A student of water management reads a sixteenth-century account by a Portuguese visitor to Vijayanagara. It describes a tank that a king had made at the mouth of two hills, so that water coming from either side collected there. More water reached it from more than three leagues away, through pipes running along the lower parts of a range outside. Three large carved pillars in the tank were connected to pipes that supplied water to gardens and rice-fields. To make the tank, the king broke down a hill, and the visitor saw fifteen or twenty thousand men at work, looking like ants.
Which ruler built the tank described in this account?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Krishnadeva Raya
Option (1) Krishnadeva Raya — Correct. The account is by Paes, and it is about a tank constructed by Krishnadeva Raya, the best known Tuluva ruler of the sixteenth century.
Option (2) Harihara — Incorrect. Harihara was one of the two brothers who founded Vijayanagara in the fourteenth century. The tank in Paes's account is Krishnadeva Raya's.
Option (3) Bukka — Incorrect. Bukka was Harihara's brother and co-founder of the kingdom. He ruled long before Paes's visit, and the tank is not linked to him.
Option (4) Rama Raya — Incorrect. Rama Raya was a later Aravidu-period leader linked with the city's last years. Paes describes a tank of Krishnadeva Raya.
NCERT (2026-27): “3.2 Fortifications and roads … |