Part 8 out of 8




[609] -- This is he only occasion on which the chronicler gives
the king his hereditary title of Raya, usually spelt RAO by the
Portuguese. RAYA is the same as RAJA.

[610] -- The Qutb Shah of Golkonda.

[611] -- Whether true or not, this statement, coming as it does from
a totally external source, strongly supports the view often held that
the ryots of South India were grievously oppressed by the nobles when
subject to Hindu government. Other passages in both these chronicles,
each of which was written quite independently of the other, confirm
the assertion here made as to the mass of the people being ground
down and living in the greatest poverty and distress.

[612] -- When passing through the city, probably.

[613] -- MEYRINHO.

[614] -- FARAZES.

[615] -- SANEIS QUE ENSYNDO OS CAVALLOS.

[616] -- Above, p. 361, and note.

[617] -- BOIS. Hindu women of the Boyi caste. The Boyis are Telugus,
and are employed as bearers of palanqueens and other domestic service
in Southern India. Hence the Anglo-Indian term "Boy" for a servant.

[618] -- See above, note to p. 377.

[619] -- Telugu, KULLAYI. See pp. 210, 252, 273.

[620] -- DE FAZEMDA. I think that the meaning is as given. It will
be observed below that the kingdom was divided into provinces or
estates, each one entrusted to a noble who farmed the revenue to his
own advantage, paying a fixed sum every year to the king. In the case
of Narvara, the treasurer of the jewels, his estate is described as
"bordering on the country of Bisnaga," and as this expression cannot
refer to the entire country ruled by the king, it must be taken in a
limited sense as applying to the king's own personal lands -- his home
farm, so to speak. The system is well known in India, where a prince
holds what are called KHAS lands, I.E. lands held privately for his
own personal use and benefit, as distinct from the lands held under him
by others, the revenue of which last ought to go to the public purse.

[621] -- Note that Madura is not mentioned in these lists. And yet
it would appear that a Nayakka, or subordinate chief of Vijayanagar,
had been ruling at that place since 1499. Mr. Nelson, in his work,
"The Madura Country," gives the following list of Nayakkas there: --


A.D.
Narasa Nayakka 1499 -- 1500
Tenna Nayakka 1500 -- 1515
Narasa Pillai (a Tamulian) 1515 -- 1519
Kuru Kuru Timmappa Nayakka 1519 -- 1524
Kattiyama Kamayya Nayakka 1524 -- 1526
Chinnappa Nayakka 1526 -- 1530
Ayyakarai Veyyappa Nayakka 1530 -- 1535
Visvanatha Nayakka Ayyar 1535 -- 1544


Four others are mentioned before we come to the great Visvanatha
Nayakka, who founded an hereditary dynasty, though himself only
a deputy of the crown. He ruled Madura from 1559 to 1563. Muttu
Krishnappa (1602 -- 1609) seems to have been the first to assume
royal titles at Madura. His son, Muttu Virappa (1609 -- 1623), is
stated, in the narrative of the Portuguese writer Barradas (above,
p. 230), to have paid a tribute in A.D. 1616 to the Vijayanagar king
at Chandragiri of 600,000 pagodas; he had several vassal kings under
him, and must have already obtained great power. It is possible that,
in the time of Nuniz, Madura was not one of the greater provinces,
but that it became so later.

The names Choromandel, Negapatam, and Tanjore are easy to
distinguish in this list. "Bomgarin" I cannot identify, though the
termination, GARIM, may represent GIRI, "mountain." "Dapatao" may be
Devipatnam. "Truguel" seems to have some affinity with Tirukovil. It
cannot be the "Truguel" mentioned by Barros and others as one of the
fortresses given to Asada Khan by the king of Vijayanagar (above,
p. 175), because those were close to Belgaum, while this "Truguel"
was in the extreme south "Caullim" may be Kayal.

[622] -- Above, p. 300, note 1.

[623] -- Udayagiri.

[624] -- Kondavid.

[625] -- Pennakonda.

[626] -- (?) Kanigiri, Nellore district. Codegaral MAY represent
Gandikota, the termination GIRI, "hill," being substituted for KOTA,
"fort," E.G. GANDIGIRI.

[627] -- Siddhout or Siddhavattam, Cuddapah district.

[628] -- The passage is incomplete, and I have rendered it as seems
reasonable. It runs, "VINTE E CIMCO MILL E QUINHENTOS DE CAVALLO E,"
&c. Looking at the other lists of troops, it cannot be supposed that
this chief had to provide 25,000 horse. It seems more probable that
such a word as PIAES was accidentally omitted after MILL, and that
MILL should have been repeated before QUINHENTOS.

[629] -- Perhaps Rachol, near Goa.

[630] -- Bicholim (?).

[631] -- "Bengapor" as elsewhere spelt, I.E. Bankapur, south of
Dharwar.

[632] -- See the last sentence of the chronicle of Paes (above,
p. 290), where a town "on the east" is called the new city which
Krishna Deva built in honour of his favourite wife. The writer
has evidently been confused in that statement, for it seems clear
that the town so founded was Nagalapur, the old name for Hospett,
with which it is distinctly identified in other places. This town
"on the east" is said, in the sentence referred to, to bear the
name "Ardegema," and the locality is hard to determine. "East"
of what? If east of Nagalapur be meant, then Ardegema or Ondegema
(GEMA probably represents GRAMA, "village") might have been a suburb
of that town. If east of the capital be intended, I cannot identify
the place. But these places evidently were close to the capital,
bordering on the crown lands. This, I take it, is the meaning of
"bordering on the lands (TERRA) of Bisnaga."

[633] -- These three places I cannot identify. "Diguoty" may
perhaps be Duggavatti, in the Harpanhalli division of the Bellary
district. "Darguem" suggests "Droog" or "Durgam." The word is applied
to a hill-fort, of which there are many in the neighbourhood. One
of the most important was Rayadrug, south of Bellary. One of the
ghat roads leading eastwards from Goa is called the "gate de Digui"
in old maps.

[634] -- Possibly Kalale in Mysore, a place fifteen miles south of
that capital. It is said to have been founded in 1504 by a noble who
was connected with the Vijayanagar royal family (Rice's gazetteer,
ii. 255).

[635] -- Unidentified.

[636] -- Perhaps Budehal in Mysore, which like Kalale was founded
by a Vijayanagar officer, and contains several sixteenth-century
inscriptions. It is in the Chittaldrug division, forty miles south
of that place.

[637] -- Mangalore.

[638] -- Unidentified.

[639] -- ROUPA. Linen cloth. The word is not used of cotton, and the
next sentence shows that cotton did not grow in that tract.

[640] -- I hazard the suggestion that this may be a mistake of the
copyist for "Avati." This place, now a village in the Kolar district
of Mysore, was in the fifteenth century an important place, a ruling
family having been founded here by the "Morasu Wokkalu" or "Seven
Farmers" (Rice, "Mysore and Coorg," ii. 20). The description applies
to it fairly well.

[641] -- Calicut.

[642] -- Either "the ghats," or perhaps Gutti (Goofy). The rich
Vajra Karur diamond mines are about twenty miles south-west of Gooty,
where are the remains of a very fine hill-fortress.

[643] -- See note above, p. 368.

[644] -- Mudkal.

[645] -- Raichur.

[646] -- I.E. of the Hindu religion, not Muhammadans.

[647] -- NOVEIS in the original, probably for NOTAVEIS.

[648] -- Telugus.

[649] -- This was certainly not the case.

[650] -- The Ganges.

[651] -- Its history is known from A.D. 1304, when it was acquired
by Ala-ud-Din Khilji from the Rajah of Malwa.

[652] -- De Montfart's "Survey of all the East Indies." Translation,
edition of 1615, p. 34.

[653] -- Purchas, i. 218.

[654] -- See Yule and Burnell's Dictionary, S.V. "Maund."







 


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