Hyderabad was founded by Quli Qutb Shah after he defeated the reigning Bahmani rulers in 1512 and made the fortress, Golconda, the seat of his administration. To accommodate the population he set up a new city, Hyderabad, a few miles off Golconda. The iconic Charminar or ‘Four Minarets', the most famous landmark of Hyderabad became the centre of this flourishing city, with four roads lined with stone – faced arcades leading off it.
Hyderabad’s strategic location in the Deccan plateau and its prosperity and wealth (mainly from the famous Golconda diamond mines) had attracted the evil eye of many a marauders. The chief of these, the powerful Mughal Aurangzeb, laid siege to the citadel and, in 1687, after a long and bloody battle, the Qutb Shahis accepted defeat. The Mughal Viceroys, the Asaf Jahis were to rule Hyderabad until 1948, when Princely India was merged into a new society, the Indian Union.
HISTORY
Quli Qutb Shah’s city was first known as Bhagnagar after his Hindu paramour Bhagmati, and later Hyderabad after she was rechristened Hyder Mahal.The history of Hyderabad is linked with the rise and fall of various kingdoms which flourished in the Deccan plateau during medieval times. It was Quli Qutb Shah’s rule that opened a glorious chapter in the annals of Hyderabad.
During the early part of his reign, Golconda became famous gor its diamonds, steel and hand – printed cloth. Commerce drew merchants from Asia and Europe. Hyderabad’s fame, strategic location and the legendary wealth of Golconda attracted the Mughal ruler, Aurangzeb, who captured Golconda after a long drawn siege in 1687, making it a part of the sprawling Mughal Empire, with Asaf Jah as the Viceroy of the Deccan. But with the gradual disintegration of the Mughal Empire, Asaf Jah proclaimed himself master of the Deccan.
The state and the dynasty so founded by Asaf Jah I witnessed many interesting events in the evolution of the Hyderabad state. Asaf Jah I also initiated the tile of ‘Nizam’ which became the dynastic nomenclature of successive rulers of this state under whose reign the city reached its zenith in terms of size and power.
The Asaf Jahis ruled Hyderabad until the state was merged into the Indian Union in 1948.
THE VISIT
CHARMINAR
The iconic Charminar – a monument of four minarets – is the architectural gift of the powerful Quli Qutb Shah to the people of Hyderabad. Built in 1591, the edifice is a 20 metre square. It has 11 metre wide arches and four storied minarets rising 20 metre from the roof. Before we went there we had to meet someone and one hour went there. After that, we had our lunch and we reached Charminar around half past five when the Charminar was being closed. We were very disappointed, we took some pictures from outside and we went to one more place. (I’ll tell you about the other place in the next paragraph). So, in all we saw two places on the second day. (We arrived at some half past eight or fifteen minutes past eight).
LUMBINI PARK
The Lumbini Park is famous for its laser shows. We took a package there which involved the laser show, the Lumbini Park and the boating which took us through the Hussain Sagar lake and then to the statue of Buddha. First of all, we went to the laser show. It started with the original laser show, the lights gleaming in the water showing this shape and that. After that they started with the Big Bang followed by the history of Hyderabad, which I didn’t understand, followed by the now historical places and the modern Hyderabad secondly, they took us through Hyderabadi cinema and had a song sung in Telgu named ‘Welcome to Hyderabad’. I had a great time clicking pictures and photographing videos there.
We, then, went for the boating. We had a fun time sitting in the boat and having fun, taking in the fresh breeze. We were dropped onto the platform where the statue of the Buddha, which was an 18 metre tall granite statue. We had some fifteen minutes to ourselves there and it was fun, enjoying the fresh breeze, much fresher than that we had on the boat, which seemed to come out of nowhere. We went back after some time and got into the park. The park was not like a park, though I realised that it was the park after we had come out, there were rides all over and we enjoyed quite a few. We went back in the hotel room and were so happy to have dinner that I was ordering half of the things which were on the menu. My father said that I was ordering too much and behaved like a person who didn’t get much to eat. I replied that I was feeling like that and I was starving because I had not eaten anything after lunch.
GOLCONDA FORT
Dating back to 1143AD, , the Golconda fort was built by the Kakatiya kings of Warangal. When Quli Qutb Shah defeated the Bahmanis in 1512, he made Golconda his capital. Golconda became the centre of the international diamond trade after reserves were discovered near the Krishna River. When I went there, the whole place was in ruins and there was not much of interest to see there, though, if we had a guide, we would have been cleared of what we think about the place. Though there is one thing which will amuse the reader(s). There was a telephone on the entrance of the castle. It was a dome, where when one clapped the person in the darbar could hear it. The historians think that this place would’ve been guarded with soldiers. When one soldier or the other saw that someone was approaching them and they clapped, so, the king knew that he was expecting a guest or an enemy. The strange thing is that, the noise of the clap could be heard at many places – one the darbar, second all the places kept a watch from the top of the palace. This is all about the Golconda Fort.
RAMOJI FILM CITY
Ramoji Film City was good, though we didn’t go inside as there was no shooting taking place and the charges were a bit too high only for the rides and so we clicked some pictures and came back.
NEHRU ZOOLOGICAL PARK
There was nothing of the most important there only animals which we see in each and every Zoo. A toy Train giving you a short ride of the things in the zoo was the only other thing and other animals which were different from other parks were lions, jackals, wolves, emus, ostriches and giraffes.
This is about Hyderabad which we enjoyed. I know there would be many other things apart from this to see. How much ever we had seen, we had a wonderful time there. If you want to visit Hyderabad, it will be the best time of your lives, if the holidays are long to see whole of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
(Parts of the text have been copied from the book ‘Inside Hyderabad’ by Ramesh Reddy).
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