Of all the foreign travellers to the Vijayanagara Empire, Domingo Paes' recordings are of unique values as they provide first hand vivid and graphic account of his personal experiences. He was at the Hindu capital at the period of its highest grandeur and magnificence. Paes visited the capital under the rule of Krishna Deva Raya, the most powerful king Vijayanagara Empire ever had. He witnessed not just the wealth of Vijayanagara but also the most gallantly fought battles in the history of Vijayanagara - The Battle of Raichur between the grand army of Krishna Deva Raya consisting of about a million and Adil Shah of Bijapur.

Domingo Paes was a Portuguese traveller who visited Vijayanagara Empire around the year 1520. He, for the first time, accompanied Christovao de Figueiredo, a Portuguese factor.

About the ports under the rule of Vijayanagara, Paes writes: "The said kingdom has many places on the coast of India; they are seaports with which we are at peace, and in some of them we have factories, namely, Amcola, Mirgeo, Honor, Batecalla, Mamgalor, Bracalor, and Bacanor."

Writing about the irrigation, "The land has plenty of rice and Indian-corn, grains, beans, and other kind of crops which are not sown in our parts; also an infinity of cotton. Of the grains there is a great quantity, because, besides being used as food for men, it is also used for horses, since there is no other kind of barley; and this country has also much wheat, and that good. This country wants water because it is very great and has few streams; they make lakes in which water collects when it rains, and thereby they maintain themselves."

About the marketplace, he writes "Going forward, you have a broad and beautiful street, full of rows of fine houses and streets of the sort I have described, and it is to be understood that the houses belong to men rich enough to afford such. In this street live many merchants, and there you will find all sorts of rubies, and diamonds, and emeralds, and pearls, and seed-pearls, and cloths, and every other sort of thing there is on earth and that you may wish to buy. Then you have there every evening a fair where they sell many common horses and nags, and also many citrons, and limes, and oranges, and grapes, and every other kind of garden stuff, and wood; you have all in this street."

About the city "The size of this city I do not write here, because it cannot all be seen from any one spot, but I climbed a hill whence I could see a great part of it; I could not see it all because it lies between several ranges of hills. What I saw from thence seemed to me as large as Rome, and very beautiful to the sight; there are many groves of trees within it, in the gardens of the houses, and many conduits of water which flow into the midst of it, and in places there are lakes; and the king has close to his palace a palm-grove and other rich-bearing fruit-trees."

"This is the best provided city in the world, and is stocked with provisions such as rice, wheat, grains, Indian-corn, and a certain amount of barley and beans, MOONG, pulses, horse-gram, and many other seeds which grow in this country which are the food of the people, and there is large store of these and very cheap; but wheat is not so common as the other grains, since no one eats it except the Moors."