Which Portuguese traveller described Dipavali in the Vijayanagara Empire?

Domingo Paes was the Portuguese traveller who described Dipavali in the Vijayanagara Empire.

Paes visited Vijayanagara, the powerful South Indian empire, around 1520 during the reign of Krishnadevaraya. His travel account is an important outsider’s description of the imperial capital, its court, markets, religious life, festivals, military organization, and urban scale. Among the celebrations he recorded was Dipavali, the festival known more widely today as Diwali.

Paes’s observations are valuable because much of what is known about Vijayanagara comes from a combination of archaeological evidence, inscriptions, local literary traditions, and reports by foreign visitors. Duarte Barbosa also wrote about India, and Fernao Nuniz later described Vijayanagara, but the question’s specific account of Dipavali is associated with Paes. The spelling “Dipavali” reflects a form closer to the Sanskrit-derived name Deepavali, meaning a row or series of lamps.