A Queen With A Mission

“This (Kingdom) was formerly under the rule of a King, and since his death, some forty years past, it has been under his Queen, a lady of much discretion, who for the great love she bore him never would marry another husband (sic). And I can assure you that during all that space of forty years she had administered her realm as well as ever her husband did, or better; and as she was a lover of justice, of equity, and of peace, she was more beloved by those of her kingdom than ever was Lady or Lord of theirs before. The people are Idolaters, and are tributary to nobody. They live on flesh, and rice, and milk……

No other country but this kingdom of Mutfili produces them (diamonds), but there they are found both abundantly and of large size. Those that are brought to our part of the world are only the refuse, as it were, of the finer and larger stones. For the flower of the diamonds and other large gems, as well as the largest pearls, are all carried to the Great Khan and other Kings and Princes of those regions; in truth they possess all the great treasures of the world.

Marco Polo, Venetian traveler, describing the Kakatiya kingdom (13^th century AD)

“The fineness of its cloths is difficult to describe: the skin of the moon removed by the “executioner star” (Mars – Akhtari Jallad) would not be so fine. One could compare it to a drop of water if that drop fell, against nature, from the font of the sun. A hundred yards of it can pass through the eye of a needle, so fine is its texture, and yet the point of a steel needle can pierce through it only with difficulty. It is so transparent and light that it looks as if one is wearing no dress at all but has only smeared the body with pure water.”

“He sent to the Malik an image of himself in gold with a rope round its neck in token of surrender and a humble request that his life be spared. ‘ If the king ‘. he said, ‘ desires treasures and presents, I have of gold enough to gild all the mountains of Hind, and it is at his service. But if the world-decorating judgment of the king, in its generosity, allows this yellow-faced servant to keep a few of those gold coins, he will be able to preserve his dignity among his compeers. If the object of the king be diamonds and pearls, I have collected so many of them that neither the eyes of the rocks have beheld nor the ears of the fish heard of a similar treasure. Of horses, too, I possess twenty thousands, both bahri and kohi, the former of which would fly like the wind on the sea without wetting their feet, and the latter would make the mountain ridges tremble like the Indian sword with their tread. The reins of all these horses will be tied to the royal stable. Elephants also have I, hundreds of them, which I would gladly send to the sublime threshold. They are the elephants of Ma’bar, not the grass-eating ones, and all young and new-born who are now just growing their tusks not like those whose tusks have become raised up with age or who have become toothless. These elephants have heard the elephant-prostrating noise of the royal forces, and with their ears wide open they draw lines on the ground with their trunks, in humility and repentance, saying that hence-forward they would not turn their faces towards the Ka’ba of Islam except in slavish deference In short this slave, Luddar Deo (which is how the Muslim historians pronounced Rudra Dev), places in one scale of the balance all the wealth, elephants and horses he possesses, and in the other his own life, and the king can choose either of them,” This message was delivered to Kafur by the rajah’s ‘ basiths’ or messengers in eloquent Hindi ‘ more cutting than the sword ‘, and next day the rich presents consisting of elephants, precious stones like emeralds, rubies, ‘nimmanis’, cat’s-eyes and cock’s-eyes,  diamonds, pearls and horses were brought to the royal camp. The Malik, satisfied that the rajah could pay no more, accepted the presents, and returned to Delhi.”