What do you think were the advantages and disadvantages of enclosing agricultural land within the fortified area of the city?

Vijayanagara was a fortified city with enclosed agriculture with its own advantages and disadvantage:

There were seven lines of fort walls which encircled not only the city but also agriculture hinterland and forest.

Abdur Razzaq voted that ‘between the first, second and third walls, there are cultivated fields, gardens and houses. Rice was grown in the fields and to irrigate these fields there was an elaborate network of water from the Tungabhadra to provide irrigation facilities. This enclosure saved the crops by the animals.

The main reason behind enclosing the agricultural land was –“The Medieval sieges”. The objectives of the medieval sieges were to starve the defenders into submission. So, the rulers of Vijayanagara adopted a more expensive and elaborate strategy for protecting the agriculture belt itself.

Disadvantages were:

It was an expensive system.

It the crops failed for same reason in case of serge, there was no alternative arrangement.