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 Ali Audil Shaw of Bijpur formed an alliance with Ramaraju and Feristha tells us how Audil Shaw strengthened the alliance by a bold stroke of policy. When a son of Ramaraju died, Audil Shaw proceeded to Vizianagaram with a hundred horses and offered condolence to Ramaraju in person. Feristha says that the queen of Ramaraju called Audil Shaw her son by which was meant, I suppose, nothing more than that the friendship between Audil Shaw and Ramaraju was to be more than a political alliance. Briggs uses the word adopted for which there is no authority in the original. Ramaraju treated Audil Shaw with great respect but when Audil Shaw departed, Ramaraju would not, as etiquette required, accompany him to some distance.

This breach of etiquette, Audil Shaw felt as an insult which he never forgot.

It is clear from this incident that Audil Shaw was a spirited prince and set much value on personal dignity. He was not the person to demean himself to Ramaraju for any political advantage.

But the novelist made Audil Shaw a toady of Ramaraju. Audil Shaw settles down at Vizianagaram intriguing clumsily and freely under the nose of Ramaraju.

He enters the privacy of Ramaraju without announcement and makes his salam but Ramaraju does not even acknowledge the salutation but motions him to a chair. Audil Shaw addresses Ramaraju as a master in a respectable style while Ramaraju addresses Audil Shaw in the singular with scant respect.

In the conversation which ensures Audil Shaw says, “The peaceful Hindus have suffered much from the Musalmans. The Musulmans are certain to reap the fruits of their sins. It is incarnations of God like yourself (!) they should, without fail, undertake the maintenance ofjustice. Though I am a Musalman, I have great partiality for Hinduism. Justice always triumphs” (vide p.30 of the novel).

In the novel Ibrahim Kutub Shaw addresses a letter to Ali Audil Shaw 1’• 5ex 959 My Own Thoughts