A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar

by eBook creation Robert Sewell; Ken Mattern

  Chapter 23.

  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 God, 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

  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 nobles, 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 principal 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 passed 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 Bijapur 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, i
i. 444). It was entrusted to a Venetian named Hortensio Borgio, 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 passed 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 passed 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 Lahore, 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 Lahore. 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 Bijapur 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. The Wealth of the Dakhan in the Fourteenth Century A.D.

  Chapter B. The Wealth of the Dakhan in the Fourteenth Century A.D.

  When Malik Kafur, in the year 1310 A.D., during the reign of Ala-ud-Din Khilji of Delhi, carried out his successful raids into the Dakhan and to the Malabar coast, sacking all the Hindu temples, ravaging the territory of Maisur, and despoiling the country, he is said to have returned to Delhi with an amount of treasure that seems almost fabulous. Firishtah writes: "They found in the temples prodigious spoils, such as idols of gold adorned with precious stones, and other rich effects consecrated to Hindu worship;" and Malik presented his sovereign with "312 elephants, 20,000 horses, 96,000 mans of gold, several boxes of jewels and pearls, and other precious effects."

  When we come to estimate the amount of gold we are met with a difficulty, as there are many varieties of mans in India, the variation being as much as from 19 lbs. in Travancore to 163 1/4 lbs. in Ahmadnagar. The Madras man weighs 25 lbs., the Bombay man 28 lbs. Hawkins, writing in 1610, gives 55 lbs. to the man,[653] Middleton, in 1611, 33 lbs.[654] Now Firishtah had more to do with Ahmadnagar than any other part of India, and if his estimate was based on the man of that tract. Malik Kafur's 96,000 mans of gold would have amounted to the enormous sum of 15,672,000 lbs. weight. It is hardly likely that Firishtah would have had in his mind the Travancore man. Even if he was thinking of the Madras man, which is not likely, his estimate of the weight of the gold carried off amounted to 2,400,000 lbs.

  Whether we accept these amounts or not, there can be no manner of doubt that the richness of the temples was very great, and the reason is easy to see. The country had always been subject to Hindu kings, and treasures had year by year accumulated. The Brahmans exacted gifts and payments from the people on all occasions. Kings and chiefs, merchants and landowners, vied with one another in presenting rich offerings to their favourite places of worship; and when it is remembered that this practice had been going on from time immemorial, it need be no matter for wonder that the man who first violently despoiled the sacred buildings departed from the country laden with an almost incredible amount of booty. Colonel Dow, in his translation of the works of Firishtah (i. 307), computes the value of the gold carried off by Malik Kafur at a hundred millions sterling of our money.

  Chapter C. Portuguese Viceroys and Governors of Goa

  Chapter C. Portuguese Viceroys and Governors of Goa

  (A.D. 1505 TO 1568.)

  Dom Francisco de Almeida (Viceroy) 1505 -- 1509 Afonso de Albuquerque (Governor) 1509 -- 1515 Lopo Soares de Albergaria (Governor) 1515 -- 1518 Diogo Lopes de Sequeira (Governor) 1518 -- 1521 Dom Duarte de Menezes (Governor) 1521 -- 1524 Dom Vasco da Gama, Conde de Vidigueria (Viceroy) 1524 Dom Henrique de Menezes (Governor) 1525 -- 1526 Lopo Vaz de Sampaio (Governor) 1526 -- 1529 Nuno da Cunha (Governor) 1529 -- 1538 Dom Garcia de Noronha (Viceroy) 1538 -- 1540 Dom Estevao da Gama (Governor) 1540 -- 1542 Martim Affonso de Sousa (Governor) 1542 -- 1545 Dom Joao de Castro (Governor and Captain-in-chief) 1545 -- 1547 ,, ,, (Viceroy) 1547 -- 1548 Garcia de Sa (Governor) 1548 -- 1549 Jorge Cabral (Governor) 1549 -- 1550 Dom Affonso de Noronha (Viceroy) 1550 -- 1554 Dom Pedro Mascarenhas (Viceroy) 1554 -- 1555 Francisco Barreto (Governor) 1555 -- 1558 Dom Constantino de Braganza (Viceroy) 1558 -- 1561 Dom Francisco Coutinho, Conde de Redondo (Viceroy) 1561 -- 1564 Joao de Medonca (Governor) 1564 Dom Antonio de Noronha (Viceroy) 1564 -- 1568

  [The above List is extracted from Mr. Danvers's work, "The Portuguese in India" (vol. ii. p. 487). The author continues the List to the present day.]

  Notes

  [1] -- Translation of the "Chronica dos reis de Bisnaga", written by Domingos Paes and Fernao Nunes about 1520 and 1535, respectively, with historical introduction. Includes bibliographical references.

  [2] -- The letters from China were copied by a different hand.

  [3] -- Barros was apparently never himself in India, but held an official position in the India Office in Lisbon. His work was completed in four Decadas. Couto repeats the fourth Decada of Barros, and continues the history in eight more Decadas. The first three Decadas of Barros were published in A.D. 1552, 1553, and 1563, bringing the history down to 1527, under the title of Dos Feitos Que Os Portugueses Fizeram No Descubrimento E Conquista Dos Mares E Terras Do Oriente. His fourth Decada, published by Couto, dealt with the period A.D. 1527 to 1539, and contained an account of the events that occurred during the governorships of Lopo Vaz de Sampaio and Nuno da Cunha. Couto's own eight Decadas covered the subsequent period down to 1600. The combined work is generally called the Da Asia. Couto completed his publication in 1614. The fourth Decada was published in 1602, the fifth in 1612, the sixth in 1614, the seventh in 1616, the year of his death. Couto spent almost all his life in India, for which country he embarked in 1556.

  [4] -- Chronica Dos Reis De Bisnaga, by David Lopes, S.S.G.L. Lisbon, 1897: at the National Press. The extract given is taken from his Introduction, p. lxxxvi.

  [5] -- Firishtah was a Persian of good family, and was born about 1570 A.D. Early in his life he was taken by his father to India, and resided all his life at the Court of the Nizam Shahs of Ahmadnagar, rejoicing in royal patronage. He appears to have begun to compile his historical works at an early age, since his account of the Bijapur kings was finished in 1596. He appears to have died not long after the year 1611, which is the latest date referred to in any of his writings.

  [6] -- According to tradition the wealth carried off was something fabulous. See Appendix B.

  [7] -- It is highly probable that amongst the hills and crags about the upper fortress of Anegundi there may be found remains of a date long prior to the fourteenth century; and it is much to be regretted that up to now no scientific examination of that tract, which lies in the present territories of Haidarabad, has been carried out. Want of leisure always prevented my undertaking any exploration north of the river; but from the heights of Vijayanagar on the south side I often looked wistfully at the long lines of fortification visible on the hills opposite. It is to be hoped that ere long th
e Government of Madras may place us in possession of a complete map of Vijayanagar and its environs, showing the whole area enclosed by the outermost line of fortifications, and including the outworks and suburbs. Hospett and Anegundi were both part of the great city in its palmy days, and Kampli appears to have been a sort of outpost.

  [8] -- Nuniz erroneously gives the date as 1230. The error will be commented on hereafter.

  [9] -- Scott, i. 45, 46.

  [10] -- Delhi.

  [11] -- The Portuguese historians often mistook "Cambay" for the name of the country, and "Gujarat" for one of its dependencies.

  [12] -- SIC. The meaning is doubtful.

  [13] -- There is evidently a confusion here between tales of the doings of Muhammad Taghlaq and much older legends of Rama's Bridge and his army of monkeys.

  [14] -- Mallik Naib. (See the chronicle below, pp. 296, 297.)

  [15] -- "Your honour" was probably the historian Barros (see preface).

  [16] -- Sheik Ismail's power in Persia dates from early in the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa, who was in India in 1514 and wrote in 1516, mentions him as contemporary. He had subjugated Eastern Persia by that time and founded the Shiah religion. Barbosa writes: "He is a Moor and a young man," and states that he was not of royal lineage (Hakluyt edit. p. 38). Nuniz was thus guilty of an anachronism, but he describes Persia as he knew it.