c. 1430.—"Having sailed up this river for the space of a month he arrived at a city more noble than all the others, called Ava, and the circumference of which is 15 miles."—Conti, in India in the XVth Cent. 11.
c. 1490.—"The country (Pegu) is distant 15 days' journey by land from another called Ava in which grow rubies and many other precious stones."—Hier. di Sto. Stefano, u. s. p. 6.
1516.—"Inland beyond this Kingdom of Pegu ... there is another Kingdom of Gentiles which has a King who resides in a very great and opulent city called Ava, 8 days' journey from the sea; a place of rich merchants, in which there is a great trade of jewels, rubies, and spinel-rubies, which are gathered in this Kingdom."—Barbosa, 186.
c. 1610.—"... The King of Ová having already sent much people, with cavalry, to relieve Porão (Prome), which marches with the Pozão (?) and city of Ová or Anvá, (which means 'surrounded on all sides with streams')...."—Antonio Bocarro, Decada, 150.
1726.—"The city Ava is surpassing great.... One may not travel by land to Ava, both because this is permitted by the Emperor to none but envoys, on account of the Rubies on the way, and also because it is a very perilous journey on account of the tigers."—Valentijn, V. (Chorom.) 127.
AVADAVAT, s. Improperly for Amadavat. The name given to a certain pretty little cage-bird (Estrelda amandava, L. or 'Red Wax-Bill') found throughout India, but originally brought to Europe from Aḥmadābād in Guzerat, of which the name is a corruption. We also find Aḥmadābād represented by Madava: as in old maps Astarābād on the Caspian is represented by Strava (see quotation from Correa below). [One of the native names for the bird is lāl, 'ruby,' which appears in the quotation from Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali below.]
1538.—"... o qual veyo d'Amadava principall cidade do reino."—In S. Botelho, Tombo, 228.
1546.—"The greater the resistance they made, the more of their blood was spilt in their defeat, and when they took to flight, we gave them chase for the space of half a league. And it is my belief that as far as the will of the officers and lascarys went, we should not have halted on this side of Madavá; but as I saw that my people were much fatigued, and that the Moors were in great numbers, I withdrew them and brought them back to the city."—D. João de Castro's despatch to the City of Goa respecting the victory at Diu.—Correa, iv. 574.
1648.—"The capital (of Guzerat) lies in the interior of the country and is named Hamed-Ewat, i.e. the City of King Hamed who built it; nowadays they call it Amadavar or Amadabat."—Van Twist, 4.
1673.—"From Amidavad, small Birds, who, besides that they are spotted with white and Red no bigger than Measles, the principal Chorister beginning, the rest in Consort, Fifty in a Cage, make an admirable Chorus."—Fryer, 116.