Amuktamalyada

Topic: Vijayanagara and the Deccan · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map"; Class 12, Ch 3 "An Imperial Capital: Vijayanagara"

Meaning

The Amuktamalyada is a Telugu work composed by the Vijayanagara king Krishnadeva Raya. It includes advice on statecraft (the art of running a kingdom): improve harbours, look after stranded foreign sailors, and keep horse and elephant merchants loyal to the king. It matters because it is a rare case of an Indian king himself writing down a trade policy. That policy was also a defence policy, because its aim was to stop war horses from reaching his enemies.

Explanation

Background: why a king wrote about traders

• Deccan wars were won by cavalry (soldiers on horseback).
• Fast horses meant fast raids and quick strikes.
• India's hot, wet plains did not breed good war horses.

• So horses had to be imported from Arabia and Central Asia.

• The horse became a strategic good, as important as weapons are today.

• Vijayanagara and its rivals, the Deccan Sultanates, wanted the same supply.

• Every horse one side bought was a horse the other side did not get.

• The traders were outsiders the king needed.

• Arab traders first controlled the sea route for horses.
• Kudirai chettis (south Indian horse merchants: "kudirai" = horse, "chetti" = merchant) carried the horses inland to the capital and the army camps.

• From 1498 the Portuguese joined the trade. They also brought muskets (early hand-held guns).

• The nearest port was held by a rival. Goa was held by Yusuf Adil Khan of Bijapur when the Portuguese first reached India [4]. So Vijayanagara had to keep the foreign suppliers happy.

What the advice says

• Improve harbours. Better ports bring in more ships and more trade.
• Care for foreign sailors who land because of storms, illness or tiredness. Kind treatment gives the kingdom a good name in faraway ports.
• Bind the horse- and elephant-importing merchants to the court in three ways:
• give them a daily audience (a meeting with the king every day),
• give them presents,

• let them make "decent profits".

• The stated aim: "then those articles will never go to your enemies."

How it worked in practice

• Good treatment was supply control, not politeness.
• A happy merchant sells to you. An insulted merchant sells to your rival.

• Class 8 NCERT says the Portuguese were treated well by Vijayanagara rulers, so that their horses would not reach enemy kingdoms.

• The king's own wars show why this mattered. Krishnadeva Raya took the Raichur doab (the land between the Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers) in 1512. He badly defeated the Bijapur sultan in 1520 [3]. Both wars needed a steady supply of horses.

Results and wider meaning

• Trade fed the state, and the state protected trade.
• Customs and market dues paid for the army.

• The army kept the trade routes and markets safe.

• The capital became a great market. It traded in spices, textiles and precious stones. Most temples had wide bazaars beside them, lined with storeyed mandapas (pillared halls more than one floor high) [2].

• Foreign sea power gained influence. Because kings depended on imported horses, foreign suppliers like the Portuguese gained power over them. This happened well before the Portuguese conquered any land in the region.

Time, place and evidence

• Author: Krishnadeva Raya, the most famous king of the Tuluva dynasty of Vijayanagara. He was himself a scholar and poet, and he supported Telugu and Sanskrit writers [3].
• Reign: 1509–29 according to Britannica [3]. ASI gives AD 1509–30 and calls him the greatest Vijayanagara ruler, who ordered many buildings at the capital [2]. The safe answer is 1509–1529/30.
• Region: the Vijayanagara empire in south India, with its capital at Hampi. Horses came in through the west coast ports.
• Language: Telugu.
• How we know about the trade it describes:
• The text itself, which NCERT quotes in Class 12, Ch 3.
• Foreign visitors' accounts. Visitors from Arabia, Italy, Portugal and Russia described the city and its markets [2].
• Excavations at the site found gold and copper coins, household pots and other utensils, which show busy buying and selling [2].
• Monuments of the capital, built AD 1336–1570, from Harihara I to Sadasiva Raya [2].

Don't confuse with

• Arthashastra: an older Sanskrit text on statecraft, linked to Kautilya and the Mauryan period. The Amuktamalyada is in Telugu, was written by a Vijayanagara king, and deals with 16th-century sea trade and horse imports.
• Sangama dynasty: the first Vijayanagara dynasty, which began with Harihara I. Krishnadeva Raya, the author of the Amuktamalyada, belonged to the later Tuluva dynasty [3].
• Kudirai chettis: these were people, the south Indian horse merchants. They were not a text. The Amuktamalyada is the text that tells the king how to treat such merchants.
• Portuguese vs Arab traders: Arab traders controlled the horse trade first. The Portuguese came in only from 1498, and they also brought muskets.

Prelims Hooks

• Amuktamalyada: written in Telugu; author Krishnadeva Raya; Tuluva dynasty.
• The text advises the king to improve harbours, look after stranded foreign sailors, and give horse and elephant merchants a daily audience, presents and decent profits.
• Krishnadeva Raya ruled 1509–29 (ASI: 1509–30) [2][3]. He took the Raichur doab in 1512 and defeated the Bijapur sultan in 1520 [3].
• War horses were imported from Arabia and Central Asia. Arab traders controlled the trade first, and the Portuguese joined from 1498.
• Trap: the Amuktamalyada is in Telugu, not Sanskrit, even though Krishnadeva Raya also supported Sanskrit literature [3].
• Old Goa was founded by the Bahmani sultanate in 1440. It was under Yusuf Adil Khan of Bijapur when the Portuguese arrived [4].

Mains Points

• Trade as defence policy. The Amuktamalyada treats merchants as part of war planning, not only as taxpayers.
• Audiences, gifts and fair profits were tools to keep horses away from the Deccan Sultanates.

• You can use this to show that medieval south Indian kings clearly understood supply chains and strategy.

• From land power to sea power. Kings depended on imported horses, and after 1498 the Portuguese supplied both horses and muskets [4].

• This gave a European sea power influence over large land empires.

• It happened long before any European conquest of territory, so it is an early sign of the change from land power to sea power.

• Using the source with care. The text tells us what a king thought should be done, not proof of what was always done.

• Check it against foreign travellers' accounts [2] and excavated coins and utensils [2].
• The travellers were traders and envoys with their own interests, so their praise of the city's wealth also needs careful reading.

Related concepts

• Horse trade
• Kudirai chettis

Read more

• Kings, traders and the horse trade