Siasat.com
Hyderabad: There is a new chronicle of the city of Charminar in the ‘Golconda Bagnagar Hyderabad — Rise and Fall of a Global Metropolis in Medieval India’. Written by senior journalist Serish Nanisetti, the book focuses on the key period in the history of city during the Qutb Shahi rule between 1518 and 1687.
The book was recently released by IT Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan and well-known historian Sajjad Shahid in the city.
“Hyderabad and Deccan never got the attention of researchers and historians in the country. Hyderabad was one of the biggest business centres in the 17th Century. It was known for its diamonds, steel, fabrics, carpets and gardens but the city was never on the radar for historians. I wanted to change that,” says the author speaking to siasat.com.
Using archival information, the author challenges many of the set notions about the city. “Many people in Hyderabad believe that the city was never called Bagnagar. But I have found dozens of maps drawn across the world that show the city’s name as Bagnagar. I also discovered that the older name of Golconda’s Fateh Darwaza was Bagnagar Darwaza,” informs Nanisetti. Most people know only the new name of Fateh Darwaza through which Aurangzeb’s army entered the Golconda fort as the older name has been erased from memory.
The book describes the city as it existed within a few year of its founding in the first millennium of the Islamic calendar in 1591. “There used to be drum beaters and musicians on what we now call Kali Kaman. They would strike up a few chords in the morning to wake up the city and then the king would come out of the Sihr-e-Batil Kaman seated on a massive elephant. Behind this arch with gold brocade drapes and doorway was a magnificent palace complex. There were gardens with lakes inside the palace complex and wide open spaces where there were shooting competitions and falcon hunts,” says the author quoting from the book.
The book is richly illustrated with some rarely seen photographs of the people who were part of Hyderabad’s history.