The Glory of Golconda

The Word Golconda in Telugu means "shepherd's hill". It is one of the most beautiful historical landmarks in the whole of India. This is where on the hillside are ruins of once a majestic fort whose stone tells the tale of the time when this was a glorious place.The rulers who ruled here added to the buildings and have left a distinctive imprint. Here we witness a wonderful confluence of architectural style, Persian,Turk, North Indian and South Indian.

10 kilometres away from the city of Hyderabad, the Golconda Fort sprawls on a hill. It was famous not only as a massive citadel or a fortifying city but also as a fabulously rich principality. It's strategic significance was appreciated manifold after the battle of Talaikota. The fort protected the capital and also provided a safe haven for the rich international traders.

Many famous names that have shaped the destiny of the Deccan are associated with Golconda. The first that comes to mind is Quli Qutub Shah and others of his dynasty who patronized music and art and how can one forget Aurangzeb who captured it and annexed it to the Mughal Empire.

The Golconda Fort is built on a steep hill, 400 feet high, three rows of thick walls surrounded as a first line of defense. The city lay with the outermost rampart. The following rampart protected the citadel and the palaces. The most sensitive part of the fort was girdled by the third rampart, 87 towers on these ramparts and 8 massive gates and  controlled entry points. Well designed bastions which cover most of the wall surfaces and most of Golconda ramparts we see the battlements have openings which protected the defenders very well. 

Being very rocky and hard, helped Golconda become a legend in its time. It was never taken by force. When it fell it fell to treachery. In 1687 Aurangzeb invaded Golconda after a long siege lasting months. He finally gained entry with the help of a traitor. With the victory of the Mughals, the reign of Qutub Shah's ended. Abdul Hasan Qutub Shah( fondly called Tana Shah), the last ruler of Qutub Shahi Dynasty was sent to a royal prison in Daulatabad. Golconda became a province of Mughal Empire but managed to preserve its identity and retained its culture. It remained an important center of deccani culture. It was a place of importance not only from a military point of view but also from the point of view of culture and civilization.

Qutub Shahi was a  Shia Dynasty. They traced their descendents from Iraq. They were the people who came from all the way to Persia and settled in India. They maintained a secular culture despite the fact that they were Shia and Shi'ism was declared to be the state religion. Yet they continued to cater to the requirements of people of different facets of life belonging to different cultures, different religions, different races and so on and so forth. It was a very wonderful period of Qutub Shahi which lasted about 200 years. The Qutub Shahi Sultans of Golconda developed a new architectural style, which was a confluence of Hindu, Muslim and Persian style. Old buildings of this fort were destroyed by the invaders and the rest humbled with time. The Rani place is a cluster of palaces that sought to replicate the paradise on earth.

 All of these gardens are supposed to be paradise where rivers of honey and milk flow. Symmetry was a very important aspect of Qutub Shahi. These people used to consider design in all its aspects, in all its senses. They used to design not only for the visual but the audial, for the tactile, for the old factory. The old factory taste and smell, what we call the aroma sort of thing. These buildings were built to sensualise you with all of these senses. Bala Hissar Gate is the main entrance gate built in deccani style, delicately decorated, triangular arches are covered with fine lace like work. We see Hindu motifs that are found in temples as well as the images of birds and animals.

There were barbarians and all sorts of people coming into this country. They had to build forts and abandoned forts but the Qutub Shahi came here with the intention of living here. The Qutub Shahi were liberal in outlook. Undeterred to rule people's hearts they had to adapt to people's way. There palaces had hindu and Islamic style. Because of their belief that a human being is a human being not a hindu or a muslim or a untouchable, these differences were not part of their culture. That ethic helped them in integrating themselves with local culture. The Kuchipudi dance evolved during the reign of Qutub Shahi. They patronized folk form along with the classic  genre. Names of the famous dancers Taramati and Padmavati are associated with the Golconda Fort. Artists from all over India came to Golconda and regaled the audience here.

Francois Martin, the French commissioner on his voyage from Pondicherry to Surat in june 1681, came across a large troop of courtesans-the devadasis. They were coming very happy and performing, so he asked them where are you coming from, they said 'Golconda City Fort'. They said every year the King Sultan of Golconda calls for a reunion of the dancing women of his empire; around 10000 to 12000 dancers congregated at the fort. Imagine the magnet patronage the city had. If you look at the description of the nobles and their palaces and their movement in the city, 300 to 400 camels and elephants marching from one palace to the other. They are remarkable. Golconda attracted traders from foreign lands far and near, they were attracted by the dazzles of Golconda. It was a world famous diamond market.

There are a number of mosques built by Qutub Shahi.  The Shahi mosque is the most prominent one. The history of Deccan particularly reflects the type of relationship we had, the Ganga-Yamuna tehzib which we particularly refer to and especially in Hyderabad we had particular culture where the ruler and the ruled live together almost and we don't find even a single communal tension during the Qutub Shahi rule. Bala hissar is the highest point in Golconda. The bird's eye view of the entire fort from the Bar Adri makes surveillance of the entire fort easy. This part also had a hall of audience.

It's not just the building of Golconda that is the part of the life of every Hyderabadi, it's the rich history, it's about love, about the riches that went through. One of the most enduring tale of Golconda is the romantic tale between Quli Qutub Shah and his beloved, dancer Bhagmati. He married her and was called Begum Hyder Mahal after marriage. To immortalize her, the prince founded the city Hyderabad. But much more than Hyderabad, the love story lingers in folklore. It has inspired many poets, musicians, and dancers. They continue to perform and retell this story and the legends live on. Bhagmati made Quli Qutub Shah a poet and remained his lifelong muse, source of inspiration and beloved. The presence of these lovers is palpable even today as one stands among the ruins of Golconda. Mughal records refers to Bhagmati in derogatory terms but Hyderabadi's are proud of this romance. Romance keep alive the legend, the culture and the history.  This was a perfect legend for the people of Hyderabad, they loved not only Bhagmati and the prince but the records of this romance be it Quli Qutub's poetry, his architecture of Chaar minar or various other monuments and buildings. Quli Qutub constructed a mosque for Bhagmati, this is where she used to offer her namaz. The Sultan constructed it despite strong opposition from the conservatives. The Chaar Minar reflects Quli Qutub's loafty vision, compassion and pluralism. Qutub Shahi came from a specific cultural racial background to a country where tremendous racial plurality already flowing, so they became a part and find themselves acceptable and they found it enriching. They validated themselves by taking part in plurality which in turn created a new form of language, art and culture.

Deccani miniature paintings occupy a very special place in the cultural inheritance of the Golconda, this style is characterised by the liberal use of gold paint.

Golconda is not just a name of a fort, the very mention of this name conjures the vision of a bustling city that once flourished here within the ramparts of this fort. It had dazzling market places mentioned in the accounts of foreign travellers like Jeen Baptiste Tavernier and others. 

Here one could buy pearls from Basra, delicate silk from China, and noble horses from Arabia. How can we forget that Golconda is the place that gifted mankind the largest diamond ever known, aptly called the mountain of light: The Kohinoor. Golconda was once a part of the Vijayanagar Empire. Marco Polo and Mannuchi has mentioned it as a world famous mart for diamonds and chronicled its prosperous and opulent lifestyle.

There's a great amount of trade activity in and around the fort, the caravans regularly passed through the fort, for the fort has sarais and various kinds of accommodations and was like a city.

Golconda was known for high quality, high value trade, it was the centre of diamond trade, it was the centre of many other precious commodities, precious metals, precious stones, all sorts of things passed through the Golconda. And as a consequence of which the larger the value of trade the greater the commerce, the greater the amount of surplus available the greater the need of protection, the larger the fort the heavier the fortification and thicker the walls.

At the base of the sprawling fort are the tombs of two Qutub Shahi rulers, the dome emerging out of the petals of a huge lotus is first seen here. Like other Golconda architecture these tombs too reflect the harmonious blend of hindu, muslim and Persian. This final resting place of the Qutub Shahi rulers testify eloquently to humanism, catholicity and good taste. The mausoleums were conceived as the magnificent memorials to men of many talents. These are not mute edifices, their silence is eloquent. They remind us that everything does not end with death, true beauty is eternal and love is immortal.

-Rifat Siddiqui