Hyderabad by Walk - Hashmath Ganj Gate

Now Mr Narendra Luther's book 'Legendotes of Hyderabad' has provided me with so many clues to hidden gems in Hyderabad that I made a list and am checking them out one by one. One such is this gate called Hashmath Gunj gate which is near the Sultan Bazar, Badi Chawdi lane and slips into Kabootar Khana courtyard. I was in those parts recently so I decided to walk down from Badi Chawdi, found that Google maps showed me a 7 minute walk, and legged it through some of the narrowest, commercial  and residential spaces I have seen. 

Hashmath Gunj Gate

I found myself on the Sultan Bazar road in about 5 minutes and then found myself in the Kabootar Khana area, a sort of an enclosed residential and commercial area of old times surely, with a big ground right in the middle with some structure. I figured it must be the Kabootar Khana because there were boards about kabootars (pigeons) - to feed and not to feed (and a few kabootars as well). I passed by the aggressive beckoning of booksellers in the area and went out to the Koti main road by the other gate. Only when I retraced my steps did I realise that I had passed under the Hashmath Gunj gate - it was covered with so much activity - commercial boards, wires etc that it is easy to miss.

The insignia of two lions and a coat of arms

The Hashmath Gunj gate connects the Kabootar Khana courtyard and the Hashmath Gunj lane in Sultan Bazar and has the insignia of two lions and a coat of arms possibly of East India Company suggesting it was built prior to 1935 (as per an article in the Indian Express that I read). 

Now Hashmath Jung (Valiant in Battle) was one of the titles given to the Madras-born British Resident James Achilles Kirkpatrick (1764-1805) who envisioned the Residency in the first place (if I remember right he submitted a plan of sorts to the Nizam which initially did not get approved because the Nizam did not understand the scale and felt that the plan of the building outdid his palace, but later on did give approval when shown in the right size). Anyway foundations for the Residency (known as Women's College, Koti earlier and now Veernari Chakali Ilamma University for Women) were laid in 1803. Kirkpatrick served as the British Resident for the Hyderabad Deccan between 1798-1805.

Another look at the Hashmath Gunj gate

James Kirkpatrick was so enamoured by the Indo-Persian culture of the Nizam's that he gave up his British style clothing and started wearing Mughal style clothing at home, adopted practices like chewing betel nut, smoking the hookah, enjoyed nautch parties and maintained a small harem in his zenana khana. James knew Tamil well and learned Urdu (he wrote poetry in Urdu), Persian and Hindustani which made him very comfortable with the locals. Pretty much a local nawab, which is probably why William Dalrymple titled his book about him 'White Mughal. Kirkpatrick also fell in love with 14 year old noblewoman Khair un Nissa and married her in 1800, some say he converted to Islam and married her, but then, the marriage caused a scandal in the British establishment (which was already upset with him for being friendly with the Nizam instead of asserting himself upon him and reducing his powers) and he was summoned to Calcutta. Kirkpatrick got away with the scandal but died soon after in 1805. Khair un Nissa had her share of troubles and affairs (she apparently had an affair with Kirkpatrick's assistant Henry Russell), was abandoned by him and her family, and died when she was a mere 27. Her two children from Kirkpatrick were sent away to England where they were baptised and lived their lives there. So that was what Hashmath Gunj gate was all about! 

The gate

I saw shops right under the gate, wires all over, houses built along the gate. The gateway itself was fine but the gate, perhaps of wooden structure, seemed to be in poor shape.