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Updated: May 2, 2025
Nuniz echoes the general sentiment when he writes of the Khan's rescue of the Adil Shah, after his defeat at Raichur in 1520 A.D., as being effected "by cunning," for his own purposes; and when he describes how, by a series of lies, Asada contrived the execution of Salabat Khan at the hands of Krishna Raya.
Date of the Battle. Now as to the date of this battle. I am bold enough to believe, and defend my belief, that when Nuniz fixed the day of the great fight as the new moon day of the month of May, A.D. 1522, he made a mistake in the year, and should have written "1520."
Allusion has already been made to this, and Nuniz gives us interesting details. The whole empire was divided into provinces and estates, held by chiefs bound to keep up masses of troops fit for immediate service. It is, of course, natural to suppose that in this great war the king would have put forth all his strength.
Nuniz gives details of the provincial forces of Vijayanagar, compulsorily maintained by eleven out of a total of two hundred nobles amongst whom the empire was divided, and the total of the forces of these eleven amounts to 19,000 horse, 171,700 foot, and 633 elephants.
His description of the siege of Raichur and the great battle in the vicinity clearly seems to have been taken from the chronicle of Nuniz. It follows the latter blindly, even in the misspelling of names, and therefore is really of no greater value.
Many such instances might be given, but not to be tedious I will invite attention to only three more, viz., the account given by Nuniz of how; when receiving the men of the city after its surrender, the king, "casting his eye on Christovao de Figueiredo, nodded his head, and turned to the people telling them to observe what great things could be effected by one good man;" his description of the behaviour of the defeated citizens when Krishna Deva made his triumphant entry into the city; and his narrative of the ambassador's reception at Vijayanagar by the king after the conclusion of the campaign.
We saw that, according to Nuniz, Krishna Deva, immediately on his accession to the throne, imprisoned his three brothers and a nephew, then eight years old, son of the late king, "Busbalrao." This was in the year 1509 A.D., and Krishna was then over twenty years old.
The story as told by Nuniz is given in the chronicle at the end of this volume. Abdur Razzak was ambassador from Persia to Calicut and Vijayanagar, and his account is particularly important as it definitely fixes the date. "The king's brother, who had had a new house built for himself, invited thither the monarch and the principal personages of the empire.
For he alludes to a visit of the Adil Shah to Vijayanagar, and unless there were two such visits, Correa would seem to be in error, since Firishtah's date is confirmed by Nuniz, in whose time King Achyuta was alive. Correa states that in 1542 Achyuta, king of Vijayanagar, died, leaving a young son in the power of his uncle, brother of the dead king, who had been king contrary to right.
The new king, his eldest son, Bukka II., must have been a man of middle age, as he had a son old enough to take the field with him before he himself came to the throne. I can give no explanation as to why Nuniz calls the successor of Harihara II "Ajarao," nor as to his estimate of forty-three years for his reign.
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