Abdur Razzaq was an ambassador sent to India by the Sultan of Persia- Shah Rukh. His narratives are rich and colorful and gives a detailed description of Vijayanagara times. However he was an unenthusiastic traveler. He did not like the sea and left Herat in 1442 only because of the Sultan. He faced the perils of sea, landed in Muscat for safety, reached Kariat and was seriously ill due to the heat and finally managed to recover enough to undergo 18 days of voyage at sea to finally land in Calicut. He was not impressed with the natives of Calicut either whom he describes as scantily clad and who practiced polyandry. His stay at Calicut was limited as the Vijayanagara King sent for him. And he passing through Mangalore,Belur reached Vijayanagara.
Here however he is enthusiastic. He describes the city teeming with temples,gardens and palaces. Governed by an able king its territories extended from Ceylon to Gulbarga and from Bengal to Malabar. There were 300 harbors and 1,100000 warriors. The city was well fortified and its markets were teeming with wealth. He describes the Royal Center of Hampi and mentions that several rivulets and streams flowed through channels of cut stone.
When he met the Raja – Deva Raya II he describes him sitting in a forty pillared hall surrounded by Brahmans. And goes on to add that the king had an olive complexion and wore a collar of king pearls. He was rather tall and youthful with no hint of beard or mustache. On meeting the king, he was given a Chinese fan and money,camphor and betel. His accommodation was at high ground near the King’s palace and he was daily sent two sheep,four couple of fowls,rice,butter and two gold varahas.
The skirmish between Deva Raya II and his brother:
It was during his stay that the incident between the king and his brother occurred. The king’s brother had constructed a new palace and invited the king and other nobles to a feast. The guests were made to sit in a large hall. There were drums,trumpets and horns on the occasion. From time to time the guests were invited to check out the banquet and celebrations. As each guest came out he was ambushed and swiftly murdered and when all the victims were killed, the brother then went to the Deva Raya’s palace and approached him with tray of betel in which a dagger was concealed. He managed to wound the king and leaving his accomplice to kill the king,he declared to the court that he was the king. Though Deva Raya was wounded he manged to kill the accomplice and reappeared in the court. The crowd seeing the rightful king alive murdered the tyrant brother.
Hearing this news the ruler of Gulbarga-Allauddin Ahmad Shah ordered the Vijayanagara King to pay 700000 gold varahas. He assumed the wounded king would be very weak and unable to defend himself. The king however laughed at this and went to war with the Bahmani Sultan. This was in 1443-1444 and he managed to conquer Raichur,went till Bijapur and overtook the fortress of Mudkal. However the war resulted in a truce and the Vijayanagara forces were forced to retreat and driven back to Mudkal.
And what of Abdur Razzak? He set out from Vijayanagar on November 1443. Rumors had spread around him that he was not a bonafide envoy of Shah Rukh and so he left the city, reached Mangalore after 18 days, then went on to Kalahat,Muscat,Khurfakan and finally to the port of Hurmuz. He was in sea for a total of seventy five days. And after this never ventured out to travel again.
Коментари