The history which Robert Sewell here relates from original sources may well be described as that of a forgotten empire. The kingdom of Vijayanagar is barely referred to in an appendix to Elphinstone's work, which has long been the standard history of India. Indeed most writers fight shy of the Deccan and restrict themselves more or less to the events connected with the Mohammedan dynasties of Hindustan or the country north of the Vindhya mountains, for which ample materials have been preserved in the works of the Persian chroniclers. Of late, however, the publication of numerous inscriptions in the "Epigraphia Indica ", and the attention paid by others to the history of the Portuguese Empire of Asia have brought to light many curious details of the rule of the great Hindu rajas with whom the Portuguese had dealings.
The kingdom of Vijayanagar owed its origin to the concentration of lesser Hindu States in presence of a formidable danger. That eccentric potentate Mohammad-i Taghlak, King of Delhi, was extending his dominions in the Deccan, and by the conquest of Warangal in 1323 seemed on the point of annexing those ancient Hindu "principalities of Southern India, some of which had preserved their independence and their dynastic succession since a time before the Christian era began. The defeated forces of three of these States, headed by the chieftain of Anegundi, succeeded in uniting together and forming a new and powerful empire, which presented a firm resistance to Mohammedan encroachments for more than two centuries and held together under one supreme suzerainty the various Hindu rajas of Southern India, who separately would have offered but feeble obstacles to the progress of the invaders. The great Mohammedan dynasties of the Deccan—the Bahmanis, Adil Shahs, and the rest—made no lasting impression upon the Rajas of Vijayanagar, though there was often war across the frontier.
One of the most graphic and valuable parts of the narrative of Fernao Nuniz describes the great victory won by the Hindu forces over those of the Adil Shah, and the resulting conquest of the fortress of Raichur. It appears that the ruler of Vijayanagar commanded an army of over a million soldiers, and that they were well armed and disciplined, but the Mohammedan shahs of the Deccan at last united in a resolute effort in 1565, the kingdom of Vijayanagar crumbled to powder on the field of Talikot. The walls of the capital and the ruins of palaces and temples—excellently described and illustrated by maps and photographs in this volume—are all that remain to remind the traveler in the Madras Presidency of the vanished glories of the forgotten empire.
This account by Nuniz reminds one of the Amazon guards of the Great Mogul; and indeed much of the pomp and ceremonies at Agra and Delhi, obviously adopted from Hindu courts and not from the simpler manners of the Mogul's Turkish ancestors. The king who was wrapped in this luxury of feminine observance evidently found it necessary to employ counter-agents.
Paes records how the monarch, after drinking nearly a quart of sesamum oil before daybreak, and rubbing his body with the same, worked at "great weights made of earthenware"—the dumbbells of the period—and then at sword-practice, till he had sweated out all the oil; when he wrestled with his wrestlers, and after mounting and galloping all over the plain till dawn, had a thorough wash at the hands of a learned Brahman, said his prayers, and then began the business of State. The combination of violent exercise with extraordinary luxury, of severe fasts and exhausting ceremonies with padded ease and unlimited license, is no unusual spectacle in Indian history; but it is described with great circumstance and evident sincerity in the Portuguese reports, and one must be grateful to Sewell for having brought within the reach of English readers, and illustrated with the wealth of his own researches, so striking and picturesque a vision of "the Gorgeous East".
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The kingdom of Vijayanagar owed its origin to the concentration of lesser Hindu States in presence of a formidable danger. That eccentric potentate Mohammad-i Taghlak, King of Delhi, was extending his dominions in the Deccan, and by the conquest of Warangal in 1323 seemed on the point of annexing those ancient Hindu "principalities of Southern India, some of which had preserved their independence and their dynastic succession since a time before the Christian era began. The defeated forces of three of these States, headed by the chieftain of Anegundi, succeeded in uniting together and forming a new and powerful empire, which presented a firm resistance to Mohammedan encroachments for more than two centuries and held together under one supreme suzerainty the various Hindu rajas of Southern India, who separately would have offered but feeble obstacles to the progress of the invaders. The great Mohammedan dynasties of the Deccan—the Bahmanis, Adil Shahs, and the rest—made no lasting impression upon the Rajas of Vijayanagar, though there was often war across the frontier.
One of the most graphic and valuable parts of the narrative of Fernao Nuniz describes the great victory won by the Hindu forces over those of the Adil Shah, and the resulting conquest of the fortress of Raichur. It appears that the ruler of Vijayanagar commanded an army of over a million soldiers, and that they were well armed and disciplined, but the Mohammedan shahs of the Deccan at last united in a resolute effort in 1565, the kingdom of Vijayanagar crumbled to powder on the field of Talikot. The walls of the capital and the ruins of palaces and temples—excellently described and illustrated by maps and photographs in this volume—are all that remain to remind the traveler in the Madras Presidency of the vanished glories of the forgotten empire.
This account by Nuniz reminds one of the Amazon guards of the Great Mogul; and indeed much of the pomp and ceremonies at Agra and Delhi, obviously adopted from Hindu courts and not from the simpler manners of the Mogul's Turkish ancestors. The king who was wrapped in this luxury of feminine observance evidently found it necessary to employ counter-agents.
Paes records how the monarch, after drinking nearly a quart of sesamum oil before daybreak, and rubbing his body with the same, worked at "great weights made of earthenware"—the dumbbells of the period—and then at sword-practice, till he had sweated out all the oil; when he wrestled with his wrestlers, and after mounting and galloping all over the plain till dawn, had a thorough wash at the hands of a learned Brahman, said his prayers, and then began the business of State. The combination of violent exercise with extraordinary luxury, of severe fasts and exhausting ceremonies with padded ease and unlimited license, is no unusual spectacle in Indian history; but it is described with great circumstance and evident sincerity in the Portuguese reports, and one must be grateful to Sewell for having brought within the reach of English readers, and illustrated with the wealth of his own researches, so striking and picturesque a vision of "the Gorgeous East".
A Forgotten Empire: VIJAYANAGAR - A Contribution to the History of India (Illustrated)
The history which Robert Sewell here relates from original sources may well be described as that of a forgotten empire. The kingdom of Vijayanagar is barely referred to in an appendix to Elphinstone's work, which has long been the standard history of India. Indeed most writers fight shy of the Deccan and restrict themselves more or less to the events connected with the Mohammedan dynasties of Hindustan or the country north of the Vindhya mountains, for which ample materials have been preserved in the works of the Persian chroniclers. Of late, however, the publication of numerous inscriptions in the "Epigraphia Indica ", and the attention paid by others to the history of the Portuguese Empire of Asia have brought to light many curious details of the rule of the great Hindu rajas with whom the Portuguese had dealings.
The kingdom of Vijayanagar owed its origin to the concentration of lesser Hindu States in presence of a formidable danger. That eccentric potentate Mohammad-i Taghlak, King of Delhi, was extending his dominions in the Deccan, and by the conquest of Warangal in 1323 seemed on the point of annexing those ancient Hindu "principalities of Southern India, some of which had preserved their independence and their dynastic succession since a time before the Christian era began. The defeated forces of three of these States, headed by the chieftain of Anegundi, succeeded in uniting together and forming a new and powerful empire, which presented a firm resistance to Mohammedan encroachments for more than two centuries and held together under one supreme suzerainty the various Hindu rajas of Southern India, who separately would have offered but feeble obstacles to the progress of the invaders. The great Mohammedan dynasties of the Deccan—the Bahmanis, Adil Shahs, and the rest—made no lasting impression upon the Rajas of Vijayanagar, though there was often war across the frontier.
One of the most graphic and valuable parts of the narrative of Fernao Nuniz describes the great victory won by the Hindu forces over those of the Adil Shah, and the resulting conquest of the fortress of Raichur. It appears that the ruler of Vijayanagar commanded an army of over a million soldiers, and that they were well armed and disciplined, but the Mohammedan shahs of the Deccan at last united in a resolute effort in 1565, the kingdom of Vijayanagar crumbled to powder on the field of Talikot. The walls of the capital and the ruins of palaces and temples—excellently described and illustrated by maps and photographs in this volume—are all that remain to remind the traveler in the Madras Presidency of the vanished glories of the forgotten empire.
This account by Nuniz reminds one of the Amazon guards of the Great Mogul; and indeed much of the pomp and ceremonies at Agra and Delhi, obviously adopted from Hindu courts and not from the simpler manners of the Mogul's Turkish ancestors. The king who was wrapped in this luxury of feminine observance evidently found it necessary to employ counter-agents.
Paes records how the monarch, after drinking nearly a quart of sesamum oil before daybreak, and rubbing his body with the same, worked at "great weights made of earthenware"—the dumbbells of the period—and then at sword-practice, till he had sweated out all the oil; when he wrestled with his wrestlers, and after mounting and galloping all over the plain till dawn, had a thorough wash at the hands of a learned Brahman, said his prayers, and then began the business of State. The combination of violent exercise with extraordinary luxury, of severe fasts and exhausting ceremonies with padded ease and unlimited license, is no unusual spectacle in Indian history; but it is described with great circumstance and evident sincerity in the Portuguese reports, and one must be grateful to Sewell for having brought within the reach of English readers, and illustrated with the wealth of his own researches, so striking and picturesque a vision of "the Gorgeous East".
The kingdom of Vijayanagar owed its origin to the concentration of lesser Hindu States in presence of a formidable danger. That eccentric potentate Mohammad-i Taghlak, King of Delhi, was extending his dominions in the Deccan, and by the conquest of Warangal in 1323 seemed on the point of annexing those ancient Hindu "principalities of Southern India, some of which had preserved their independence and their dynastic succession since a time before the Christian era began. The defeated forces of three of these States, headed by the chieftain of Anegundi, succeeded in uniting together and forming a new and powerful empire, which presented a firm resistance to Mohammedan encroachments for more than two centuries and held together under one supreme suzerainty the various Hindu rajas of Southern India, who separately would have offered but feeble obstacles to the progress of the invaders. The great Mohammedan dynasties of the Deccan—the Bahmanis, Adil Shahs, and the rest—made no lasting impression upon the Rajas of Vijayanagar, though there was often war across the frontier.
One of the most graphic and valuable parts of the narrative of Fernao Nuniz describes the great victory won by the Hindu forces over those of the Adil Shah, and the resulting conquest of the fortress of Raichur. It appears that the ruler of Vijayanagar commanded an army of over a million soldiers, and that they were well armed and disciplined, but the Mohammedan shahs of the Deccan at last united in a resolute effort in 1565, the kingdom of Vijayanagar crumbled to powder on the field of Talikot. The walls of the capital and the ruins of palaces and temples—excellently described and illustrated by maps and photographs in this volume—are all that remain to remind the traveler in the Madras Presidency of the vanished glories of the forgotten empire.
This account by Nuniz reminds one of the Amazon guards of the Great Mogul; and indeed much of the pomp and ceremonies at Agra and Delhi, obviously adopted from Hindu courts and not from the simpler manners of the Mogul's Turkish ancestors. The king who was wrapped in this luxury of feminine observance evidently found it necessary to employ counter-agents.
Paes records how the monarch, after drinking nearly a quart of sesamum oil before daybreak, and rubbing his body with the same, worked at "great weights made of earthenware"—the dumbbells of the period—and then at sword-practice, till he had sweated out all the oil; when he wrestled with his wrestlers, and after mounting and galloping all over the plain till dawn, had a thorough wash at the hands of a learned Brahman, said his prayers, and then began the business of State. The combination of violent exercise with extraordinary luxury, of severe fasts and exhausting ceremonies with padded ease and unlimited license, is no unusual spectacle in Indian history; but it is described with great circumstance and evident sincerity in the Portuguese reports, and one must be grateful to Sewell for having brought within the reach of English readers, and illustrated with the wealth of his own researches, so striking and picturesque a vision of "the Gorgeous East".
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A Forgotten Empire: VIJAYANAGAR - A Contribution to the History of India (Illustrated)
A Forgotten Empire: VIJAYANAGAR - A Contribution to the History of India (Illustrated)
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940013968424 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | OGB |
| Publication date: | 02/23/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 2 MB |
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