Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 108

96
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(May, 1923
to its nature and its use. Vengorla is noticed under the name of Banda, which takes our traveller to the Portuguese province of Bardes and Goa.
Goa naturally yields a long description and some excellent annotations, especially that upon the Sindåbør of the Arab geographers, which Dames shown to be more applicable to the neighbouring Cintacora of Barbosa on the river Liga or Kalinadi than to Goa, as Yule supposed. Another valuable note shows how the founder of the 'Adilshahi Dynasty, the Kurd mamlúk, Yûsuf Adil Khân (Ydaloam of the Portuguese) came to be known as the Sabayo. Very interesting also is Barbosa's description of the tonguos spoken at Goa in his time, "Arabic Persian and Daqanim, which is the native tongue of the land." Daqanim stands here for "Dakhani, the language of the Deocan, that is, Marathi." Nowadays it stands for a variety of Urdu, the first form of that lingua franca which the present writer learnt to his much trouble afterwards.
Barbosa then enters "the Kingdom of Narsingua," that is, of Vijayanagar, so named by the Portuguese after Narsingha, the name of its ruler when they first arrived. Its capital' was Bisnagua, Vijayanagar, through the popular form Bijanagar. He describes it as of "five vast provinces," with Tolinate (Tulunada) the land of the Tuluvas along the coast. He shows that he could distinguish between the Telugu, Canarese, and Tamil languages, and calls the Eastern province Charamandel, which is nearer to the native Cholamandalam than our own Coromandel. Passing by Honor (Honâ war, Anglice Onore), he notes on the pirates of his day and then reaches Baticala (Bhatkal), where a century later Courteen's Expedition attempted to start an English factory, as is described at length by Peter Mundy. The space given by Barbosa to Bhatkal is much larger than usual, and there is a remarkable description of rice planting in its neighbourhood. A statement in the text also leads to a useful note on the use of the term "India" by the Portuguese to describe only Goa and their first settlements. With Bracalor, which, with the restoration of the cedilla, can be shown to be the Canarese Basarāru, Arabicized into Abu Sarûr by Ibn Batâta, and a description of Mangalor, taken from Ramusio's text, the itinerary ends.
The volume ends with, for the time, an extraordinarily accurate description of the Vijayanagar Empire and its capital and of the manners of its people, due no doubt to Barbosa's knowledge of Malayalam and possible bowing acquaintance with Canarese and Tamil. He must have seen both the kingdom and the capital at their best, as they were then under the greatest of their rulers, Krishna Deva Raya. Especially valuable is the account of the Lingayats and their customs, the description of sati by burning and burial alive. of hook-gwinging, and of the King's method of collecting an army and going to war with enormous impedimenta.
Finally, there are two short notices from hearsay of Orissa and Delhi, in which Barbosa discloses that his information came from wandering jogis, jogues or Çoamerques (stodmbrikhi) as he calls them. These he describes at length, obviously from personal acquaintance. This description gives Dames an opportunity for a fine note on the bezoar-stone carried by the "jogues," as the wind-up of this very valuable work.
Incidentally, many matters of great interest to the student of things Oriental are to be found in Dames's notes. For instance, his remarks on the early mistake of the Portuguese that the Hindus were some kind of Christians, from a very cursory observation of their religious observanoes; and his frequent remarks on the persistent and successful attempts of the Portuguese to stop the Indian trade with the West vid the Red Sea, with the object of diverting it into their own hands by the long sea route. Their advent must indeed havo