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Published: August 15th 2009
As I left Mumbai I saw a sign reading "Silent city - better city / Say no to honking". Mumbai is, in fact, relatively quiet as far as "honking" in Indian cities goes. Hyderabad is a whole lot worse. I noticed a shop here called Paradise Horns which adveritsed itself as selling and repairing horns for four, three and two wheelers. I'm sure it must do a lot of business.
I am beginning to think that the length of time that a horn is sounded for is important. Indian drivers seem to be able to detect the positions of multiple other vehicles by the sounds of their horns and, if the sound is continuous, the Doppler effect may enable them to gain a good idea of the vehicles vector and velocity as well as of its current position.
Before I came here I thought the name Hyderabad sounded too pessimistic. But now I'm not so sure. This is a city that has grown far in excess of the capacities of its infrastructure, and which at times feels like it's falling apart.
It's a beautiful city, too. In parts at least, like that curate's egg. The trademark Charminar is
lovely, like four Gateways of India pressed together with bigger minarets added. It's symbolic, too, of this city that the structure should include a mosque on its second floor and that a temple to Lakshmi has been added to one of the archways. Hyderabad as a whole is a Hindu majority town, but the Old City where the Charminar, the Chow Mahalla, the Sagar Jung Museum and the HEH The Nizam of Hyderabad's museum are all situated has a muslim majority. There are occasional riots between the two religions. Some things look, to me as an outsider, provocative - like the Lakshmi temple. If I were a Hindu, I think I would find the number of Beef Shops displaying slaughtered cow meat in the old city offensive. But what do I know. Maybe the law requires them to call it a Beef Shop and not a butchers if cow meat is sold. Maybe they can only sell beef and no other meat. But the demarcation between Hindu and Muslim here seems stronger than elswhere. I have now also seen a "pork shop" in one of the more modern areas of the city, where Hindus would be in the majority -
although quite a few HIndus wouldn't eat pork either.
At partition the the muslim nizam of Hyderabad, who ruled the entire state of Hyderabad - that is to say most of the Deccan plateau - an area of 82,000 square miles wanted either to merge his kingdom (as a princely state it had never been part of the Empire) into the new muslim country of Pakistan or else to have complete independence. This would have caused a Kashmir-like situation in the heart of India and was not acceptable either to the Indian government or to the non-muslim majority population of the kingdom. So there was a minor war, "the police action" and Hyderabad became part of India.
I'd thought until I came here that it was simply stupid for the nizam to have thought he could have stood alone against a largely reunited and free India. But, if he had played his cards better, he could have had most of what he wanted. India was willing to grant the nizam something similar to the rights he had enjoyed under the British Raj - effective self rule except for foreign policy - and had signed an agreement to this
effect. The nizam turned this down flat. If he had accepted it but also insisted on the Hyderabad state's territory being extended on the eastern side so as to include a seaport - perhaps Krishnapatnam which is now in Andhra Pradesh but which was not in the landlocked state of Hyderabad - then his succesors might yet rule over a viable independent country.
The Charminar is beautiful but no one knows why it is here. It is said that one of the Qutab Shahi kings of Golconda erected it at the time the capital of his kingdom was moved to Golconda as an expression of thanks to god after a plague had stopped or after a drought had lifted. But no one knows the real reason. It may have been designed as a place of worship, as a residence or as an arch, but its design makes it less than ideal for any of these purposes. It is not practical as an archway because it is raised several feet above the ground and, in any case, it is not aand has never been on a major crossroads. It can only be seen as a work of art, without any
real purpose. The Gateway of India was designed for a purpose that was never fulfilled (as was Marble Arch in London, intended as a gateway to the royal palace before they realised the coaches were too wide for it) but, so far as we know the Charminar has never had a worldly purpose.
From the first floor of the Charminar (public access is restricted to the mosque on the roof) you can get a view of part of one centre of the city. You can see the Macca (or Mecca) Mosque nearby - partly bulit with bricks made out of earth from the city of Meccah, hence the name - the Chowmahalla palaces and many autorickshaws nesting together. You can also see the beautiful ornamentation of the arches and their decoration. You may be able to see, on a clear day, the Golconda fort and the tombs of the Qtab Shahi kings. Certainly I could just about see the Charminar from the tomb of the fourth king, the builder of the monumental arch. At least, that's what my guide said it was.
The Charminar is in the centre of old Hyderabad. But Hyderabad has now moved north and
its modern centre is north even of old Golconda which the Qutab Shahis left long ago. If Hyerabad can be said to have a centre, that is.
It was largely the thought of Golconda which made me want to come here. The name is so evocative - the richest diamond mines in the world, golconda as an expression just meaning unimaginable wealth, the koh i noor and so on. But there was never a Golconda mine, as I'd imagined. Golconda was the place where deals in diamonds were made. The location of the mines themselves was sensibly kept a close secret. Hyderabad has been known as the City of Pearls for many years though it is nowhere near the sea (in fact it's about as far from the sea as you can be in India). It seems that pearl trading is a result of the many years of Islamic rule that facilitated trade with other Islamic areas that had pearls but wanted diamonds or gold.
After visiting the Charminar and wandering along the Lad Bazaar with shop after shop advertising pearls at a 50% discount I wanted to visit the Nizam's Museum which I'd read about in my
book. The largest wardrobe in the world is housed there! I'd missed the chance to see the largest turban in the world in Udaipur (it fits a big camel apparently), so I was all the more keen to see the wardrobe.
It wasn't so easy to visit the Nizam's Museum. I asked an auto driver to take me there and he agreed readily enough, and drove me to the Salar Jung Museum. I didn't mind much, I wanted to go there as well and so took the chance to look around. Auto drivers here, as in most places I've visited in India, wil often agree to take you to a destination they know nothing about - and will even quote a fare. But in most cases any fare quoted before the ride started is irrevelant as the negotiations really start when (or if) you reach your destination.
The Salar Jung is a very interesting museum. Two of the most famous exhibits gave me a feeling of deja vu. There's a wonderful statue depicting the biblical Rebecca in her veil. It's carved from one piece of stone and you can see her features as if through her veil. It's
certainly a striking piece but when I saw it I was sure I'd seen the same thing before somewhere, maybe in Italy years ago. But searches on the internet revealed a couple of copies in the US but none in any country I've ever visited. Similarly with the wooden statue where one side represents Mephistopheles and the other side Margarita (bringing back for me memories of La Castafiore in the Tintin books - was she ever Margarita?). I was sure I'd seen that and fairly recently too, maybe in Spain. In any case, both pieces are quite remarkable and would justify a visit to the museum by themselves.
I was fortunate enough to see the musical clock chime at midday. This English clock starts its performamce at three minutes to the hour and then plays music up to the hour whereupon it makes the requisite number of chimes. Noon is good value for money. It may be that rich Indians were very keen on this sort of English clock - I saw another in the Nizam's museum when I got there and there's also one in the Chowmahalla palace.
Other interesting exhibits include many fine ivory works including
Nizam's Museum
Possibly the biggest wardrobe in the worldan ivory carpet (not sure what it'sd be like to walk on) and a coach largely made out of ivory (wooden wheels). I like the quirkiness of other exhibits - the seven dwarfs from Snow White for example or the many toy elephants. There was a fine display of chandeliers in ordianry and colured glass and many beautiful objects. But no extemely large wardrobes, so I still needed to visit the Nizam's Museum.
I tried again the next day. I specified The Nizam's Museum to the driver and added Purani Haveli as the book says that's where it is. He dropped me somewhere in the old city, nowhere near the museum. But this time I was determined. I had a map - a very small scale map where a millimetre might represent a mile - but it did give me a vague sense of direction. After half an hour I had found Purani Haveli. And then I started seeing signs pointing to HEH The Nizam's Museum. The nizam was the only Indian ruler entitled to be addressed as His
Exalted Highness and not just as His Highness. The Hyderabadis are famously much concerned with courtesy and politeness and would
Inside the wardrobe
Some of the Nizam's perfumes never just refer to the museum as the Nizam's Museum. Maybe that's why the auto drivers hadn't understood.
It was about a half mile or so from the first sign. The Purani Haveli had been owned by the nizam's family and was sold off in a block with only part being used as the museum. Most of the rest is a hospital and several schools now. You have to go behind the hospital and walk through the school grounds and finally you are at the museum.
My perseverence was rewarded. The very first thing I walked into at the museum was the wardrobe. It is very much a walk-in wardrobe. In fact it is about a hundred yards long and two storeys high. The ground floor has most of the clothes and also some changing rooms, and the upper floor cupboards (each larger than most nomal wardrobes) house accessories such as shoes, boots, ties, gloves etc. This was the wardrobe of the sixth nizam who is said never to have worn the same item of clothing twice. I don't really see why he would need such a large wardrobe (
sensu place for storing clothes) if that were so,
but that's what they say.
The rest of the museum's exhibits were equally quirky. There was a lift built in the middle of the nineteenth century for the sixth nizam which is operated by hand power - two servants raised and lowered the lift by pulling on ropes. There is a portarait of a nizam on glass where his eyes follow you, and even the toes of his shoes point at you, as you move about.
The throne used by the current nizam on his installation in 1967 (he now has no powers in Hyderabad and lives abroad) is still there. Most of the other exhibits are gifts given to the nizam by other royal personages (a gold watch still bearing the label "Harrods" for example) and many of these are interesting. Almost everything there is either solid gold or solid sliver or covered in precious metal.
Unlike the Salar Jung museum this is a private museum unfunded by the state and it seems that the nizam doesn't let them have much either. It's a pity as it is an interesting and quirky place to spend a few hours.
After the museums and the Charminar and
the bazaars of the old town the only other place there that I really particularly wanted to see was the Chowmahallah. Just as Charminar means four towers or minarets referring to the four towers that top the corners of the arches, so Chowmahallah means four palaces, referring to the four palaces that the nizams had built near to one another as a complex in the old city.
The palaces were a delight to view. You can wander around more or less at will but there is an easy path to follow to ensure that you see most of it. There was no audio guide but there were signs and descriptions around to ensure that visitors could understand the significance of what they saw.
I also enjoyed my trip to the Golconda Fort. The book implies that this is outside Hyderabad and it's certainly a good distance from the Charminar, but it's part of the same city now and is probably closer to my hotel than the Charminar is.
Hyderabad does not make nearly enough of this fort or of the nearby Qtab Shahi tombs. In most other cities sites like these would be made the most of,
but not here. The Golconda Fort is an amazing fort and a magnificent place to visit, in most ways the equal of any fort I've seen in India for size, beauty and things to see. It was only captured once and that by treachery. It's a wonderful place to wander about in. If more people knew how beautiful and evocative it is, many more tourists would come here. Maybe Hyderabad doesn't need or want them, but I think more people should know about this wonderful place and the nearby tombs.
I took a picture of the main gateway, where boiling lead was appparently poured on war elephants when the fort was besieged. The other thing about this gateway is that any sound here - the example given is a hand clap - can be heard at the inmost part of the fort, at its highest place atop the great hill. This is supposed to show the great defensive skill of those who designed the fort.
But I think that if the first you know about an attacking army is when they are clapping their hands in your main gateway, presumably celebrating having already got through the city walls
outside (which still stand in part and are vast) then you should sack your lookouts and most of your army.
Nearby the fort are the tombs of the Qtab Shahid kings, the first muslim rulers of Hyderabad. They lost their throne to the great mughal Aurengzeb (the tomb of the seventh Qtab Shahid is unfinished, he died a prisoner in Golconda fort). But Hyderabad did not remain part of the mughal empire for long. The mughal's viceroys (or nizams) soon achieved independence, but for some reason continued to use the word nizam as their title rather than sultan or king. But they were no longer subject to the mughals in reality - though, in a sort of double think they claimed to be the mughal's mere viceroy (even when there were no more mughals) at the same time as asserting their precedence over all India's other rulers.
The tombs are interesting mostly because there are so many royal tombs (about 17 or 20) close together. But their setting in lovely parkland is beautiful and it would be good to wander around all day, looking at the old poetic inscritions and slowly moving from tomb to tomb. I had
a guide escort me around and that was helpful but I might go back by myself and just wander around a bit more. Two of the smaller tombs particularly interested me. They are of two Hindu courtesans who, apparently, converted to Islam and so were buried here. One of them, Tara Mati, is said to have danced her way on a tightrope from her house to the king's bedroom every evening. It must have been quite a sight.
The tomb of the fourth king, the builder of the mysteriously purposeless Charminar, is also interestng. Here you can visit the actual tomb as well as the one on display (as in the Taj Mahal) above it. There are various constructions vaguely resembling the Charmnar that seem to indicate that he was fascianted with four sided archways, for whatever reason.
There is also a small mosque there at which it is said that Aurengzeb prayed while beseiging Golconda.
Perhaps the Golconda Fort or the fort and the Qtab Shahi tombs in combination could be considered the centre of Hyderabad, rather than the Charminar? But there are at least two other plausible candidates.
The Birla Mandir or Venkateshwara Temple
is one of the most beautiful temples I vae visited. Unfortunately no photographs (or cameras) are allwed there, otherwise I'd have taken dozens. It is not an ancient temple - it was consecrated in 1976 and paid for by the Birla Family Trust, hence its name. It is made out of beaurtiful white marbe and stands high on a hill where it can be seen from a great distance. Several of the large, irregular boulders that seem to abound around here have been incorporated into its structure. It is dedicated to Lord Venkateshwara who is a recent incarnation of Vishnu who is dedicated to helping humans live in the modern age or Kaliyuga. There are many beautiful and wonderful carvings of gods and goddesses and a giant Venkateshwara modelled on one at another south Indian temple. When I was there I heard three elderly ladies rhythmically chanting in unison from what I supposed to be Hindu Scriptures, perhaps the Bhagavad Gita, their voices magnified by a loudspeaker system to be audible in much of the complex. Episodes from the Mahabharata - I reocgised Arjuna talking to his charioteer (Vishnu in his then current incarnation) - and the Ramayana were depicted
on the walls. There were separate shrines to other deities, in particular one to Ganesh which I saw on first entering the temple. Actually, I wonder now if that's typical. Ganesh is the god of beginnings and I have seen his characteristic described as liminal - maybe he's always, or often, the first god seen in temples?
There is an amazing view from the temple mountain of the city of Hyderabad - and of Secunderabad.
I vaen't mentioned Secunderabad yet, but maybe that's part of why it's so hard to pin Hyderabad down or ascribe a centre to it. Hyderabad is not just one city. Like Minneapolis and St Paul it is the Twin Cities - Hyderabad and Secunderabad. So the present urban congomeration inculdes at least three cities of separate foundation - Golconda is the oldest, then Hyderabad and finally Secunderabad which was funded by the British who kept a garrison there (the independence of the state of Hyderabad was, of course, purely nominal).
The dividing line between Hyderabad and Secunderabad is the artificial lake called Hussein Sagar, built by someone called Hussein just before the birth of Shakespeare. It provided drinking water for the town.
It's a lovely lake now, surrounded by a pleasant road with statues every ten yards or so on one side and several attractive parks on its other banks. As the halfway pont between the twin cities, it could have a claim to be the centre of Hyderabad.
And any such claim wold be enhanced by another of Hyderabad's recent religous tourist attractions. Even more recent than the Birla Mandir.
This is a town racked by communal disputes between the 60% majority Hindus and the 40% minority Muslims (who have a 70% majority themselves in the older parts of the town), so it is only sensible that the biggest standing Buddha in India should have been erected on a tiny islet in the midst of the Hussein Sagar. The islet is so tiny that there is literally nothing else on it at all apart from the statue and its base. The statue is over 60 feet high and weighs 450 tons. It was transported to the lake in 1988, but promptly sank. After about two years it was recovered, miraculously undamaged, and erected on its islet. Some time later the Dalai Lama (who lives in India) came to dedicate
it.
I visited Lumbini Park, which is a really nice park to visit anyway - as is the Nehru Park near my hotel - and caught a boat to the statue. Thankfully, after my Elephanta Island experiences, the waters were calm. The voyage was really not necessary as the statue seems to look more impresive from eeh shores of the lake and there are many places to view it from. For example all of the many restaurants at Eat Stret have really good Buddha views.
So, my list of centres for the town - not counting the Charminar - would be Golconda / Qtab Shahi tombs. Birla Mandir Hill and Hussein Sagar Lake. Certainly, I myself found each of those three more pleasant to visit than I did the Charminar. Perhaps the problem is that all three of my suggestions are religiously linked, being either Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist. The great advantage of the Charminar, after all, is that it has no conceivable purpose whatsoever and even if it is now partly used as a mosque - it's partly a Hindu Temple too!
And now there's another city in Hyderabad, too. Hi-Tec City, Cyberabad, west of the
main city. I did not venture there but it rivals Bengaluru as the most computerised area in India.
The 15th of August was Indian Independence day, but I did not see any great celebrations or firework displays etc. What with Swine Flu, the possibility of a drought and Chinese threats to tear its integrity apart India is not in much of a celebratory mood right now. My hotel and many other restaurants chose to celebrate the day by having a "dry day" and banning the consumption of alcoholic drinks.
I visited the State Museum of Andrha Pradesh which had a good collection of bronze objects and some interesting buddhist objects found under south Indian stupas. The Health Museum nearby seemed not to have been materailly updated since the 1950s - photographs showed visits by politicians then and the dislay looked identical. They had some preserved human organs and also some snakes preserved in alcohol and altogehter it was a diverting place to visit. Nearby was the State Legislative Assembly building which was an attractive building with a gigantic statue of Mahatma Gandhi standing outside. I also visited several of Hyderabad's large modern malls. There are three within easy
walking distance of my hotel and they are all of a high standard with genuine goods sold for low (by English standards) prices.
I took some photos of the odd rock formations around the town and also of a cloumn near my hotel which bears some interesting advice. I think it's Jain in nature and this seems likely as the column is near the Mahavir Hospital and on Mahavir Road - and Mahavir was the last Jain Tirthankar. I also photographed what looked like a Hindu shrine but which bore writing that looked almost Urdu and what looked like Muslim symbols. The writing I can understand. Telugu uses a script that looks, to me at least, very like that used for Urdu. But I'm puzzled about the crescent moon and star.
Hyderabad has been much harder work than Mumbai or Udaipur. But there are lots of things to see and the longer I stay here the better the place seems. But I won't be suggesting a name change yet.
Goa is now next on my list as I have decided that Hampi seems too much like hard work. A possibilty remains that I could go there after
Goa, but I think not.
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harikrishna
non-member comment
how is ur trip in hyderabad?
finally is it good or bad?