Hyderabad by Walk - Punjagutta (aka Punja Ghutna)

Ever since I heard Ali, our software cabbie, told me about Punja Ghutna, I have been fascinated by the idea of visiting that dargah. I remember seeing those precariously balanced rocks on the Punjagutta hillock towards the Srinagar colony entrance but they slowly disappeared from view. I did some more basic research on the net and found that the story of Punja Ghutna was very much alive and that one had to climb up the hillock. So one morning on my morning walk I walked to Punjagutta. I took the small adjacent to Next Galleria mall's back wall and climbed up. I could see the rocks, the flags. I found a door that was shut and no sign whatever. One young boy walking his dog told me that it opened on Thursdays and Fridays only.

The rock with the punja impression up there

The climb of the seekers

Pallavi - can read Urdu

Hmm. I walked back with some extra information. I needed to come back on a Thursday or a Friday.

So this recent Thursday I decided to go to the place again. Pallavi was all game to join, being a cinematographer she is always checking out interesting spots to shoot. We took the Metro to Punjagutta at about 11 am, took the same route up, and found the same door in the same position, locked. This time we checked with a couple more people and they told us there was another gate on the other side - we just have to go around the rocks through the tight neighbourhood (where surprisingly a lot of construction activity was going on). The path through the houses was narrow, we walked past tiny houses conjoined to one another, turned left, and at one other point turned left again, asked and found some steps leading up.

Why does that rock not roll off? For centuries?

Stairway to heaven

Destination - punja on top of the gutta (hillock)

One really cute little girl of eight was sweeping the stairs and in a while I noticed her brother perhaps, who was ten, going about with a bunch of keys opening the doors and stuff (including our door). The steps led up to a mosque, a flat land where there was a tree. The rocks were now right in front of us and as precariously balanced as they had been since prehistoric times perhaps. Another flight of stairs were leading up to the place where the marks of Hazrat Ali's Punja (palm) and Ghutna (knee) were embedded in granite. We were told to take off our footwear and we did and walked up and saw the place where the punja and ghutna were. That part was enclosed in some sort of an enclosure. A little away from the punja and ghutna is another impression, apparently that of a horse's hoof. Apparently people come and give offerings to the punja - sugar and such stuff.

Looks precarious but it was not - that's Next Galleria mall below right

Perhaps the Hitech area behind

The Punja and Ghutna

Close up

Apparently the hoof of a horse

That place offered great views all around but we could not stay took long because the rocks were really hot. We stepped back down and checked out the rocks. Apart from the mosque which is a recent addition, there is an ashoorkhana which is as old as the Qutb Shahi times apparently. 

Pallavi atop the gutta

How do they stay

Homes and the faith in the rocks 

For scale

The story behind Punja Ghutna (they say that over time it became Punjagutta) is that a Qutb Shahi general dreamt of the marks made by Hazrat Ali's punja and ghutna and there was a search and they were  finally found on top of the Punjagutta hill. Hazrat Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Mohammed, is the first Imam of Shias.

The punja and ghutna are on top of that rock

The man near the dargah (they were making preparations for a meal) said that it was open Thursdays and Fridays - 11 am to 8 pm. It will be a god idea to visit the place at around 430-5 when it is not so hot and one can also see some nice views of the sunset.

Some art by the young kids which I saw on the way out

Waled down and turned left and we found ourselves entering the Next Galleria mall from the back entrance, near the parking exit. A few steps and we were in the Metro station.