Hyderabad by Walk - Naya Qila

Deccan Archives had two interesting walks  last week - one at the Naya Qila area of Golconda and the other at the Paigah Palaces in Begumpet, both of which I had planned to walk with Kiran. However fate ordained differently and I joined the Deccan Archives walk owing to Kiri's busy schedules. The Naya Qila one started at 430 pm. It was threatening to rain but I decided to brave it and headed off.

Golconda fort from the Naya Qila area

The Naya Qila gate is easily found on Maps - turn left immediately after the Banjara Darwaza and keep going straight in narrow lanes. To the left I passed the Jamali Darwaza and plodded straight on. The Naya Qila Darwaza leads into the Hyderabad Golf Club area so there is some amount of security there - however it is open from 9-5 every day for locals and tourists to check in on the fort and the elite playing golf.

Naya Qila gate

I parked inside the fort gate on the road leading to the Naya Qila garden and joined the heritage walkers. People come in pairs or threes or a few like me in ones. Everyone sticks to themselves and does their own thing - some take pics (some have huge cameras and some like me only have phone cameras), some just listen, some make notes, some check notes with their books, some just walk and so on. I take pics, listen and smile at anyone who is willing to smile back at me.

Spot the strange figure engraved - warrior

Right at the beginning, on the fort walls on the right side, Sibghat showed us a sculpture/carving on a rock - of a warrior, Veera something he said. The left side of the road is fully taken over by the Hyderabad Golf Club which pretty much has occupied the Naya Qila area and made it green (which otherwise would have been occupied by illegal houses anyway I guess going by what's happening in this area, so can't say which is better or worse). There is a little pond which was once a lake said Sibghat from where water flowed over to a small dam and then into a bathing area for the Sultan. Whatever it was, it sounded like it must have been a pleasant experience for the Sultan.

The Dal Badal Chabutra - Naya Qila Hbaitat Centre

The Naya Qila Habitat Centre was the next attraction for us - standing atop the Dal Badal chabutra (if I am not wrong). It gives a general idea of what this place is about and has a model - only thing it is so badly maintained that we cannot read much (good intentions, bad maintenance). However the main attractions seemed to be - Dal badal chabutra, storage tank, water cascade, baradari, octagonal pavilion, hamam tank, Majnu bastion, fort wall rooms, the two mosques, the tree, Moti darwaja burj, Nishan burj and Nav burj (steps).

All you can see here

A model of the Naya Qila bagh

The Naya Qila or New Fort is an extended part of the fort built in 1656 by Abdullah Qutb Shah, the seventh Sultan, after an attack by Aurangzeb on the fort. The four month long attack on the Golconda was not successful as the fort withstood the cannon fire, but was left weakened as the walls were damaged. Aurangzeb withdrew after a treaty, but Abdullah Qutb Shah realised he needed to fortify Golconda some more before another attack. After strengthening the existing walls, he extended the fort to include the elevated portion to the North Eastern side from where Aurangzeb had attacked, thus making it that much more difficult to attack Golconda. As mentioned earlier, strange figures and animals are sculpted into the stone walls.

The baradari

Over the embankment of the Dal Badal Chabutra (the dal (guards) would change here if I remember right) we looked at the bagh area which is modelled on the char bagh style - with a large square tank at the end where the Sultan would bathe. Another interesting tidbit I learned was that the Durgam Cheruvu was at a higher sea level than this lake which allowed water to flow with gravity and that all water sources were kept separate to minimise risk of water poisoning (which would have crossed the mind of all aggressors). Apparently there are broken earthen pipes of those days lying about somewhere. I could see the baradari hidden in vegetation, and some other structures behind it, not very clearly because they were inaccessible due to heavy vegetation.

Majnu burj

A small gateway led us closer to the golf course which now crisscrossed our commoner path. If Golconda's soldiers had to face Aurangzeb's cannon balls, we had to escape the flying golf balls of golfers, who were not on target as I heard one caddy grumbling - yeh kaha kaha naye jagon pe marre ji (where all new places are they hitting the ball to). Anyway we made it safely across and climbed a bit to the right and landed up near a cannon which lay at the bottom of a bastion called Majnu bastion (there is a Laila bastion in the opposite direction, the two lovers damned for separation here also). 

Majnu burj and the fallen cannon

Cannon

Apparently the cannon was at the top of the Majnu burj until the floods of 2020 in Hyderabad caused a part of the burj to collapse and the cannon was left hanging mid air (sometimes my suspicious self wonders if these collapses are engineered by some interested parties - why would these bastions fall otherwise). Anyway the powers that be managed to lower the hanging cannon to the ground - but modern technology could not get it back up again. So it lies on the ground until some elephants and such other old techniques come by perhaps. Right now it served as a seat for the tired ones in our group.

Mustafa Khan mosque

Further up we walked to the Mustafa Khan mosque (built in 1561/62), built by the same royal architect who according to the plaque outside the mosque was a minister in the court of the fourth Sultan Ibrahim Qutb Shah between (1550-1561). It is a structure with no minarets, lovely arches, perfectly aligned walls and arches and three graves made of granite inside. Sibghat told us stories of djinns that come at night and eat up sweets that are left inside for them.

View of Mustafa Khan mosque

From outside

The entrance

Three granite tombs with exquisite carving

   We walked around the mosque and towards a fort wall where we saw Hanuman sculpted into the rock, lying by the side of the wall. Kota Hanuman or something he said. While we were walking back another caddy was muttering - there are snakes there! From that elevated part where the Majnu burj and the fallen cannon are located, one gets a view of the Qutb Shahi tombs rising over local housing which has crept up all around them and soon look like they will engulf them. 

Hanuman

Qutb Shahi tombs in the background

Heritage walkers

Gateway to golf

Then we walked down that little mound and towards the Hathiyan ka Jhaad, the famous 400 year old baobab tree which was brought by Arab traders as a gift to Mohammed Qutli Qutb Shah the fifth Sultan and has grown and continues to live quite well after all those souls departed. Its growth is stunted a bit says Sibghat - normally baobab trees grow much taller. There is a story of how 40 thieves hid in its trunk and go out at night to commit robberies - (thereby making it an accessory to crime). It was an impressive tree, hard as rock, with a circumference of 25 metres they say (which makes it difficult to hug it unless we have long long hands). A couple of the more adventurous and athletic ones in the group climbed up, assisted by a helpful assistant from the administration (normally the tree is shut off from outsiders with a fence, but they opened it for us - heritage wale, they called us).

400 year old baobab tree - Hathiyan ka jhad

Elephant tree

Outside, in the same complex was a beautiful mosque built by Mulla Khayali in 1569, a well known courtier, poet, and calligrapher from the Ibrahim Qutb Shah times. The mosques were built in earlier times (during Ibrahim Qutb Shah's reign of 1550-1580) and the fort later (1656). 

Mulla Khayali mosque - picture perfect

Clouds above Mulla Khayali mosque

Golconda fort beyond the golf course

Then we climbed up the burj which was the tallest point on this side of the fort from where we had great vies of the Golconda fort straight ahead and of the Qutb Shahi tombs to the right (and the golf course right in front). Outside the fort walls was a lake, the Shah Hatim talab, which had crystal clear water at one point they say and we cannot say the same anymore because it is covered with water hyacinth. The colonies that have cropped up around it get flooded every monsoon as they are constructed on the lake bed.

The Qutb Shahi tombs in the background

Golconda looming

The green you see is the Shah Hatim talab - a hyacinth filled lake

A cannon - so many lying around

Couldn't resist this - cannon with Golconda behind 

With darkening clouds everything looked more and more dramatic and I realised I had almost a kilometer or more to get back to the car and took off before the others. I had to half run once it started to rain and was pretty wet by the time I got into the car. I need to do more running.

A long drive back in the rain and traffic. But fully worth it. Thanks team Deccan Archives.