The Rise and Fall of the Cosmopolitan Cities of India-2

 maddss123 a blogger on Sulekha posted Reminiscence of Vijayanagar Empire- My Travel Stories on Jan 14 2008. The following is reproduced from that blog.

The last of the great Hindu Kingdom was described by the travelers from Portugal, Christovao de Figueired and Domingos Paes in the chronicles written during their visit to Vijayanagar kingdom in 1537 AD. Domingos Paes writes " Going forward, you have a broad and beautiful street , full of rows of fine houses and streets of the sort I have described …….. in this street live many merchants, there you will find …. All sorts of rubies, and diamonds and emeralds and pearls and seed pearls and cloths and every other sort of things there is on earth and that one may wish to buy….. this is the best provided city in the world……. And is stocked with provisions such as rice, wheat, Indian corns, barley and beans moong pulses, horse gram and many other seeds grown in the country ….. I climbed a hill hence could see a great part of it, I could not see it all as it lies between se4veral ranges …. What I saw from thence seemed to me as large as Rome…….. and very beautiful in sight ………. The people in the city are countless, you will find men belonging to every nation and people, because the great trade it has…… ".

Maddss123 comments, " History has been very unkind to the great Hindu kingdom, in Jan 1565, a combined Muslim army of Bahamani kings from Bijapur, Bidar, Golkonda and Ahmadnagar fought a great religious war to defeat Ramaraya…….destroying the place for ever. The place was continuously looted over a period of 6 months and the entire was set ablaze , it was burning till arrival of the monsoon".

The Vijayanagar Empire was known for the growth of art also. Sri Krishna Devaraya  the king who built and developed Vijayanagar Empire ,himself was a great poet who is called Andhra Bhoja.

  In Cosmopolitan-3 we will see,  Harappa the great city of Indus Valley Civilization.

  Thanks to maddss123

may also see:

http://dmrsekhar.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/02/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-cosmopolitan-cities-of-india-1.htm.