NIGONDIN RIVER'S SIDE (Cave at)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

The great square cave with a pinnacle hard by which the Italian horse dealer Federici / Frederike (note 1) observed and described in the year 1567 from the riverside called Nigondin (note 2) is not a cave in the speleological sense of the word but a fire pit or furnace (crematory) used by desolate widows for -sati- (also: suttee, etc., self immolation): … they go out of the Citie, and going along the Rivers side called Nigondin, which runneth under the walls of the Citie, untill they come unto a place where they use to make this burning of Women, being widdowes, there is prepared in this place a great square Cave, with a little pinnacle hard by it, foure or five steps up: the aforesaid Cave is full of dryed wood. […] …the woman of her owne accord, commandeth […] to make the fire in the square Cave where the drie wood is… […]. When she is on the pinnacle […] there is another women that taketh a pot with oyle, and sprinkleth it over her head, and with the same shee annointeth all her boy and afterwards throweth the pot into the fornace, and both the women and the pot goe together into the fire, and presently the people that are round about the fornace throw after her into the cave great pieces of wood so by this meanes, with the wood throwen after her, she is quickly dead… [Literally quoted from FIILLIOZAT (1999 edited 2001: 318 note 1, 322-323), who claims to have reproduced as it is, in its integrality, the English version given in -Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrims-, published Din [sic! probably for: in] Glasgow, MCMV, pp.92-102. SITUATION: LONGHURST (1917 edited 2002: 41) argues for a cremation place at Nimbapuram (approximately near N15°20'20-: E76°29'40-, WGS84) near Talarigattu where there is a large cinder mound [note 3] covered over with rank vegetation and trees of considerable age. FILLIOZAT (1999 edited 2001: 323 note 1) feels the site lies somewhere near the small rocky hill called Pagadanigudda (Pagadani Gudda, near N15°20'10”: E76°28$*20” WGS84) north-east of Tiruvengalanatha temple (called Achyutaraya / Acyutaraya temple by some) and on the way from Hampi Bazaar to Vittala (Vithala, Vitthala) temple: From the river to this hillock on the road [sic! for: track, motorable only for cross-country bike artists] there are many memorial stones [note 4]. As this spot is not far from the river, I feel that this must have been the place …y and afterwards throweth the pot into the fornace, and both the women and the pot goe together into the fire, and presently the people that are round about the fornace throw after her into the cave great pieces of wood so by this meanes, with the wood throwen after her, she is quickly dead… [Literally quoted from FIILLIOZAT (1999 edited 2001: 318 note 1, 322-323), who claims to have reproduced as it is, in its integrality, the English version given in -Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrims-, published Din [sic! probably for: in] Glasgow, MCMV, pp.92-102. SITUATION: LONGHURST (1917 edited 2002: 41) argues for a cremation place at Nimbapuram (approximately near N15°20'20-: E76°29'40-, WGS84) near Talarigattu where there is a large cinder mound [note 3] covered over with rank vegetation and trees of considerable age. FILLIOZAT (1999 edited 2001: 323 note 1) feels the site lies somewhere near the small rocky hill called Pagadanigudda (Pagadani Gudda, near N15°20'10”: E76°28$*20” WGS84) north-east of Tiruvengalanatha temple (called Achyutaraya / Acyutaraya temple by some) and on the way from Hampi Bazaar to Vittala (Vithala, Vitthala) temple: From the river to this hillock on the road [sic! for: track, motorable only for cross-country bike artists] there are many memorial stones [note 4]. As this spot is not far from the river, I feel that this must have been the place …