Chapter 17: The Story of Barradas (1614) (1)

Chandragiri in 1614 -- Death of King Venkata -- Rebellion of Jaga Raya and murder of the royal family -- Loyalty of Echama Naik -- The Portuguese independent at San Thome -- Actors in the drama -- The affair at "Paleacate." -- List of successors -- Conclusion.

The following note of occurrences which took place at Chandragiri in 1614 on the death of King Venkata I. will be found of singular interest, as it relates to events of which we in England have hitherto, I think, been in complete ignorance. In consists of an extract from a letter written at Cochin on December 12, A.D. 1616, by Manuel Barradas, and recently found by Senhor Lopes amongst a quantity of letters preserved in the National Archives at Lisbon.[355] He copied it from the original, and kindly sent it to me. The translation is my own.

"I will now tell you ... about the death of the old King of Bisnaga, called Vencattapatti Rayalu,[356] and of his selection as his successor of a nephew by name Chica Rayalu; setting aside another who was commonly held to be his son, but who in reality was not so. The true fact was this. The King was married to a daughter of Jaga Raya by name Bayama, and though she eagerly longed for a son she had none in spite of the means, legitimate or illegitimate, that she employed for that purpose. A Brahman woman of the household of the Queen's father, knowing how strong was the Queen's desire to have a son, and seeing that God had not granted her one, told her that she herself was pregnant for a month; and she advised her to tell the King, and to publish it abroad, that she (the Queen) had been pregnant for a month, and to feign to be in that state, and said that after she (the Brahman woman) had been delivered she would secretly send the child to the palace by some confidant, upon which the Queen could announce that this boy was her own son. The advice seemed good to the Queen, and she pretended that she was pregnant, and no sooner was the Brahman woman delivered of a son than she sent it to the palace, and the news was spread abroad that Queen Bayama had brought forth a son. The King, knowing all this, yet for the love he bore the Queen, and so that the matter should not come to light, dissembled and made feasts, giving the name 'Chica Raya' to the boy, which is the name always given to the heir to the throne.[357] Yet he never treated him as a son, but on the contrary kept him always shut up in the palace of Chandigri,[358] nor ever allowed him to go out of it without his especial permission, which indeed he never granted except when in company of the Queen. Withal, the boy arriving at the age of fourteen years, he married him to a niece of his, doing him much honour so as to satisfy Obo Raya, his brother-in-law.[359]

"Three days before his death, the King, leaving aside, as I say, this putative son, called for his nephew Chica Raya, in presence of several of the nobles of the kingdom, and extended towards him his right hand on which was the ring of state, and put it close to him, so that he should take it and should become his successor in the kingdom. With this the nephew, bursting into tears, begged the King to give it to whom he would, and that for himself he did not desire to be king, and he bent low, weeping at the feet of the old man. The King made a sign to those around him that they should raise the prince up, and they did so; and they then placed him on the King's right hand, and the King extended his own hand so that he might take the ring. But the prince lifted his hands above his head, as if he already had divined how much ill fortune the ring would bring him, and begged the King to pardon him if he wished not to take it. The old man then took the ring and held it on the point of his finger offering it the second time to Chica Raya, who by the advice of the captains present took it, and placed it on his head and then on his finger, shedding many tears. Then the King sent for his robe, valued at 200,000 cruzados, the great diamond which was in his ear, which was worth more than 500,000 cruzados, his earrings, valued at more than 200,000, and his great pearls, which are of the highest price. All these royal insignia he gave to his nephew Chica Raya as being his successor, and as such he was at once proclaimed. While some rejoiced, others were displeased.

"Three days later the King died at the age of sixty-seven years. His body was burned in his own garden with sweet-scented woods, sandal, aloes, and such like; and immediately afterwards three queens burned themselves, one of whom was of the same age as the King, and the other two aged thirty-five years. They showed great courage. They went forth richly dressed with many jewels and gold ornaments and precious stones, and arriving at the funeral pyre they divided these, giving some to their relatives; some to the Brahmans to offer prayers for them, and throwing some to be scrambled for by the people. Then they took leave of all, mounted on to a lofty place, and threw themselves into the middle of the fire, which was very great. Thus they passed into eternity.

"Then the new King began to rule, compelling some of the captains to leave the fortress, but keeping others by his side; and all came to him to offer their allegiance except three. These were Jaga Raya, who has six hundred thousand cruzados of revenue and puts twenty thousand men into the field; Tima Naique, who has four hundred thousand cruzados of revenue and keeps up an army of twelve thousand men; and Maca Raya, who has a revenue of two hundred thousand cruzados and musters six thousand men. They swore never to do homage to the new King, but, on the contrary, to raise in his place the putative son of the dead King, the nephew of Jaga Raya,[360] who was the chief of this conspiracy. In a few days there occurred the following opportunity.

"The new King displeased three of his nobles; the first, the Dalavay, who is the commander of the army and pays a tribute of five hundred thousand cruzados, because he desired him to give up three fortresses which the King wished to confer on two of his own sons; the second, his minister, whom he asked to pay a hundred thousand cruzados, alleging that he had stolen them from the old King his uncle; the third, Narpa Raya, since he demanded the jewels which his sister, the wife of the old King, had given to Marpa. All these three answered the King that they would obey his commands within two days; but they secretly plotted with Jaga Raya to raise up the latter's nephew to be King. And this they did in manner following: --

"Jaga Raya sent to tell the King that he wished to do homage to him, and so also did Tima Maique and Maca Raya. The poor King allowed them to enter. Jaga Raya selected five thousand men, and leaving the rest outside the city he entered the fortress with these chosen followers. The two other conspirators did the same, each of them bringing with them two thousand selected men. The fortress has two walls. Arrived at these, Jaga Raya left at the first gate a thousand men, and at the second a thousand. The Dalavay seized two other gates of the fortress, on the other side. There being some tumult, and a cry of treason being raised, the King ordered the palace gates to be closed, but the conspirators as soon as they reached them began to break them down. Maca Raya was the first to succeed, crying out that he would deliver up the King to them; and he did so, seeding the King a message that if he surrendered he would pledge his word to do him no ill, but that the nephew of Jaga Raya must be King, he being the son of the late King.

"The poor surrounded King, seeing himself without followers and without any remedy, accepted the promise, and with his wife and sons left the tower in which he was staying. He passed through the midst of the soldiers with a face grave and severe, and with eyes downcast. There was none to do him reverence with hands (as is the custom) joined over the head, nor did he salute any one.

"The King having left, Jaga Raya called his nephew and crowned him, causing all the nobles present to do him homage; and he, finding himself now crowned King, entered the palace and took possession of it and of all the riches and precious stones that he found there. If report says truly, he found in diamonds alone three large chests full of fine stones. After this (Jaga Raya) placed the deposed King under the strictest guard, and he was deserted by all save by one captain alone whose name was Echama Naique, who stopped outside the fortress with eight thousand men and refused to join Jaga Raya. Indeed, hearing of the treason, he struck his camp and shut himself up in his own fortress and began to collect more troops.

"Jaga Raya sent a message to this man bidding him come and do homage to his nephew, and saying that if he refused he would destroy him. Echama Naique made answer that he was not the man to do reverence to a boy who was the son of no one knew whom, nor even what his caste was; and, so far as destroying him went, would Jaga Raya come out and meet him? If so, he would wait for him with such troops as he possessed!

"When this reply was received Jaga Raya made use of a thousand gentle expressions, and promised honours and revenues, but nothing could turn him. Nay, Echama took the field with his forces and offered battle to Jaga Raya; saying that, since the latter had all the captains on his side, let him come and fight and beat him if he could, and then the nephew would become King unopposed. In the end Jaga Raya despaired of securing Echama Naique's allegiance, but he won over many other nobles by gifts and promises.

"While Jaga Raya was so engaged, Echama Naique was attempting to obtain access to the imprisoned King by some way or other; but finding this not possible, he sought for a means of at least getting possession of one of his sons. And he did so in this manner. He sent and summoned the washerman who washed the imprisoned King's clothes, and promised him great things if he would bring him the King's middle son. The washerman gave his word that he would so do if the matter were kept secret. When the day arrived on which it was the custom for him to take the clean clothes to the King, he carried them (into the prison) and with them a palm-leaf letter from Echama Naique, who earnestly begged the King to send him one at least of the three sons whom he had with him, assuring him that the washerman could effect his escape. The King did so, giving up his second son aged twelve years, for the washerman did not dare take the eldest, who was eighteen years old. He handed over the boy, and put him in amongst the dirty clothes, warning him to have no fear and not to cry out even if he felt any pain. In order more safely to pass the guards, the washerman placed on top of all some very foul clothes, such as every one would avoid; and went out crying 'TALLA! TALLA!' which means 'Keep at a distance! keep at a distance!' All therefore gave place to him, and he went out of the fortress to his own house. Here he kept the prince in hiding for three days, and at the end of them delivered him up to Echama Naique, whose camp was a league distant from the city, and the boy was received by that chief and by all his army with great rejoicing.

"The news then spread abroad and came to the ears of Jaga Raya, who commanded the palace to be searched, and found that it was true. He was so greatly affected that he kept to his house for several days; but he doubled the guards on the King, his prisoner, closed the gates, and commanded that no one should give aught to the King to eat but rice and coarse vegetables.[361]

"As soon as it was known that Echama Naique had possession of the King's son, there went over to him four of Jaga Raya's captains with eight thousand men; so that he had in all sixteen thousand, and now had good hope of defending the rightful King. He took, therefore, measures for effecting the latter's escape. He selected from amongst all his soldiers twenty men, who promised to attempt to dig an underground passage which should reach to where the King lay in prison. In pursuance of this resolve they went to the fortress, offered themselves to the Dalavay as entering into his service, received pay, and after some days began to dig the passage so as to gain entrance to the King's prison. The King, seeing soldiers enter thus into his apartment, was amazed, and even more so when he saw them prostrate themselves on the ground and deliver him a palm-leaf letter from Echama Naique, in which he begged the King to trust himself to these men, as they would escort him out of the fortress. The King consented. He took off his robes hastily and covered himself with a single cloth; and bidding farewell to his wife, his sons, and his daughters, told them to have no fear, for that he, when free, would save them all.

"But it so happened that at this very moment one of the soldiers who were guarding the palace by night with torches fell into a hole, and at his cries the rest ran up, and on digging they discovered the underground passage. They entered it and got as far as the palace, arriving there just when the unhappy King was descending into it in order to escape. He was seized and the alarm given to Jaga Raya, who sent the King to another place more confined and narrower, and with more guards, so that the poor prisoner despaired of ever escaping.

"Echama Naique, seeing that this stratagem had failed, bribed heavily a captain of five hundred men who were in the fortress to slay the guards as soon as some good occasion offered, and to rescue the King. This man, who was called Iteobleza,[362] finding one day that Jaga Raya was leaving the palace with all his men in order to receive a certain chief who had proffered his submission, and that there only remained in the fortress about five thousand men, in less than an hour slew the guards, seized three gates, and sent a message to Echama Naique telling him to come at once and seize the fortress. But Jaga Raya was the more expeditious; he returned with all his forces, entered by a postern gate, of the existence of which Iteobleza had not been warned, and put to death the captain and his five hundred followers.

"Enraged at this attempt, Jaga Raya, to strengthen the party of his nephew, resolved to slay the King and all his family. He entrusted this business to a brother of his named Chinaobraya,[363] ordering him to go to the palace and tell the poor King that he must slay himself, and that if he would not he himself would kill him with stabs of his dagger.

"The prisoner attempted to excuse himself, saying that he knew nothing of the attempted revolt. But seeing the determination of Chinaobraya, who told him that he must necessarily die, either by his own hand or by that of another -- a most pitiful case, and one that I relate full of sorrow! -- the poor King called his wife, and after he had spoken to her awhile he beheaded her. Then he sent for his youngest son and did the same to him. He put to death similarly his little daughter. Afterwards he sent for his eldest son, who was already married, and commanded him to slay his wife, which he did by beheading her. This done, the King took a long sword of four fingers' breadth, and, throwing himself upon it, breathed his last; and his son, heir to the throne, did the same to himself in imitation of his father. There remained only a little daughter whom the King could not bring himself to slay; but Chinaobraya killed her, so that none of the family should remain alive of the blood royal, and the throne should be secured for his nephew.

"Some of the chiefs were struck with horror at this dreadful deed, and were so enraged at its cruelty that they went over to Echama Naique, resolved to defend the prince who had been rescued by the washerman, and who alone remained of all the royal family. Echama Naique, furious at this shameful barbarity and confident in the justice of his cause, selected ten thousand of his best soldiers, and with them offered battle to Jaga Raya, who had more than sixty thousand men and a number of elephants and horses. Echama sent him a message in this form: -- 'Now that thou hast murdered thy king and all his family, and there alone remains this boy whom I rescued from thee and have in my keeping, come out and take the field with all thy troops; kill him and me, and then thy nephew will be secure on the throne!'

"Jaga Raya tried to evade this for some time; but finding that Echama Naique insisted, he decided to fight him, trusting that with so great a number of men he would easily not only be victorious, but would be able to capture both Echama Naique and the prince. He took the field, therefore, with all his troops. Echama Naique entrusted the prince to a force of ten thousand men who remained a league away, and with the other ten thousand he not only offered battle, but was the first to attack; and that with such fury and violence that Jaga Raya, with all the people surrounding his nephew, was driven to one side, leaving gaps open to the enemy, and many met their deaths in the fight. Echama Naique entered in triumph the tents of Jaga Raya, finding in them all the royal insignia belonging to the old King and these he delivered to the young prince, the Son of Chica Raya, proclaiming him rightful heir and King of all the empire of Bisnaga.

"The spoil which he took was very large, for in precious stones alone they say that he found two millions worth.

"After this victory many of the nobles joined themselves to Echama Naique. So much so, that in a short time he had with him fifty thousand fighting men in his camp; while Jaga Raya, with only fifteen thousand, fled to the jungles. Here, however, he was joined by more people, so that the war has continued these two years,[364] fortune favouring now one side now the other. But the party of the young prince has always been gaining strength; the more so because, although the great Naique of Madura[365] -- a page of the betel to the King of Bisnaga, who pays a revenue every year of, some say, 600,000 pagodas, and has under him many kings and nobles as vassals, such as he of Travancor -- took the side of Jaga Raya, and sustained him against the Naique of Tanjaor. Yet the latter, though not so powerful, is, with the aid of the young King, gradually getting the upper hand. Indeed there are now assembled in the field in the large open plains of Trinchenepali[366] not only the hundred thousand men that each party has, but as many as a million of soldiers.

"Taking advantage of these civil wars, the city of San Thome[367] -- which up to now belonged to the King of Bisnaga, paying him revenues and customs which he used to make over to certain chiefs, by whom the Portuguese were often greatly troubled determined to liberate itself, and become in everything and for everything the property of the King of Portugal. To this end she begged the Viceroy to send and take possession of her in the name of his Majesty, which he did, as I shall afterwards tell you. Meanwhile the captain who governed the town, by name Manuel de Frias, seeing that there was close to the town a fortress that commanded it, determined to seize it by force, seeing that its captain declined to surrender it. So he laid siege to it, surrounding it so closely that no one could get out."

In the end the Portuguese were successful. The fortress was taken, its garrison of 1500 men capitulated, and a fleet came round by sea to complete the conquest.

The foregoing story relates to events never before, I think, made known to English readers, and so far is of the highest interest. Let us, for the moment, grant its accuracy, and read it by the light of the genealogical table already given.[368]

King Venkata I. (1586 -- 1614) had a sister who was married to a chief whom Barradas calls "Obo" (perhaps Obala) Raya. So far as we know, his only nephews were Tirumala II. and Ranga III., sons of his brother, Rama III. Since Tirumala II. appears to have had no sons, and Ranga III. had a son, Rama IV, who is asserted in the inscriptions to have been "one of several brothers," it is natural to suppose that the nephew mentioned by Barradas, who was raised to be king on the death of the old King Venkata I. in 1614, and who had three sons, was Ranga III., called "Chikka Raya" or "Crown-prince" in the text. He, then, succeeded in 1614, but was afterwards deposed, imprisoned, and compelled to take his own life. His eldest son at the same time followed his example, and his youngest son was slain by his father. The "middle son" escaped, and was raised to the throne by a friendly chief named Echama Naik. This second son was probably Ranga IV. Two of King Venkata's wives were Bayama, daughter of Jaga Raya, and a lady unnamed, sister of Narpa Raya. A niece of Venkata I. had been given in marriage to a Brahman boy, who had been surreptitiously introduced into the palace by Bayama and educated in the pretence that he was son of King Venkata. The plot to raise him to the throne was temporarily successful, and Ranga III. and all the royal family were killed, saving only Ranga IV., who afterwards came to the throne.

How much of the story told is true we cannot as yet decide; but it is extremely improbable that the whole is a pure invention, and we may for the present accept it, fixing the date of these occurrences as certainly between the years 1614 and 1616 A.D. -- the date of Barradas's letter being December 12 in the latter year.

It will be observed that the inscriptions upon which the genealogical table given above, from the EPIGRAPHIA INDICA, is founded do not yield any date between A.D. 1614 and 1634, when Pedda Venkata II. is named as king. In 1883 I published[369] a list of Vijayanagar names derived from reports of inscriptions which had then reached me. I am by no means certain of their accuracy, and it is clear that they must all be hereafter carefully examined. But so far as it goes the list runs thus: --

A.D. Ranga 1619 Rama 1620, 1622 Ranga 1623 Venkata 1623 Rama 1629 Venkata 1636

The last-mentioned name and date are apparently correct.

In 1633 the Portuguese, encouraged by the Vijayanagar king, still at Chandragiri, attempted to eject the Dutch from "Paleacate," or Pulicat. An arrangement was made by which the Portuguese were to attack by sea and the Rajah by land; but while the Viceroy sent his twelve ships as agreed on, the Rajah failed to attack, alleging in explanation that he was compelled to use his army to put down internal disturbances in the kingdom. A second expedition met with no better success, the plans of the Portuguese being again upset by the non fulfilment of the king's part of the bargain. On the departure of the fleet the king did attack the Dutch settlement, but was bought off by a large payment, and the Hollanders remained subsequently undisturbed.

Senhor Lopes tells me that he has found in the National Archives in the Torre do Tombo, amongst the "Livros das Moncoes," a number of papers bearing on this subject. The most interesting are those contained in Volume xxxiv. (fol. 91 -- 99). These were written by the Captain-General of Meliapor (St. Thome), by Padre Pero Mexia of the Company of Jesus, and by the Bishop; and amongst the other documents are to be seen translations of two palm-leaf letters written by the king of Vijayanagar, then at Vellore. It appears from these that the king was devoid of energy, and that one Timma Raya had revolted against him.

We know that in 1639 the king of Vijayanagar was named Ranga or Sri-Ranga, and that he was at that time residing at Chandragiri; because in that year Mr. Day, the head of the English trading station a Madras, obtained from the king a grant of land at that place, one mile broad by five miles long, on which Fort St. George was afterwards constructed. The country about Madras was then ruled over by a governor or Naik, and so little heed did he pay to the wishes or commands of his titular sovereign, that although the Raya had directed that the name of the new town should be "Srirangarayalapatnam" ("city of Sri Ranga Raya"), the Naik christened it after the name of his own father, Chenna, and called it "Chennapatnam," by which appellation it has ever since been known to the Hindus. Such, at least, is the local tradition. This king was probably the Ranga VI. of the Epigraphia list, mentioned as living in 1644 A.D.

After this date my (doubtful and unexamined) inscriptions yield the following names and dates: --

A.D. Ranga 1643, 1647, 1655, 1662, 1663, 1665, 1667, 1678 Venkata 1678, 1680 Ranga 1692 Venkata 1706 Ranga 1716 Mahadeva 1724 Ranga 1729 Venkata 1732 Rama 1739 (?) Venkata 1744 Venkata 1791, 1792, 1793

From Sir Thomas Munro's papers I gather that the territory about the old family estate of Anegundi was early in the eighteenth century held by the Rayas from the Mogul emperor of Delhi as a tributary state. In 1749 it was seized by the Mahrattas, and in 1775 it was reduced by Haidar Ali of Mysore, but continued to exist as a tributary quasi-independent state till the time of Tipu (Tippoo Sultan).

Tipu, who never suffered from an excess of compunction or compassion when his own interests were at stake, annexed the estate bodily to his dominions in 1786. Thirteen years later he was killed at Seringapatam, and in the settlement that followed the little territory was made over to the Nizam of Haidarabad, the English Government retaining all lands on their side of the Tungabhadra. Partly in compensation for this loss of land the Government has till very recently paid an annual pension to the head of the Anegundi family. This has now been abolished.

Chronicles of Paes and Nuniz

Letter

(? to the historian Barros) which accompanied the Chronicles when sent from India to Portugal about the year 1537 A.D.

Since I have lived till now in this city (? Goa), it seemed necessary to do what your Honour desired of me, namely, to search for men who had formerly been in Bisnaga; for I know that no one goes there without bringing away his quire of paper written about its affairs. Thus I obtained this summary from one Domingos Paes, who goes there, and who was at Bisnaga in the time of Crisnarao when Cristovao de Figueiredo was there. I obtained another from Fernao Nuniz, who was there three years trading in horses (which did not prove remunerative). Since one man cannot tell everything -- one relating some things which another does not -- I send both the summaries made by them, namely, one in the time of Crisnarao, as I have said, and the other sent from there six months since. I desire to do this because your honour can gather what is useful to you from both, and because you will thus give the more credit to some things in the chronicle of the kings of Bisnaga, since they conform one to the other. The copy of the summary which he began to make[370] when he first went to the kingdom of Bisnaga is as follows: --

Narrative of Domingos Paes

(written probably A.D. 1520 -- 22)

Of the things which I saw and contrived to learn concerning the kingdom of Narsimga, etc.[371]

On leaving India[372] to travel towards the kingdom of Narsymga from the sea-coast, you have (first) to pass a range of hills (SERRA), the boundary of the said kingdom and of those territories which are by the sea. This SERRA runs along the whole of the coast of India, and has passes by which people enter the interior; for all the rest of the range is very rocky and is filled with thick forest. The said kingdom has many places on the coast of India; they are seaports with which we are at peace, and in some of them we have factories, namely, Amcola, Mirgeo, Honor, Batecalla, Mamgalor, Bracalor, and Bacanor. And as soon as we are above this SERRA we have a plain country in which there are no more ranges of hills, but only a few mountains, and these small ones; for all the rest is like the plains of Ssantarem.[373] Only on the road from Batecala[374] to a town called ZAMBUJA, there are some ranges with forests; nevertheless the road is very even. From Batecala to this town of Zambur[375] is forty leagues; the road has many streams of water by its side, and because of this so much merchandise flows to Batecala that every year there come five or six thousand pack-oxen.

Now to tell of the aforesaid kingdom. It is a country sparsely wooded except along this SERRA on the east,[376] but in places you walk for two or three leagues under groves of trees; and behind cities and towns and villages they have plantations of mangoes, and jack-fruit trees, and tamarinds and other very large trees, which form resting-places where merchants halt with their merchandise. I saw in the city of Recalem[377] a tree under which we lodged three hundred and twenty horses, standing in order as in their stables, and all over the country you may see many small trees. These dominions are very well cultivated and very fertile, and are provided with quantities of cattle, such as cows, buffaloes, and sheep; also of birds, both those belonging to the hills and those reared at home, and this in greater abundance than in our tracts. The land has plenty of rice and Indian-corn, grains, beans, and other kind of crops which are not sown in our parts; also an infinity of cotton. Of the grains there is a great quantity, because, besides being used as food for men, it is also used for horses, since there is no other kind of barley; and this country has also much wheat, and that good. The whole country is thickly populated with cities and towns and villages; the king allows them to be surrounded only with earthen walls for fear of their becoming too strong. But if a city is situated at the extremity of his territory he gives his consent to its having stone walls, but never the towns; so that they may make fortresses of the cities but not of the towns.

And because this country is all flat, the winds blow here more than in other parts. The oil which it produces comes from seeds sown and afterwards reaped, and they obtain it by means of machines which they make. This country wants water because it is very great and has few streams; they make lakes in which water collects when it rains, and thereby they maintain themselves. They maintain themselves by means of some in which there are springs better than by others that have only the water from rain; for we find many quite dry, so that people go about walking in their beds, and dig holes to try and find enough water, even a little, for their maintenance. The failure of the water is because they have no winter as in our parts and in (Portuguese) India, but only thunder-storms that are greater in one year than in another. The water in these lakes is for the most part muddy, especially in those where there are no springs, and the reason why it is so muddy is because of the strong wind and the dust that is in this country, which never allows the water to be clear, and also because of the numbers of cattle, buffaloes, cows, oxen, and other small cattle that drink in them. For you must know that in this land they do not slaughter oxen or cows; the oxen are beasts of burden and are like sumpter-mules; these carry all their goods. They worship the cows, and have them in their pagodas made in stone, and also bulls; they have many bulls that they present to these pagodas, and these bulls go about the city without any one causing them any harm or loss. Further, there are asses in this country, but they are small, and they use them only for little things; those that wash clothes lay the cloths on them, and use them for this more than for anything else. You must know that this kingdom of Narsymga has three hundred GRAOS of coast, each GRAO being a league, along the hill-range (SERRA) of which I have spoken, until you arrive at Ballagate and Charamaodel,[378] which belong to this kingdom; and in breadth it is one hundred and sixty-four GRAOS; each large GRAO measures two of our leagues, so that it has six hundred leagues of coast, and across it three hundred and forty-eight leagues... across from Batacalla to the kingdom of Orya.[379]

And this kingdom marches[380] with all the territory of Bengal, and on the other side with the kingdom of Orya, which is to the east, and on the other side to the north with the kingdom of Dakhan, belonging to which are the lands which the Ydallcao[381] has, and Ozemelluco.[382] Goa is at war with this Ydallcao, because that city was his, and we have taken it from him.

And this kingdom of Orya, of which I have spoken above, is said to be much larger than the kingdom of Narsymga, since it marches with all Bengal, and is at war with her; and it marches with all the kingdom of Pegu and with the MALLACA Sea. It reaches to the kingdom of Cambaya, and to the kingdom of Dakhan; and they told me with positive certainty that it extends as far as Persia. The population thereof is light coloured, and the men are of good physique. Its king has much treasure and many soldiers and many elephants, for there are numbers of these in this country. (My informants) know this well, and they say that there is no ruler greater than he. He is a heathen.

Coming back to our subject, I say that I will not mention here the situation of the cities, and towns, and villages in this kingdom of Narsymga, to avoid prolixity; only I shall speak of the city of Darcha,[383] which has a monument such as can seldom be seen elsewhere. This city of Darcha is very well fortified by a wall, though not of stone, for the reason that I have already stated. On the western side, which is towards (Portuguese) India, it is surrounded by a very beautiful river, and on the other, eastern side the interior of the country is all one plain, and along the wall is its moat. This Darcha has a pagoda, which is the monument I speak of, so beautiful that another as good of its kind could not be found within a great distance. You must know that it is a round temple made of a single stone, the gateway all in the manner of joiners work, with every art of perspective. There are many figures of the said work, standing out as much as a cubit from the stone, so that you see on every side of them, so well carved that they could not be better done -- the faces as well as all the rest; and each one in its place stands as if embowered in leaves; and above it is in the Romanesque style, so well made that it could not be better. Besides this, it has a sort of lesser porch upon pillars, all of stone, and the pillars with their pedestals[384] so well executed that they appear as if made in Italy; all the cross pieces and beams are of the same stone without any planks or timber being used in it, and in the same way all the ground is laid with the same stone, outside as well as in. And all this pagoda, as far round as the temple goes, is enclosed by a trellis made of the same stone, and this again is completely surrounded by a very strong wall, better even than the city has, since it is all of solid masonry. It has three entrance gates, which gates are very large and beautiful, and the entrance from one of these sides, being towards the east and facing the door of the pagoda, has some structures like verandahs, small and low, where sit some JOGIS;[385] and inside this enclosure, which has other little pagodas of a reddish colour, there is a stone like the mast of a ship, with its pedestal four-sided, and from thence to the top eight-sided, standing in the open air. I was not astonished at it, because I have seen the needle of St. Peters at Rome, which is as high, or more.[386]

These pagodas are buildings in which they pray and have their idols; the idols are of many sorts, namely, figures of men and women, of bulls, and apes, while others have nothing but a round stone which they worship. In this temple of Darcha is an idol in the figure of a man as to his body, and the face is that of an elephant with trunk and tusks,[387] and with three arms on each side and six hands, of which arms they say that already four are gone, and when all fall then the world will be destroyed they are full of belief that this will be, and hold it as a prophecy. They feed the idol every day, for they say that he eats; and when he eats women dance before him who belong to that pagoda, and they give him food and all that is necessary, and all girls born of these women belong to the temple. These women are of loose character, and live in the best streets that there are in the city; it is the same in all their cities, their streets have the best rows of houses They are very much esteemed, and are classed amongst those honoured ones who are the mistresses of the captains; any respectable man may go to their houses without any blame attaching thereto. These women (are allowed) even to enter the presence of the wives of the king, and they stay with them and eat betel with them, a thing which no other person may do, no matter what his rank may be. This betel is a herb which has a leaf like the leaf of the pepper, or the ivy of our country; they always eat this leaf, and carry it in their mouths with another fruit called areca. This is something like a medlar, but it is very hard, and it is very good for the breath and has many other virtues; it is the best provision for those who do not eat as we do. Some of them eat flesh; they eat all kinds except beef and pork, and yet, nevertheless, they cease not to eat this betel all day.

Afterwards going from this city of Darcha towards the city of Bisnaga,[388] which is eighteen leagues distant, and is the capital of all the kingdom of Narsymga, where the king always resides, you have many cities and walled villages; and two leagues before you arrive at the city of Bisnaga you have a very lofty SERRA which has passes by which you enter the city. These are called "gates" (PORTAS). You must enter by these, for you will have no means of entrance except by them. This range of hills surrounds the city with a circle of twenty-four leagues, and within this range there are others that encircle it closely. Wherever these ranges have any level ground they cross it with a very strong wall, in such a way that the hills remain all closed, except in the places where the roads come through from the gates in the first range, which are the entrance ways to the city. In such places there are some small pits (or caves?)[389] which could be defended by a few people; these SERRAS continue as far as the interior of the city. Between all these enclosures are plains and valleys where rice is grown, and there are gardens with many orange-trees, limes, citrons, and radishes (RABAOS), and other kinds of garden produce as in Portugal, only not lettuces or cabbages. Between these hill-ranges are many lakes by which they irrigate the crops mentioned, and amongst all these ranges there are no forests or patches of brushwood, except very small ones, nor anything that is green. For these hills are the strangest ever seen, they are of a white stone piled one block over another in manner most singular, so that it seems as if they stood in the air and were not connected one with another; and the city is situated in the middle of these hills and is entirely surrounded by them.

The SERRAS reach as far as the kingdom of Daquem,[390] and border upon the territories belonging to the Ydallcao, and upon a city called Rachol that formerly belonged to the king of Narsymga; there has been much war over it, and this king took it from the Ydallcao. So that these ranges are in a way the cause (of the two kingdoms) never uniting and always being at war; and even on the side of Orya also there are ranges, but they are different from these, since like ours they have scrub and small patches of brushwood; these ranges are low and between them are great plains. On the extreme east of these two kingdoms you must know that the country is all covered with scrub, the densest possible to be seen, in which there are great beasts, and (this) forms so strong a fortress for it that it protects both sides; it has its entrances by which they pass from one kingdom to the other. In these passes on the frontier the king of Narsymga has a captain with a quantity of troops, but on the side of (Portuguese) India he has none, except as I have said.

Now turning to the gates of the first range, I say that at the entrance of the gate where those pass who come from Goa, which is the principal entrance on the western side; this king has made within it a very strong city[391] fortified with walls and towers, and the gates at the entrances very strong, with towers at the gates; these walls are not like those of other cities, but are made of very strong masonry such as would be found in few other parts, and inside very beautiful rows of buildings made after their manner with flat roofs. There live in this many merchants, and it is filled with a large population because the king induces many honourable merchants to go there from his cities, and there is much water in it. Besides this the king made a tank[392] there, which, as it seems to me, has the width of a falcon-shot,[393] and it is at the mouth of two hills, so that all the water which comes from either one side or the other collects there; and, besides this, water comes to it from more than three leagues by pipes which run along the lower parts of the range outside. This water is brought from a lake which itself overflows into a little river. The tank has three large pillars handsomely carved with figures; these connect above with certain pipes by which they get water when they have to irrigate their gardens and rice-fields. In order to make this tank the said king broke down a hill which enclosed the ground occupied by the said tank. In the tank I saw so many people at work that there must have been fifteen or twenty thousand men, looking like ants, so that you could not see the ground on which they walked, so many there were; this tank the king portioned out amongst his captains, each of whom had the duty of seeing that the people placed under him did their work, and that the tank was finished and brought to completion.

The tank burst two or three times, and the king asked his Brahmans to consult their idol as to the reason why it burst so often, and the Brahmans said that the idol was displeased, and desired that they should make a sacrifice, and should give him the blood of men and horses and buffaloes; and as soon as the king heard this he forthwith commanded that at the gate of the pagoda the heads of sixty men should be cut off, and of certain horses and buffaloes, which was at once done.

These Brahmans are like friars with us, and they count them as holy men -- I speak of the Brahman priests and the lettered men of the pagodas -- because although the king has many Brahmans, they are officers of the towns and cities and belong to the government of them; others are merchants, and others live by their own property and cultivation, and the fruits which grow in their inherited grounds. Those who have charge of the temples are learned men, and eat nothing which suffers death, neither flesh nor fish, nor anything which makes broth red, for they say that it is blood. Some of the other Brahmans whom I mentioned, who seek to serve God, and to do penance, and to live a life like that of the priests, do not eat flesh or fish or any other thing that suffers death, but only vegetables[394] and butter and other things which they make of fruit,[395] with their rice. They are all married, and have very beautiful wives; the wives are very retiring, and very seldom leave the house. The women are of light colour, and in the caste of these Brahmans are the fairest men and women that there are in the land; for though there are men in other castes commonly of light complexion, yet these are few. There are many in this country who call themselves Brahmans, but they lead a life very different from those of whom I have spoken, for these last are men to whom the king pays much honour, and he holds them in great favour.

This new city that the king made bears the name of his wife for love of whom he made it,[396] and the said city stands in a plain, and round it the inhabitants make their gardens as the ground suits, each one being separate. In this city the king made a temple with many images. It is a thing very well made, and it has some wells very well made after their fashion; its houses are not built with stories like ours, but are of only one floor, with flat, roofs and towers,[397] different from ours, for theirs go from storey to storey. They have pillars, and are all open, with verandahs inside and out, where they can easily put people if they desire, so that they seem like houses belonging to a king. These palaces have an enclosing wall which surrounds them all, and inside are many rows of houses. Before you enter the place where the king is there are two gates with many guards, who prevent any one from entering except the captains and men who have business there; and between these two gates is a very large court with its verandahs round it, where these captains and other honoured people wait till the king summons them to his presence.

This king is of medium height, and of fair complexion and good figure, rather fat than thin, he has on his face signs of small-pox. He is the most feared and perfect king that could possibly be, cheerful of disposition and very merry; he is one that seeks to honour foreigners, and receives them kindly, asking about all their affairs whatever their condition may be He is a great ruler and a man of much justice, but subject to sudden fits of rage,[398] and this is his title -- "Crisnarao Macacao,[399] king of kings, lord of the greater lords of India, lord of the three seas and of the land." He has this title[400] because he is by rank a greater lord than any, by reason of what he possesses in (?) armies and territories, but it seems that he has (in fact) nothing compared to what a man like him ought to have, so gallant and perfect is he in all things. This king was constantly at war with the king of Orya, and entered his kingdom, taking and destroying many cities and towns; he put to rout numbers of his soldiers and elephants, and took captive his son, whom he kept for a long time in this city of Bisnaga, where he died; and in order to make a treaty and (preserve) peace, the king of Orya gave him a daughter whom the king of Bisnaga married and has as his wife.