One of the inner arches on the north-eastern turret of Charminar – Hyderabad’s first-ever building built in 1591 – has an odd face sculpted in lime stucco that averts the general public eye and stimulates interest when one learns more about it. It is the face of a cat which differs from countless detailed styles on the monolith that continues to beauty visitors even 430 years later on. As it goes, in the lack of any definitive proof, among the theories recommends that the cat’s face was sculpted in honour of the felines that kept the population of rats down and honors completion of a pester that damaged the walled city of Golconda in the 16th century.
While there is barely any referral to the cat’s head in historic texts, author Khwaja Owais Qarni shows the cat’s head in his graphic publication Qarni’s ‘Sketches of Hyderabad’ and explains it as “a design on the pinnacle of an interior arch in Charminar. The cat’s head in it is said to be a symbol of the monument’s identity”. Prof Salma Ahmed Farooqui, Director, H K Sherwani Centre for Deccan Studies, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, says the overcrowded city of Golconda was ravaged by an epidemic in the 16th century and whether it was cholera or pester that resulted in the deaths is still arguable.
“The ‘plague’ of the 16th-century fortified city of Golconda is quite an understudied area with very little detail available,” says Farooqui. “While there are figurines like pigeons, peacocks, parrots, squirrels, and griffins here and there, the cat face is present only in one place and that becomes intriguing. That is why it is linked to the plague and why Charminar was built to commemorate the end of the plague. It is a legend,” says Prof Farooqui.
As it goes, in the lack of any definitive proof, among the theories recommends that the cat’s face was sculpted in honour of the felines that kept the population of rats down and honors completion of a pester that damaged the walled city of Golconda in the 16th century. (Express Photo by Rahul Pisharody)
Golconda: Devastated by an epidemic
“While there are figurines like pigeons, peacocks, parrots, squirrels, and griffins here and there, the cat face is present only in one place and that becomes intriguing. That is why it is linked to the plague and why Charminar was built to commemorate the end of the plague. It is a legend,” says Prof Farooqui. According to her, the overcrowded city of Golconda was ravaged by an epidemic in the 16th century and whether it was cholera or pester that resulted in the deaths is still arguable.
The renowned monolith Charminar was constructed by the 5th ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah, who moved the capital of his kingdom out of Golconda Fort by building a brand-new city to the south of the river Musi. Charminar is thought to have actually been constructed as the epicentre of the brand-new city.
A public square here, called Jilukhanah or contemporary Char Kaman, with 4 independent archways and a water fountain Char-su-ka-hauz or today’s Gulzar Hauz in the middle, resulted in 4 highways. This square was constructed as a reproduction of Maidan-i-Naqsh Jahan of the main Iranian city of Isfahan. According to historians, the city itself was created by Minister Mir Momin Astarabadi – a minister of the Golconda Sultanate – as Safahan-i-Nawi, actually indicating brand-new Isfahan.
Charminar, not simply a structure monolith
A previous director of archaeology and authorities in the Nizam federal government, Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami, prices estimate the 16th-century manuscript ‘Tazuke Qutb Shahi’ to discuss the building and construction of Charminar in his 1927 book ‘Landmarks of the Deccan’. Notably, Bilgrami describes cholera rather of pester when discussing the production of Hyderabad city. “Owing to the outbreak of Cholera, the inhabitants fixed a huge Tazia in the heart of the city on Thursday, 1st Moharrum 999AH, so that it may serve as a charm to safeguard them from the epidemic, and when it subsided, the huge building of Charminar was constructed of stone and mortar at the same place,” he prices estimate from ‘Tazuke Qutb Shahi’.
Bilgrami describes the Charminar as a model of a Tazia or Taboot, which is the representation of the burial place of Imam Hussain, the grand son of Prophet Mohammed. However, it was not simply a structure monolith. He says the very first floor was utilized as a madrasa with chambers for trainees while the 2nd floor was a mosque.
More surprisingly, a water tank here utilized to get water from as far as the Jalpalli tank, over 8 km away, and water was dispersed to the occupants of the city and the royal palace from here. Quoting French visitor Thevenot, who checked out the city 66 years after its structure, M A Qaiyum, in his book ‘Charminar in Replica of Paradise’, says, “all the galleries of the building (Charminar) seem to make the water mount up to that it be conveyed to the King’s Palace and reach its highest apartments.”
Noted historian Dr M A Nayeem, in his book ‘The heritage of the Qutb Shahis of Golconda and Hyderabad’, elaborates on the structure of Hyderabad while meaning the abovementioned 16th-century epidemic. Nayeem, who authored over 25 books on the Deccan, prices estimate the Persian manuscript Tawarik-i-Qutb Shahi to state, “Insanitary conditions in Golconda resulted in epidemics, like plague and cholera”.
Nayeem quotes Abdul Qadeer Khan Bidri in another manuscript ‘Ahwal-i-Tarikh-i-Farkunda’, “decimated by pestilence, the nobility of Golconda submitted a petition to the Sultan for building a new city. The Sultan graciously acceded to the request. And the Puranapul (bridge) built earlier in 1578 by his father, Ibrahim, showed the way to the side where the extension of the capital would take place.”
He says the reign of Muhammad Quli was marked by the blossoming of the kingdom in the fields of art, architecture and literature and Charminar as the centre of the city with the Char Kaman was prepared as an architectural reproduction of paradise.
The legend of Bhagmati and Bhagyanagar
The story of the origin of Hyderabad is, nevertheless, insufficient without the questionable referral to Bhagmathi, Baghnagar or Bhagyanagar. One of the historic accounts is that of Bilgrami in his book ‘Landmarks of the Deccan’ in which he says, “Sultan Muhammad Quli’s sweetheart Bhagmati, resided in the Chichlam village which is now called Shah Ali Banda and the City of Bhagnagar was styled after her name, but after her demise, it was denominated Hyderabad and seven years after the completion (1597) of the city, Farkhunda Bunyad (meaning foundation of fortune or luck) became its chronogrammatic epithet.”
This argument in connection with Bhagmati has actually been objected to by a a great deal of historians. Renowned historian Prof Haroon Khan Sherwani composed in his book that “there is no evidence in contemporary and near-contemporary sources” connecting Bhagmati to the name of the city. According to historians, Sultan Muhammad Quli himself called the brand-new city ‘Haiderabad’ (city of Haider) after the title of the 4th Caliph of Islam Hazrath Ali and describes the city in among his poems as “Shahre Hyderabad”. Nayeem says the city was described as Bagh-nagar (city of gardens) by some Mughal historians and European visitors like Francois Bernier, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier and Jean de Thevenot.
Nayeem argues that there is no reference of Bhagmati or Bhagyanagar in the historical record ‘Tarikh-i-Muhammad Qutb Shahi’ which was finished throughout the reign of the ruler. The legend is likewise not confirmed from epigraphic or numismatic proof as all coins of the age reference either Darus-Saltanat-Golconda or Darus-Saltanat-Hyderabad. There are no monoliths, engravings and even a burial place of Bhagmati. He says 3 regional modern narrates ‘Tarikh-i-Muhammad Qutb Shahi’, ‘Hadiqat-us-Salateen’ and ‘Hadaiq-us-Salateen’ have actually not pointed out Bhagmati or Bhagyanagar even when.
First released on: 30-04-2023 at 16:41 IST
