I was waiting for a chance to go the heritage walk for a long time .it finally came yesterday. I called up two of my friends and requested them to join me. To my delight they agreed.
I reached Charminar at around 7am and Mudassir and Layak, my friends were already waiting there. We went towards the Heritage Walk stall setup at the base of the Charminar. The security guard pleasantly inquired if we were there for the Heritage Walk. We replied that we were and soon tickets in hand we made our way inside. We waited there for a while till the arrival of our guide at around 7 40. Till then many other tourists gathered and surprisingly there were more foreigners than Indians. Our guide was a polite and good natured lady. After a brief and colourful introduction by her, the walk started.
The first stop was immediately outside the Charminar. The jama masjid was built my Mohd Quli Qutb Shah before the construction of the Mecca Masjid began. Jama Masjid was the first big masjid to be constructed outside the Golconda.We looked only from the outside as the locals refused permission to let us inside. After the explanation by the guide,we walked towards the charkaman. ‘kaman’ means gateway and ‘char’ means four. This gateway frames the charminar beautifully when viewed from some distance.The four ways leading outward from the Charminar all have one kaman each.The surroundings have many such kamans apart from the four mentioned above. As we moved on, we came across a crossroad ,the center of which had a fountain named Gulzar Houz.
To the left is the Sehr-e-Batil kaman and to the right is the Kali kaman.From the Gulzar Houz we procedded towards the Patherghatti Market.All of us looked with interest but to the sellers’s dismay nobody bought anything.
The moment the patherghatti market ends,the dewan devdi complex starts at the right side of the road.’Dewan’ means ‘prime minister’ and ‘devdi’ means house.This structure belongs to the Nizam era and not the Qutb Shahi era. Much of it does not exist today,only some small portions can be seen. Further walking brought us to the Dewan Devdi Darwaza ,which thankfully is in fine condition.This was the home to many of the prime ministers of the many nizams.
Also the Salarjung Museam was based here before it shifted to the present location.
The last stop was the Badshahi Ashurkhana,the place of mourning built by Mohd Quli Qutb Shah.This was undoubtly the most beautiful structure in the whole walk.The Ashurkhana lies opposite to another heritage building,the Alladin building.The main Aashurkhana complex is square shaped with four buildings at each side.As we enter, to the right side there is the Nagar khana and to the left the Ashurkhana.The other side has a kitchen and some rooms.The Ashurkhana itself was not as big as i expected. After acquiring the keys from the caretaker and removing our footwear,we went inside.The main wall was breathtaking to say the least.It had enamelled tiles which glistened in the morning sun’s rays.We spent a long time looking at the tiles.Sensing our interest right from the start,the guide gave us some more interesting nuggets of information.One such was that in the 1908 floods of musi(yes!! the musi did flood some times in the past)half of the Ashurkhana was submerged damaging the tiles below the waterline.These were later repainted by the nizam but the glory of the qutb shahi tiles could not be regained.After some time, breakfast packs were distributed and then some sizzling irani chai was served.After this, the walk eneded and one by one the tourists left. Soon we found ourselves alone with the guide,with whom we talked for sometime. She soon left as she had another tour to go to. We clicked some more pics and then left.
It was 10am and the breakfast didn’t appease mudassir’s appetite,so we went to the famous hotel shadab and had some local hyderabadi fares .Layak still didn’t want to go so i suggested why not take a look at some more heritage buildings nearby while we were there.He agreed and we then had a look at the Govt City College and the Puranapul. After that we decide to call it a day and went home.
Thank you for your visit and comment on my blog! You have a wonderful blog here, with lovely pictures. The route you describe in this post is one of my favourites – no matter how many times I go, I never get tired of it:)
thank u !! though u say i have lovely pics,they fade in comparison to your's.
ya,that's one one route where even the smallest thing has a history behind it.
great work razzaq. gives a feel as if I am walking about. Keep it up.
@Thinking aloud- Thanks a lot.i appreciate your effort in writing the feedback.
It feels good when somebody writes in to praise the work,which most people dont.
my brother i hav seen ur blog very intresting with pic uploaded on ur blog,u hav visited many heritage site lyk chowmohalla,charkaman,gulzaar house n jama masjid ,but the time u hav cosen is wrong to visit jama masjid shujaiya, becoz masjid is for prayer it will open only at prayer times as u dont know the history of jama masjid ,this mosque build before the constrution of charminar it approx 435 years old after the construction of mecca masjid local people used to visit mecca masjid for prayers abonded the jama masjid after some years a great saint from burhaanpur hzt syed mir shujauddin hussain qibla came to hyderabad and stayed at jama masjid some 200 years back from then this mosque come to life again people used to come n pray hazrath syedna mir sgujaddin qibla founded first hifz madarsa of hyderabad ,
archelogical n heritage people giving wrong information to the people as we live here our ancestor lived here we know the history…,if u need more information mail me at [email protected]
Thanks for taking pains to write such a long comment.I really appreciate that.
And I don't think I gave Wrong Information anywhere here.There was only less information on Jama Masjid. Thanks for enlightening me about its history.
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