived at Calicut,where he resided till the beginning of April 1443.Being there he was summoned to Vijayanagar,travelled thither,and was in the great city from the end of April till the 5th December of the same year.The following passage explains why he left Calicut.

"On a sudden a man arrived who brought me the intelligence that the king of Bidjanagar,who holds a powerful empire and a mighty dominion under his sway,had sent him to the Sameri[130]as delegate,charged with a letter in which he desired that he would send on to him the ambassador of His Majesty,the happy Khakhan (I.E.the king of Persia).Although the Sameri is not subject to the laws of the king of Bidjanagar,he nevertheless pays him respect and stands extremely in fear of him,since,if what is said is true,this latter prince has in his dominions three hundred ports,each of which is equal to Calicut,and on TERRA FIRMA his territories comprise a space of three months'journey."In obedience to this request,Abdur Razzak left Calicut by sea and went to Mangalore,"which forms the frontier of the kingdom of Bidjanagar."He stayed there two or three days and then journeyed inland,passing many towns,and amongst them a place where he saw a small but wonderful temple made of bronze.

"At length I came to a mountain whose summit reached the skies.Having left this mountain and this forest behind me,I reached a town called Belour,[131]the houses of which were like palaces."Here he saw a temple with exquisite sculpture.

"At the end of the month of Zoul'hidjah[132]we arrived at the city of Bidjanagar.The king sent a numerous cortege to meet us,and appointed us a very handsome house for our residence.His dominion extends from the frontier of Serendib to the extremities of the country of Kalbergah (I.E.from the Krishna River to Cape Comorin).One sees there more than a thousand elephants,in their size resembling mountains and in their form resembling devils.The troops amount in number to eleven LAK(1,100,000).One might seek in vain throughout the whole of Hindustan to find a more absolute RAI;for the monarchs of this country bear the title of RAI.

"The city of Bidjanagar is such that the pupil of the eye has never seen a place like it,and the ear of intelligence has never been informed that there existed anything to equal it in the world.It is built in such a manner that seven citadels and the same number of walls enclose each other.Around the first citadel are stones of the height of a man,one half of which is sunk in the ground while the other half rises above it.These are fixed one beside the other in such a manner that no horse or foot soldier could boldly or with ease approach the citadel."The position of these seven walls and gates have long been a puzzle to me,but I hazard the following explanation.The traveller approached from the southwest,and the first line of wall that he saw must have been that on the neck between the two hills south-west of Hospett.Paes also describes this outer defence-work as that seen by all travellers on their first arrival from the coast.After being received at this entrance-gate Razzak must have passed down the slope through "cultivated fields,houses,and gardens"to the entrance of Hospett,where the second line of fortification barred the way;and since that town was not then thickly populated,the same features would meet his eye till he passed a third line of wall on the north side of that town.From this point the houses became thicker,probably forming a long street,with shops on either side of the road,leading thence to the capital.The fourth line of wall,with a strong gateway,is to be seen on the south of the present village of Malpanagudi,where several remains of old buildings exist;and notably a handsome stone well,once probably belonging to the country-house of some noble or chief officer.The fifth line is on the north of Malpanagudi,and here the great gateway still stands,though the wall is much damaged and destroyed.The sixth line is passed just to the south of the Kamalapur tank.The seventh or inner line is the great wall still to be seen in fairly good repair north of that village.This last surrounded the palace and the government buildings,the space enclosed measuring roughly a mile from north to south,and two miles and a quarter from east to west.The remains of the upright stones alluded to by Razzak were seen by Domingo Paes in A.D.1520.[133]

I believe that they have now disappeared.

Razzak describes the outer citadel as a "fortress of round shape,built on the summit of a mountain,and constructed of stones and lime.It has very solid gates,the guards of which are constantly at their post,and examine everything with severe inspection."This passage must refer to the outer line of wall,since Razzak's "seventh fortress"is the innermost of all.The guards at the gates were doubtless the officers entrusted with the collection of the octroi duties.Sir Henry Elliot's translation (iv.104)adds to the passage as quoted the words,--"they collect the JIZYAT or taxes."This system of collecting octroi dues at the gates of principal towns lasted till recent days,having only been abolished by the British Government.

"The seventh fortress is to the north,and is the palace of the king.The distance between the opposite gates of the outer fortress north and south is two parasangs,[134]and the same east to west.