It appears[201]that in 1514A.D.Krishna Deva offered Albuquerque [pound sterling]20,000for the exclusive right to trade in horses,but the Portuguese governor,with a keen eye to business,refused.A little later the Hindu king renewed his proposal,declaring his intention of making war against the Adil Shah;and the Adil Shah,hearing of this message,himself sent an embassy to Goa.Albuquerque was now placed in a position of some political importance,and he wrote first to Vijayanagar saying that he would give the Raya the refusal of all his horses if he would pay him 30,000cruzados per annum for the supply,and send his own servants to Goa to fetch away the animals,and also that he would aid the king in his war if he was paid the expense of the troops;and he wrote afterwards to Bijapur promising the Sultan the refusal of all horses that came to Goa if he would surrender to the king of Portugal a certain portion of the mainland opposite the island.Before this matter was settled,however,Albuquerque died.
We learn from this narrative the Krishna Deva Raya was meditating a grand attack on the Muhammadans at least five years before his advance to Raichur --a year even before his expedition against Udayagiri and the fortresses on the east,the story of which campaign is given in our chronicle.
We have an account of what Vijayanagar was like in A.D.1504--14in the narrative of Duarte Barbosa,a cousin of Magellan,who visited the city during that period.
Speaking of the "kingdom of Narsinga,"by which name the Vijayanagar territories were always known to the Portuguese,Barbosa writes:[202]
"It is very rich,and well supplied with provisions,and is very full of cities and large townships."He describes the large trade of the seaport of Bhatkal on its western coast,the exports from which consisted of iron,spices,drugs,myrabolans,and the imports of horses and pearls;but as regards he last two items he says,"They now go to Goa,on account of the Portuguese."The governor of Bhatkal was a nephew of King Krishna Deva."He lives in great state and calls himself king,but is in obedience to the king,his uncle."Leaving the sea-coast and going inland,Barbosa passed upwards through the ghats.
"Forty-five leagues from these mountains there is a very large city which is called BIJANAGUER,very populous,and surrounded on one side by a very good wall,and on another by a river,and on the other by a mountain.This city is on level ground;the king of Narsinga always resides in it.He is a gentile,and is called Raheni.[203]
He has in this place very large and handsome palaces,with numerous courts....There are also in this city many other palaces of great lords,who live there.And all the other houses of the place are covered with thatch,and the streets and squares are very wide.They are constantly filled with an innumerable crowd of all nations and creeds....There is an infinite trade in this city....In this city there are many jewels which are brought from Pegu and Celani (Ceylon),and in the country itself many diamonds are found,because there is a mine of them in the kingdom of Narsinga and another in the kingdom of Decani.There are also many pearls and seed-pearls to be found there,which are brought from Ormuz and Cael ...also silk-brocades,scarlet cloth,and coral....
"The king constantly resides in the before-mentioned palaces,and very seldom goes out of them....
"All the attendance on the king is done by women,who wait upon him within doors;and amongst them are all the employments of the king's household;and all these women live and find room within these palaces,which contain apartments for all....
"This king has a house[204]in which he meets with the governors and his officers in council upon the affairs of the realm....They come in very rich litters on men's shoulders....Many litters and many horsemen always stand at the door of this palace,and the king keeps at all times nine hundred elephants and more than twenty thousand horses,all which elephants and horses are bought with his own money....This king has more than a hundred thousand men,both horse and foot,to whom he gives pay....
"When the king dies four or five hundred women burn themselves with him....The king of Narsinga is frequently at war with the king of Dacani,who has taken from him much of his land;and with another gentile king of the country of Otira (apparently Orissa),which is the country in the interior."Barbosa mentions that the lord of Goa,before the Portuguese attack on the place,was "Sabaym Delcani,"meaning the king of the Dakhan,and he alludes to its first capture by Albuquerque on 25th February 1510,and the second on 25th November of the same year.
We learn from other sources that about this time Krishna Deva Raya was engaged with a refractory vassal in the Maisur country,the Ganga Rajah of Ummatur,and was completely successful.He captured the strong fortress of Sivasamudra and the fortress of Srirangapattana,or Seringapatam,reducing the whole country to obedience.
In 1513A.D.he marched against Udayagiri,in the present district of Nellore,an exceedingly strong hill-fortress then under the king of Orissa,[205]and after the successful termination of the war he brought with him from a temple on the hill a statue of the god Krishna,which he set up at Vijayanagar and endowed with a grant of lands.This is commemorated by a long inion still in existence at the capital.It was then that the great temple of Krishnasvami was built,which,though now in ruins,is still one of the most interesting objects in the city.This is also attested by a long inion on stone,still in its place.The king further built the temple of Hazara Ramasvami near,or in,his palace enclosure,at the same time.
