THE DRAVIDIAN EMPIRE, AN EPIC FAILURE

SALMAN RUSHDIE — VICTORY CITY — 2024

This book is what some will call a historical novel in which the real history of the Hinduist Vijayanagara Empire is followed from Krishna Deva Raya (1509–1529), in fact slightly before this date for the main characters, and the emperor first of all, to be introduced in real life before the date concerned. It runs till the last emperor and its destruction under Sriranga III (1642–1646). The main character is Pampa Kampana, and she dies slightly after the fall of the empire in 1646, but at the age of 247 years, hence she was born in 1399 or around 1400. She is the one who founded, by sowing magic seeds, the capital Bisnaga, finally named after its creation by some sailing-by Portuguese visitor, Domingo Nunes, by distorting the local name chosen by Pampa Campana, from Vidyanagar and Vijaya to Bisnaga. It is supposed to stand for Victory City. The shift from the original V to an original B is not typical of Portuguese but of Spanish. In Portugal, except in the Northern part of the country, V and B are two different consonants. But the idea is funny. Pampa Campana creates a brand-new city, and she gives it a name in the local language, we are not told which, but it is not Portuguese, and she lets a Portuguese sailor impose a supposed difficulty in his own language to change the name with no identifying stance at all. And…