It is worthy of notice,too,that throughout the story of Nuniz at this part of his chronicle there is much that impels the belief that either himself or his informant was present at the Hindu camp while these events were taking place.The narrative of the campaign,in complete contrast to that of the remainder of the history,reads like the account of an eye-witness;especially in the passages describing the fortress of Raichur[244]and the camp --where the supplies were so great that "you could find everything that you wanted,"[245]where "you saw"[246]the goldsmiths and artisans at work as if in a city,where "you will find"[247]all kinds of precious stones offered for sale,and where "no one who did not understand the meaning of what he saw would ever dream that a war was going on,but would think that he was in a prosperous city."Note also the deion given of the extraordinary noise made by the drums,trumpets,and shouts of the men;so that even the birds fell down into the soldiers'hands stricken with terror and "it seemed as if the sky would fall to the earth,"and "if you asked anything,you could not hear yourself speak,and you had to ask by signs."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;"[248]his deion 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.[249]It may be remembered that our other chronicler Domingo Paes,was at Vijayanagar with Christovao de Figueiredo some months after the battle,even if he were not personally present in the fighting at Raichur.
The great interest of Nuniz's narrative lies in the fact that it is the only detailed account extant.Barros related the events in historical fashion,taking his facts from this very chronicle;but he was never in India,and his brief summary is altogether wanting in the power and force contained in the graphic story of Nuniz.The other Portuguese writers pass over the war very lightly.It appears as if it hardly concerned then;,further than that at its close Ruy de Mello seized the mainlands near Goa.
Political Effects of the Battle.
And yet it had far-reaching effects.The Hindu victory so weakened the power and prestige of the Adil Shah that he ceased altogether to dream of any present conquest in the south,and turned his attention to cementing alliances with the other Muhammadan sovereigns,his neighbours.The victory also caused all the other Muhammadan Powers in the Dakhan seriously to consider the political condition of the country;and this eventually led to a combination without which nothing was possible,but by the aid of which the Vijayanagar Empire was finally overthrown and the way to the south opened.It furthermore greatly affected the Hindus by raising in them a spirit of pride and arrogance,which added fuel to the fire,caused them to become positively intolerable to their neighbours,and accelerated their own downfall.
It equally affected the fortunes of the Portuguese on the coast.Goa rose and fell simultaneously with the rise and fall of the second Vijayanagar dynasty;and necessarily so,considering that its entire trade depended on Hindu support;for the king of Portugal was never well disposed towards his hereditary enemies,the "Moors."This is a point frequently left unnoticed by writers,on Portuguese colonial history.The two most recent authors of works on the subject,Mr.Danvers ("The Portuguese in India")and Mr.Whiteway ("The Rise of Portuguese Power in India"),pay very little attention to the internal politics of the great country on the fringe alone of which the Portuguese settled,and on the coast of which their vessels came and went.Mr.Danvers devotes one short paragraph to the battle of Raichur,[250]and another[251]to the destruction of Vijayanagar.Mr.Whiteway does not even allude to the former event,and concludes his history before arriving at the date of the latter.Yet surely it is easy to see that the success or failure of maritime trade on any given coast must depend on the conditions prevailing in the empire for the supply of which that trade was established.When Vijayanagar,with its grandeur,luxury,and love of display,its great wealth and its enormous armies,was at the height of its power,the foreign traders were eminently successful:when Vijayanagar fell,and the city became desolate and depopulated,the foreign traders had no market for their goods,and trade decayed.So that this great Hindu victory at Raichur deserved a better fate than to be passed over by the historians as if it had been an event of small importance.
The Events that followed the Battle.
Nuniz gives us in detail an account of the events that followed the victory of Krishna Deva Raya,and considering that he wrote only about fifteen years after their occurrence,we should do well to receive his account as probably true in the main.Firishtah,perhaps naturally,preserves a complete silence on the subject.
