Deccan Archives announced the Aghapura walk promising hidden palaces and such. It sounded exciting and though I had a meeting at 11 at Gachibowli, I thought I'd chance it. So I showed up at 830 at Dargah Shah Khamosh, near Nampally, which is as beautiful a dargah as you can hope to see. A decent crowd had gathered and I parked, reparked, reparked according to the wishes of various dargah people who kept showing up until Safwan found me a good place, a little distance away from the hassles of the dargah keepers.
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| Gyan Bagh Palace |
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| Another view |
Finally, we were off after a quick intro by Sibgat to Shah Khamosh Dargah and the Sufi traditions of Hyderabad. We moved to the graves of two Hyderabadi poets Makhdoom Moinuddin (Phir Chhidi Raat...) and Amjad Hyderabadi both lying within 100 metres of the dargah. Makhdoom was the founder of the Progressive Writers Union of Hyderabad, an active member of the Communist Party in Hyderabad and active in the rebellion against the Nizam's regime while Amjad Hyderabadi had lost his family in the 1908 floods and survived by climbing the banyan tree in Osmania General Hospital and hanging on for life along with a 100 or more people. Sibgat used (normally uses) the most appropriate words while speaking about the two poets and their divergent philosophies that I wonder why he doesn't write more.
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| Hazrat Shah Khamosh Dargah - the green enclosure to the left is late poet Amjad Hyderabadi's |
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Late Poet Makhdoom Mohiuddin's Grave (near the dargah)
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| Naubat Khana where they beat kettle drums |
We passed the gate where they beat the nagara or naubat or kettle drums to announce the time of the day and other important occasions and spilled on to the main road and walked towards Darusalam and much to my delight, onward to Gyan Bagh, a 170 plus year old palace owned by the Dhanraj Girs, once known as the Rockefellers of India, the second richest family in the South (as per some basic research I did).
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| Driveway to Gyan Bagh Palace |
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| Extended parts of the palace |
In its time Gyan Bagh was one of the most expensive mansions around. Originally from Kandar in Afghanistan, the family appears to have moved to Ujjain, then Pune and during the Peshwa rule, to the Deccan under the last Qutb Shah ruler. The family has opulent palaces in Bombay, Pune and Hyderabad, owned mills and properties, hospitals and ginning factories in Sholapur and Bombay. I remember the Dhanraj Girs as models, actors, great looking people, Tarun Dhanraj Gir I remember who played Darcy's role in the Indian tele series version of 'Pride and Prejudice' - Trishna - and was the heartthrob of many young girls. He acted in other series such as 'Aarohan' and then produced and directed films like 'Bolo Hau' which is as Hyderabadi as it gets.
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| Another view |
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| The main entrance |
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| Royal insignia |
I asked Wahaj what Gyan Bagh palace was about and he told me it belonged to Rani Indira Devi Dhanraj Gir. In my cursory research I came across a couple of blogs and some info online about the palace - built over 30000 sft, with limestone and marble, 19 suites, built in three phases. It appears to be named after the first Raja Gyan Gir Bahadur, then passed on to Raja Narsingh Girji Bahadur and then to Raja Dhanraj Gir Bahadur (1893-1988). Indira Devi (1930-2026), first of four siblings, was born to Raja Dhanraj Gir and Rani Premila Devi. Interestingly for me, Raja Dharaj Gir apparently introduced many western ideas and hold your breath, also introduced the game of cricket to Hyderabad. He was in the court of the seventh Nizam Mir Osman Ali.
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| Entrance to an ancient tomb |
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| Akhirat Manzil - Final Destination |
Rani Indira Devi was a poet, painter, socialite and philanthropist and here's one piece of information that knocked me down - she was nominated for the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature for her poetry. She married Srikishan Seth, nephew of Kishen Pershad, erstwhile noble and twice Prime Minister under the Nizams (after whom there was once a A division cricket tournament played in Hyderabad). She left him very early on in the marriage and later divorced him in 1970. Wikipedia says she married again in 1971 - poet Seshendra Sharma. Rani Indira also entertained local poets such as Aziz Qaisi, Makdoom Mohiuddin, Jwalamukhi and so on and Gyan Bagh appears to have been a place of much literary and cultural activity in those days.
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| Another gateway |
The address of the palace is Joshiwada Colony, Goshamahal. The gate looks quite ordinary and we walked into the drive way. There is a lot of growth on either side, and a rather amicable security guard busy chopping onions accosted us. Newly constructed walls indicated that some parts have been sectioned off. To the left one could see a bunch of old unused vehicles in a garage. We were joined by Smt Anuradha Reddy who spoke about the family and their history in her inimitable manner while the security guard called someone who came and finally allowed us in. As we walked closer to the palace we could see that it was being renovated and painted etc. The facade looked imposing and I could see there was more to the palace at the back. Apparently the Telugu film 'Muthyala Muggu' was shot here.
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| Another one |
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| Exiting Shah Khamosh Dargah |
I took a couple of pictures of the palace and headed out as I had a meeting. But it was very interesting to see this palace, this piece of history right in the middle of Hyderabad, in parts I never set foot on in the last fifty years. Glad I could, thanks to Deccan Archives. which is contributing considerably to expand my knowledge and history of my dear city.
On my way back I took pictures of the many interesting gateways to Sufi tombs and dargahs, of Makdoom Mohiuddin's tomb and Amjad Hyderabadi's tomb and headed off. One called 'Akhirat Manzil' which Wahaj said literally means 'The Final Destination'. Nothing subtle about that.
It's amazing so much history lies here in this narrow, neglected part of the city. Hopefully will explore these streets some more soon.
