A rehearsal with the elephant for the Bibi Ka Alam Muharram procession was held here on Monday in the Old City.
The organizers of the procession who brought the elephant, Madhuri, from Karnataka paraded the elephant on the route of the ‘Ashura procession’ taken out on the 10th day of the month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic Calendar. The elephant is tasked with carrying the Bibi ka Alam on Ashura.
The trained elephant along with mahout and caretakers was brought in a truck to the city from Karnataka. It reached the city on Sunday evening and has been stationed at the QQSUDA office premises.
The route rehearsal is done to acclimatize the pachyderm to the activity on Ashura day when the procession is taken out.
The practice of rehearsal dates back several decades so as to ensure that the elephant does not panic to loud noise or a sea of the crowd and also to test the patience of the pachyderm.
Earlier, Rajini, an elephant owned by The HEH Nizam Trust and kept at the Nehru Zoological Park carried the Bibi ka Alam.
For the past five years due to court-related issues, Rajni has had to be replaced as permission for her participation was not issued. Organizers have been arranging for elephants from Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The elephant procession trial started from Bibi Ka Alam, Shaik Faiz Kaman, Yakutpura Road, Etebar Chowk, Alijah Kotla, Charminar, Gulzar Houz, Mir Alam Mandi, Darulshifa, Aza Khana e Zehra and Chaderghat.
Initially, the alam was carried upon an elephant named Hyderi, and later the job was done by Rajni, its calf. For some years another elephant, Hashmi, also carried the alam. The pachyderms were housed at the Nehru Zoological Park.
However, after the courts did not grant permission for the use of captive elephants for religious procession, the HEH The Nizam Trust and local Shia organisations have been bringing elephants from other states for carrying the Bibi ka Alam.
In 2019, an elephant, Sudha, was brought from Bijapur in Karnataka. However, since 2021 Madhuri is being brought from Kolhapur, Maharashtra.
History of Bibi Ka Alam procession
The practice of installing the standard dates back to the Qutb Shahi period when Muhammad Qutb Shah’s wife installed an alam in the memory of the prophet’s daughter, Fatima, at Golconda. Later, during the Asaf Jahi era, the alam was moved over to Bibi ka Alawa at Dabeerpura specially built for the purpose.
The alam contains a piece of the wooden plank on which Fatima was given her final ablution before her burial. The relic is believed to have reached Golconda all the way from Karbala in Iraq during the reign of Golconda king Abdullah Qutub Shah.
The alam has six diamonds and other jewels donated by the builder of Azakhana-e-Madar-e-Deccan, Mir Osman Ali Khan. The jewellery is kept in six black pouches and tied to the standard.
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