Facts about Hyderabad.Part 6

Hussain Sagar

Hussin Sagar also known as Tank bund was built by Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali in 1562 (that makes it older than the city of Hyderabad, which was founded in 1591).

It was Built during the rule of Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah.It is built on a tributary of River Musi.



                           

Streets of Hussaini Alam

These are the pics from my visit to Hussaini Alam,one of the oldest localities of Hyderabad.Mohi and myself went on a drive through the streets of Hussaini Alam.

                                 This Kabootar Khana is supposed to be more than 250 years old!

                                                 Thanks Mohi bhai for the wonderful trip!

Yousuf Tekri

I have met people who have been living in Hyderabad for decades but havent seen Golconda Fort or the Qutb shahi tombs.It always amazes me as to how could they ignore the centuries old evidence of our culture and history.They all give the same reason.'we arent running off to someplace we will watch it sooner or later'.'uska bhi waqt ata yaro!'(typical hyderabadi nizami attitude).To be frank even i had this attitude for a heritage building close to where i live(since the building in question is relatively not that signifiucant compared to the monuments i mentioned above i have forgiven myself in my court of justice)

Finally last friday I decided i had enough of this and went off to Yousuf Tekri building,along with shoaib.It is located on the tolichowki-mehdipatnam road,adjacent to the mamu's food joint.This building belonged to Nawab Yousufuddin Khan,a subedar of Gulbarga,during the reign of the sixth Nizam Mir Mehbub Ali Khan.It is built in the form of a castle and is more than 120 years old.I was surprised on seeing the interiors.Some people were putting on paint on the walls and the whole place looked beautiful.On asking I was informed that this painting was for a movie shoot that was going to take place in few days.I learned later that this is a favorite location for shooting movies.

There is no problem in going and seeing the building.You need no permission and nobody will stop you there.

Saidanimma's Tomb

Today I had some work in Ranigunj.While going towards the bus stop near tank bund,I stopped by Saidanimma's tomb on MG road.It is on the left side of the road while going towards tank bund from Ranigunj.

This tomb belongs to the mother of the Abdul Haq Diler Jung,a noble in the Asaf Jahi court.Built in the late nineteenth century(1800s).Even though this was built in the Asaf Jahi time(nizam's time) it has predominantly Qutb Shahi features.The tomb is full of ornamentation and looks similar to the work in Paigah tombs.

This structure lies on the main road and one shouldnt miss this when taking a stroll on the Tank Bund stretch.

Spanish Mosque

Today evening I went to the Spanish Mosque in Begumpet along with shoaib.It is also known as the Moorish Mosque.Built in 1906 by Iqbal-ud-Daula,the paigah (the same family which built the Falaknuma Palace) it is a copy of a mosque in spain and is the only one of its kind in India.

'Madhu Vottery in her book 'A Guide to the Heritage of Hyderabad' says 'It is one of the best maintained mosques of the city,existing in its original shape even today.

We went to the mosque at the time of the Asar namaz.As we were gazing at the mosque from one end , a man waved at us from the mosque and motioned us to come near and take a closer look.The masjid is beautiful with the golden colour and is unlike any other mosque I have ever seen.Though it is small it looks something from the pages of Arabian nights.As the time for the namaz was getting near we made wazu and offered our namaz inside.After the namaz we took a few pics and made our way back home.

Note- no need to worry about taking pics as no one really bothered us.

Additional Info-from wikipedia
The other notable features are Moorish arches inside the prayer hall, Quranic verses in exquisite calligraphy inscribed on the inside walls, the absence of an ablution tank and a courtyard. In plan, the mosque comprises a main prayer hall, two rooms in front of it and a central corridor for entering the hall. It is over this central corridor or the entrance porch that the octagonal dome stands.
           The mosque is built with stone masonry in lime mortar up to the basement and the superstructure in brick masonry in lime mortar. The roof is jack arch type on iron girders with brick and lime concrete. The domes, minarets and small turrets are built with brick and stone masonry and the outer face plastered with lime mortar. The central dome has a perforated screen.

            Believed to be a copy of a similar mosque in Spain, it might have caught the attention of the Paigah noble, either during his eight month long tour of Europe or he may have stumbled on a photograph. Whatever the source, the Nawab lived up to his reputation of being a great builder having a penchant for creating something unique, as seen from his magnificent hilltop Falaknuma Palace.

Paigah Tombs

Public Gardens or Bagh-e-Aam in Nampally is a place i saw many times while passing through nampally while going to abids.But i never had a chance to visit it.Finally last sunday,getting bored i called up akram and farooq and suggested a trip to PG.The three of us soon boarded a bus to nampally.Its a journey of around 15mins from Mehdipatnam.We got down at nampally busstop, crossed the road and reached the park entrance.Having reached the entrance we were a bit confused about the layout of the garden. some aimless wandering later we found our bearings and started our stroll.The garden itself is beautiful with a small lake in the middle.To our pleasant surprise we found a number of school children who came on an excursion.Strolling leisurely,with a gentle breeze blowing,we watched the kids joyfully whistling and shouting as they


played 'out-out'.After this leisurely walk i came down to business.My actual idea behind this visit was to take a look at the 6 heritage building that this garden encloses.I could only find 5 i dont know what the 6th one is.The 1st is the archaeological museum.We made a quick visit inside and the main attraction of the museum is the Egyptian
mummy.Its one among the 6 mummies found in India.There are many other artifacts,guns,coins,paintings and things on which i ,as an ameteaur cant comment.Maybe sometime later ill write an entire post on this museum.Next heritage building was the Jawhar Bal Bhavan. We couldn't go inside as some renovation was going on.I clicked some pics and
then moved on to the next building,the Jubilee Hall.This was a palace made in 1913 during the reign of Mir Osman Ali Khan.The silver jubilee coronation of the 7th Nizam

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was held here hence the name.As we were taking some pics ,a person who looked like some kind of a supervisor asked us who we were and what we were doing.On telling him that we were students and taking pics ,he rudely stared shouting at us and told us to leave immediately.I tried talking but he would have any of it .He kept asking us if we had permission to take pics.I still dont know if we require permission or not.Anyway we left him there shouting and moved on to the next building the Shahi Masjid.Walking ahead i saw a building with some intricate designs made all around it.This was the mini Bal Bhavan.Presently it houses the HQ of dept. of horticulture.From
here we wound up our small tour and i boarded the return bus happy with the knowledge that i could strike off 5 more names of heritage structures from my list of 150.
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Walk it! Feel it! Heritage Walk 2

I was waiting for a chance to go the heritage walk for a long time .it finally came yesterday. I called up two of my friends and requested them to join me. To my delight they agreed.
I reached Charminar at around 7am and Mudassir and Layak, my friends were already waiting there. We went towards the Heritage Walk stall setup at the base of the Charminar. The security guard pleasantly inquired if we were there for the Heritage Walk. We replied that we were and soon tickets in hand we made our way inside. We waited there for a while till the arrival of our guide at around 7 40. Till then many other tourists gathered and surprisingly there were more foreigners than Indians. Our guide was a polite and good natured lady. After a brief and colourful introduction by her, the walk started.
The first stop was immediately outside the Charminar. The jama masjid was built my Mohd Quli Qutb Shah before the construction of the Mecca Masjid began. Jama Masjid was the first big masjid to be constructed outside the Golconda.We looked only from the outside as the locals refused permission to let us inside. After the explanation by the guide,we walked towards the charkaman. 'kaman' means gateway and 'char' means four. This gateway frames the charminar beautifully when viewed from some distance.The four ways leading outward from the Charminar all have one kaman each.The surroundings have many such kamans apart from the four mentioned above. As we moved on, we came across a crossroad ,the center of which had a fountain named Gulzar Houz.
To the left is the Sehr-e-Batil kaman and to the right is the Kali kaman.From the Gulzar Houz we procedded towards the Patherghatti Market.All of us looked with interest but to the sellers's dismay nobody bought anything.
The moment the patherghatti market ends,the dewan devdi complex starts at the right side of the road.'Dewan' means 'prime minister' and 'devdi' means house.This structure belongs to the Nizam era and not the Qutb Shahi era. Much of it does not exist today,only some small portions can be seen. Further walking brought us to the Dewan Devdi Darwaza ,which thankfully is in fine condition.This was the home to many of the prime ministers of the many nizams.
Also the Salarjung Museam was based here before it shifted to the present location.
The last stop was the Badshahi Ashurkhana,the place of mourning built by Mohd Quli Qutb Shah.This was undoubtly the most beautiful structure in the whole walk.The Ashurkhana lies opposite to another heritage building,the Alladin building.The main Aashurkhana complex is square shaped with four buildings at each side.As we enter, to the right side there is the Nagar khana and to the left the Ashurkhana.The other side has a kitchen and some rooms.The Ashurkhana itself was not as big as i expected. After acquiring the keys from the caretaker and removing our footwear,we went inside.The main wall was breathtaking to say the least.It had enamelled tiles which glistened in the morning sun's rays.We spent a long time looking at the tiles.Sensing our interest right from the start,the guide gave us some more interesting nuggets of information.One such was that in the 1908 floods of musi(yes!! the musi did flood some times in the past)half of the Ashurkhana was submerged damaging the tiles below the waterline.These were later repainted by the nizam but the glory of the qutb shahi tiles could not be regained.After some time, breakfast packs were distributed and then some sizzling irani chai was served.After this, the walk eneded and one by one the tourists left. Soon we found ourselves alone with the guide,with whom we talked for sometime. She soon left as she had another tour to go to. We clicked some more pics and then left.
It was 10am and the breakfast didn't appease mudassir's appetite,so we went to the famous hotel shadab and had some local hyderabadi fares .Layak still didn't want to go so i suggested why not take a look at some more heritage buildings nearby while we were there.He agreed and we then had a look at the Govt City College and the Puranapul. After that we decide to call it a day and went home.