According to Portuguese writer Nuniz, the women in Vijayanagara Empire were expert in which of the following areas?
- 1.Wrestling
- 2.Astrology
- 3.Accounting
- 4.Soothsaying
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Fernao Nuniz, a Portuguese horse-trader who lived in Vijayanagara in the 1530s, described the thousands of women employed inside the king's palace. He wrote that some were wrestlers, some astrologers and soothsayers, and some kept the accounts of palace expenses and records of state affairs. All four skills appear in his chronicle.
- ✓ 1. Nuniz states that the king had 'women who wrestle' within his palace.
- ✓ 2. In the same sentence he names women who were astrologers.
- ✓ 3. Women wrote all the accounts of expenses incurred inside the palace gates and cross-checked the kingdom's records with the scribes outside.
- ✓ 4. He lists soothsayers alongside the astrologers among the palace women.
Remember · Nuniz (Portuguese, 16th century) on Vijayanagara palace women: wrestlers, astrologers, soothsayers, accountants, record-keepers and musicians. Other visitors: Paes, Barbosa, Nicolo de Conti, Abdur Razzaq, Nikitin.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 8 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 8 · Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Chapter 8 “He [the King] has also women who wrestle, and others who are astrologers and soothsayers; and he has women who write all the accounts of expenses that are incurred inside the gates”
- Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar) (1900), translation of the Chronicle of Fernao Nuniz, Project Gutenberg ↗ · reference work “He has also women who wrestle, and others who are astrologers and soothsayers; and he has women who write all the accounts of expenses that are incurred inside the gates”
- NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part II, Chapter 3 “and those of Duarte Barbosa, Domingo Paes and Fernao Nuniz from Portugal, who came in the sixteenth century.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·