The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema: In Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 To 1508. Ludovico di Varthema
the Bahmani sultans of Kalberga, or Ahsunabad, a dynasty founded by Ala- ed-Din Bahmani, a servant at the court of Muhammed Shah Toghlak, the Ghori Emperor of Hindustan, who about A.D. 1347 conquered all the Dec- can and established his capital at Kalberga. But during the reign of Mah- mud Shah II, (A.D. 1482—1518,) the fourteenth of the Bahmani dynasty, the territories of this state were divided by the revolt of several of its subor- dinate governors: Fath-Allah Tmad Khan, of Berar, appropriated that province; Ahmed Nizam Shah, of Ahmednagar, followed his example; Kasim Berid, the Shah’s minister, made himself master of Bidar, or Ahmedabad and Yusuf Adil Khan seized upon Bijapur. The latter personage was the reputed son of Murad II of Anatolia, who on the accession of his elder brother Muhammed, and while yet a child, was sent secretly into Persia by his mother to escape the law which ordained that only one son of the reigning family should be suffered
lx INTRODUCTION.
to live. Brought up until sixteen years old among the disciples of the famous Sheikh Sufi, he subsequently determined to try his fortune in Hindustan, became one of the bodyguard in the royal house- hold at Kalberga, and eventually governor of Bijapur. Taking advantage of the dissensions which arose at that period in the Bahmani empire and sup- ported by a strong party in the state, he assumed independence with the title of Adil Shah. This event occurred in A.D. 1501, and as his reign lasted for ten years, he is undoubtedly the “King of the Deccan” referred to by Varthema in his description of Bijapur.
After passing the maritime provinces of Bijapur, our narrative brings us into the territories of Bijayanagar, which at the period under review com- prised several tributary dependencies on the Western coast extending from Bathacala, or Bathcal, near or identical with the more modern town of Sedashevaghur on the north, and Mangalore on the south. This Brah- minical kingdom of the Carnatic, having its capital at Bijayanagar on the Toongabudra, and which in more ancient times included the greater part of the peninsula, had been deprived of several of its provinces by the encroachments of the Mussulman sovereigns of the Deccan; nevertheless, at the beginning of the sixteenth century it was still a powerful state, and exercised jurisdiction over a number of tributary rajahs on the Coromandel coast as far north as the Kistnah. At that time, the affairs of the kingdom were administered by Ramraj, whose accession to the regency is thus narrated by Ferishta:—
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“The government of Beejanuggur had remained in one family, in uninterrupted succession, for seven hundred years; when Seeroy dying was succeeded by his son, a minor, who did not live long after him, and left the throne to a younger brother. He also had not long gathered the flowers of enjoyment from the garden of royalty, be- fore the cruel skies, proving their inconstancy, burned up the earth of his existence with the blasting winds of annihilation. Being succeeded by an in- fant, only three months old, Heemraaje, one of the principal ministers of the family, celebrated for great wisdom and experience, became sole re- gent, and was cheerfully obeyed by all the vassals of the kingdom for forty years; though, on the arrival of the young king at the age of manhood, he had poisoned him, and put an infant of his family on the throne, in order to have a pretence for keeping the regency in his hands. Heemraaje at his death was succeeded in office by his son Ramraaje, who having married a daughter of Seeroy, by that alliance greatly added to his influence and power. By degrees, raising his own family to the highest ranks, and destroying the ancient nobility by various intrigues, he at length aspired to reign in his own name, and totally to extirpate the family of Seeroy. “This Ramraaje, or Ramraj was the person whom Varthema designates as “the king of Narsinga” in the account of his visit to Bijayanagar.
Adjoining the littoral provinces of the latter, on the south, was the small independent rajahship of
1 SCOTT'S Ferishta, vol. i. p. 262.
lxii INTRODUCTION.
Cannanore, beyond which began the kingdom of the Tamuri Rajah, commonly called the Zamorin, whose territories ex- tended as far south as Fonani, and who appears to have exercised certain rights of suzerainty over the contiguous state of Cochin. The origin of the preeminence of the Zamorin, as collected from the early Portuguese historians, is as follows:—"About 600 years ago, Malabar was all united under one prince, whose name was Sarana Perimal. In his time, the Moors (Arabs) of Mekka discovered the Indies; and coming to Koulan, [Quilon,] which was then the royal seat, the king was so taken with their religion, that not content with turning Mohammedan, he determined to go on a pilgrimage to Mekka, and there spend the remainder of his life. Before his departure, he divided his dominions among his kindred, reserving only twelve leagues of land lying near the sea. This, just before he embarked, he gave to his page, who was a relation, ordering it to be inhabited, in remembrance of his embarking there He also gave him a sword and his cap as en- signs of state, and commanded all the other princes, among whom he had divided his territories, to acknowledge him as their Samorin or Emperor, except the kings of Koulan and Kananor; but forbid all to coin money but this Emperor. After this, he embarked where Kalekut now stands: on which account the Moors took so great an affection to the place, that hence- forward they deserted the port of Koulan, and would never since lade goods at any but that of Kalekut, which by this means became the greatest
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mart in all India for all sorts of spices, drugs, precious stones, silks, calicoes, silver, gold, and other commodities.”1 Varthema’s account of the predominant authority exercised by the Zamorin on the Malabar coast coin- cides generally with the foregoing, and with all other writers on the subject.
Passing down the coast, our narrative brings us to Quilon, which it describes as the capital of an independent Hindu rajahship, comprising the maritime districts as far as Cape Comorin on the south, and extending beyond that cape to “Chayl” towards the northeast.
Intermitting any further notice of the prevailing government on the Coromandel coast, which, as has already been stated, was ruled generally by deputies subject to the Rajah of Bijayanagar, the only Indian kingdom re- maining to be noticed is that of Bengal. Incorporated towards the end of the twelfth century with the Ghori or Patan empire of Hindustan, Bengal was formed into a separate province under Kutb ed-Din, the second Emperor, and placed under the adminis tration of Muhammed Bakhtyari Khilji, governor of Berar, who is consid- ered as the first Sultan of the Purbi dynasty. According to some authors, Bengal threw off its allegiance to the Empire under Nasired-Din Baghra about the end of the fourteenth century; whilst others postpone its sovereignty to the reign of Fakhr ed-Din Iskandar, who is said to have as- sumed independence A.D. 1840. The succession continued in the same family till
1 GREENE'S Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. i. p. 29.
lxiv INTRODUCTION.
the province was subjugated by Akbar in 1573, and at the period of Varthema’s visit the reign- ing Sultan was Ala ed-Din Husein Shah bin Seyyed Ashraf, who held his court at Lucknouti or Gour, situated on the left bank of the Ganges, about twenty-five miles below Rajemal.
We must now return to our traveler whom we left at Cambay. His ac- count of the Jains of Guzerat, and of the habits and customs of the Joghi ascetics, is as interesting as it is accurate, while his description of the per- son of the reigning sovereign supplies another remarkable instance of his great observation and veracity:—"The said Sultan has mustachios under his nose so long that he ties them over his head as a woman would tie her tresses.” According to Ali Muhammed Khan, the historian of Guzerat, Sultan Mahmud received his surname of “Bigarrah,” the name applied to a cow with twisted horns, because his mustachios were long and curled in a similar way.
From Cambay the travelers sailed along the coast to Chaul in the " “Northern Concan, and then to Goa, from whence they started to Bijapur, which Varthema styles, after the province, the “city of Decan,” where they arrived in seven days. His description of this capital,—of its inhabitants, the splendor of the Sultan’s court, the magnificence of his palace, his mili-tary prowess, and the number of foreign mercenaries enrolled in his army, as also his wars with the neighboring Rajah of Bijayanagar,—is fully corroborated by the history of the times as recorded by