Hyderabad, Shehar Ye Pyar Ka

The city of royalty, pearls, lakes and rocks is known as the city of love too

By Dr Mamidi Harikrishna

Hyderabad, the Diamond city of Deccan is touted as the city of Nawabs, city of pearls, city of lakes, city of rocks etc. It’s the city of love too. One of the greatest legendary tales is the story of Qutub Shah and Bhagamathi. The love story had all the elements of a ‘rich boy poor girl’ and inter-racial, inter-religious notions.

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It is believed that the city of Hyderabad earlier known as Bhagyanagar had been named after Bhagamathi, who was a love interest of Prince Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah.

Another interesting legendary tale is that the Prince swam across a roaring Moosi river in thundering rain and floods just to see his love Bhagamathi. After knowing the love of the prince for Bhagamathi, the king of Golconda had constructed ‘Puranpool’ across the Moosi to make travelling to the other bank.

In addition to this, the city of Hyderabad has many stories to boast of. The other interesting story is of Khairunnisa and Kirkpatrick. James Achilles Kirkpatrick (1764-1805) was a Lieutenant Colonel and diplomat of East India Company who served as the Resident at Hyderabad Deccan from 1798 to 1805. He ordered the construction of the Koti Residency, which is presently the Koti Women’s College.

He fell in love with a noble woman Khair-un-Nisa, the granddaughter of Nawab Mahamood Ali Khan, the then Prime Minister of Hyderabad and got married in 1800, in a Muslim tradition. Historian William Dalrymple had recorded the saga in his book ‘White Mughals’.

Another story is of Taramati and Abdullah Qutub Shah, the then Sultan of Golconda kingdom. He used to hear Taramati’s voice and see the dance as he had great administration for her.

Tryst with cinema

Cinema has also seen a golden era in the early times in Hyderabad. In the 1920s itself, Hyderabad had become one of the prominent centres for making ‘mookie films’. Thanks to the initiative of Dhirendranath Ganguly, an employee in Nizam College, who originally hailed from Bengal. He established ‘Lotus Film Company’ and made eight films between 1922-1936.
• The 7th Nizam, along with his family had watched a movie, ‘Jawani Ki Hawa’ for the first time on 15-10-1935, as a sign to encourage the cinema industry.
• The first ever Cinema Hall Regulation Act in India was made by the Nizam Government in 1937, where a fire accident happened in a theatre ‘Moti Mahal’ on June 14, 1936.
• The first ever idea of honouring film personalities was initiated by the Hyderabad Nizams in India, and was implemented in 1935. The Government of India started national Awards for films in 1954 and the ‘Nandi Awards’ in 1964 by the Andhra Pradesh government.

Other lesser-known facts on Telangana

• Telangana region carved its own niche in Telugu literature. Mahakavi Jampana, who hailed from Vemulawada area, lived in the 9th Century and wrote poetry in Telugu language, 100 years prior to Nannaya.

The new genres like Shataka (Vrishadhipa Shataka), Udaharana (Basavodharana) and others were first introduced to Telugu literature by Palkuriki Somana (13th Century), a poet par excellence who gave literary honour to the people’s language as ‘Jaanu Tenugu or Achha Tenugu’ (Chaste Telugu).

• It is revealed from the studies by linguists that Telugu language was developed from Dravidian language family. But it has its origins from the Gondi language of Gond tribes.

It is clear that Telangana is a treasure trove of culture, heritage, art, literature, science and technology and many more. It is still unexplored and has many stories to tell to the world. In other words, Telangana is an ‘Akshaya Patra’ (Imperishable bowl filled with food), which can give scope for everyone to explore an unfold story to tell to everyone.