About this book
A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar offers a rare glimpse into one of India's most magnificent yet overlooked civilizations through the eyes of Portuguese merchants who lived there. Compiled by historian Robert Sewell, this historical work presents English translations of two remarkable 16th-century Portuguese chronicles by Fernão Nunes and Domingo Paes—documents discovered in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris that had never before been shared with English-speaking audiences.
Written between 1520 and 1537, these firsthand accounts provide invaluable eyewitness testimony to the grandeur, complexity, and daily life of the Vijayanagar Empire at its height. The merchants describe the empire's administrative systems, architectural marvels, commercial networks, and cultural practices with the immediacy and detail only contemporary observers could provide. Together, these chronicles paint an extraordinary portrait of a civilization that dominated South India for centuries before fading into historical obscurity.
This audiobook is essential for history enthusiasts, students of Indian history, and anyone fascinated by how empires rise, flourish, and vanish from collective memory. By restoring these forgotten voices to prominence, Sewell's compilation helps recover a crucial chapter of global history that deserves far greater recognition than it has received.
