author
active 16th century Fernão Nunes
A Portuguese traveler and chronicler, he left one of the most valuable firsthand accounts of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 1530s. His writing helps bring to life the city’s rulers, defenses, and everyday activity at a remarkable moment in South Asian history.
1 Audiobook
A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India
by Robert Sewell, active 16th century Fernão Nunes, active 16th century Domingos Paes
About the author
Little is known for certain about his life, but reliable reference sources describe him as a Portuguese-Jewish traveler, horse trader, and chronicler who spent several years in Vijayanagara, the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, around 1535 to 1537.
He is remembered mainly for the account often called the Chronicle of the Kings of Bisnaga. In it, he recorded observations about the city, its fortifications, political life, and the history of its rulers. Because he wrote as an eyewitness visitor, historians have treated his work as an important source for understanding sixteenth-century India.
Modern readers usually encounter his writing through later edited or translated collections, including works published alongside the account of Domingos Paes. Even though the details of his own biography remain shadowy, his surviving narrative has made him an enduring witness to one of the great courts of the early modern world.