Indian Antiquary Vol 41

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 244

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OCTOBER, 1912.
parlaogl0 or more: he gets them twisted and made into thick or thin cords, puffs for women and many other things, out of which he makes a lot of money by selling them at tbe same fair.
"On the eve as well as on the day of the festival and throughout the night, the pilgrims, according to their means, present offerings to the deity, always accompanied with some coine. The rich sometimes offer from one to five thousand pardaos; the quantity of gold coins thus offered and lying before the temple is so great that it equals a heap of about 215bushels (ten moios) of wheat.
* Near the temple there are four big wells fall of water. Besides these, some of the merchants open wells for their private use. There are other wells opened by poor men to sell water. Rich men open wells out of charity and count it a meritorious act just as we do with our alms, and in this way, there is to be found an ample supply of water, Eatables of all kinds in the world are to be had here in plenty and dishes of every sort that one can desire are to be found here. She-goats, sheep, lambs, kids and more than a million of reze12 are sacrificed in front of the temple and after their blood is offered to the deity, the carcasses are given away in charity to the poor who sell them to butchers; thus there is a great abundance of meats of all kinds to be had at this fair.
"The king of Bisnega comes to this festival accompanied by about 10,000 cavalry, 200,000 infantry, and a hundred to two hundred ladies attached to his person. The latter are conveyed in locked palanquins elegantly gilt inside and fitted with a very fine silver net through which they unseen could see all that passed. The vehicles are so constracted that the ladies can sit, sleep and perform their functions (podem fazer seus feitos) in them. A narration of their customs, the opulence of their ornaments, food and lodging would be an endless story, almost incredible. The king, while travelling, halts at several places and at each of them he is received and lodged with all his retinue and the great lords who accompany him, in a house specially built for the occasion by the principal man of the place, even if the king were to pass there a single day or night. The house consists of walls of clay covered with tiles; its inner roof is artistically overlaid and the whole thing is painted and finished with great perfection; it is provided with tanks and gardens full of aromatic herbs. It is so beautiful and comfortable that even the great king of Spain would be mach pleased to stay there for a long time. The king with all his retinue is served there with daintiest dishes and there is so much abundance and plenty, that the host who entertains the king a single night spends more than 50,000 pardaos. The house is pulled down as soon as the king goes away; for nobody can live in the house where the king has once lodged. In this way, new houses are built every year for the reception of the king ; this gives rise to competition and rivalry among the hosts of several places, every one amongst whom tries bis utmost to surpass the rest in point of perfection and abundance; for the host who gives the best reception is highly praised and honoured by the king. On the other hand, the host who, in spite of his opulence, is careless in according to the king a reception befitting his dignity and pomp, is ordered to be tied to four stakes and whipped barebodied, with his belly towards the ground !" 13
10 " And if any one does not know what a pardao is, let him know that it is a round gold coin, which coin is not struok anywhere in India except in this kingdom (Vijaya-Nagar); it bears impressed on it on one side two images and on the other the name of the king who commanded it to be struok; those which this king (Krishna Dova) ordered to be struok have only one image. This coin is current all over India. Each parlao, as already said, is worth three hundred And sixty reis." (4 Forgotten Empire, Narrative of Domingo Pace, p. 282.) The Pardao was worth about 1s, 6 d.
11 The moto is a measure of onpacity used in Portugal for oorn, barley, ato. It contains sixty alqueires. Ono alqueire holds 1 peok, 3 quarts and 1 pint.
13 Beasta of pasture such as shoop, oxen, eto. 13 Lendas da India, Vol. IV, Lenda do Martim Afonso de Sonxa, chap. XXXII.