BIDAR, Undoubtedly, is one of the best weekend destination for any Hyderabadi out there. Well...just like any planned tour, which gets cancelled at the nick of time, my Bidar ride was no different. One evening, out of a blue moon, Hari called me up and the next day, were in Bidar, the City of Whispering Monuments.
It was late September, and had unexpectedly rained the previous night, further dwindling our hopes. After few confrontations, we started off, bit late even by our standards. After a brief half for our breakfast at Patencheru (Hyderbad outskirts), we hit the Hyderabad-Mumbai Highway. The roads were really good and we zoomed past Zahirabad and entered Karnataka.
Before entering Bidar, we crossed this dargah (Astana Hazrath Syed Khwaja Chisti) on the right side while we were moving ahead to Bidar. After a few hesitations of whether turning back or moving ahead, we finally took a U-turn and arrived at this quaint place. To our surprise there was not a single soul inside the place. Within few minutes, the caretaker came inside and warned us to stay away from the central dome. After some skeptical moments, we tried to explore the place.
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The central part of the Dargah is made up of marble.
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| I relished clicking pics at the place and the sky was perfectly supporting. |
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| The simplicity and the calmness of the place was on another level. |
The weather was perfect and we did get some great pics. By the time, we came out, few people have gathered outside and were asking for alms. We resumed our jouney towards Bidar which was hardly 10 mins away from us. Firstly, we visited the Mahmud Gawan Madrasa, since it was in the centre of the city. It was built by Mahmud Gawan, the then prime minister of Bahmani empire. It is a three storeyed building and had a library of around 3000 valuable manuscripts.
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The Mahmud Gawan Madrasa, built by the Bahami Prime Mister Mahmud Gawan and later destroyed by Auranzeb
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| Interior view of one of the halls, spanning the entire three storied building. |
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| The layered glazed tile layered tower, also called as the Kaanchina Khmaba (glass tower) |
Since we planned to cover all the places on the outskirts of the city, we moved towards Ashtoor. The Chaukhandi of Hazrat Khalil Ullah is a tomb built in honour of the renowned Hazrat Khalil Ullah, spiritual adviser of Sultan Ahmed Shah. situated on the outskirts of Bidar, the tomb was built in Turkish style with arches on all sides. There are inscriptions of Koranic verses along the doorway. The Chaukhandi has three graves in the main vault and several others in the corridor.
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| Chaukhandi: The tomb of Hazrath Khalil Ullah |
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The rear view of Chaukhandi
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| Grasses swaying to the winds at Chaukhandi |
Moving further ahead of Ashtoor, we reached the Bahami tombs. There are around 12 tombs of the Bahmani rulers. The inscriptions of the tomb reveal the name of the king, his date of accession, and date of death. Persian poetry and Quranic verses are also inscribed. The tomb of Humayun Shah, was struck by lightning and most of its dome and two walls collapsed. The shattered tomb looks strange and seems to be chopped off to present a cross section model of the tomb.There are few incomplete tombs too with their domes missing.
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| One of the twelve tombs of the Bahami emperors |
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| The Humanyun Shah tomb, partially destroyed due to lightening |
While returning back to the city, we came across the Chaubara. Coincidentally it is situated right in the centre of Bidar and acts acted as a the watch tower.
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The Chaubara clock tower with an approximate height of 71 feet.
After covering a majority of places, we finally headed to Bidar fort. The fort has a trilayered moat with around 7 entrance gates. Few of them are in a dilapidated state. The outer perimeter of the fort is around 2.5 kms and there are 37 bastions and around 30 different monuments inside the Bidar fort complex. Rangin Mahal, Jama Masjid, Sola Khamba (Sixteen Pillared) Masjid, Tarkash Mahal, Takth Mahal, Diwan-i-Am, Diwan-i-Khas are few of them. The fort was built was Ahmad Shah (Bahmani dynasty) and was later captured by Mahummad Bin Tughlaq. It was later captured by the Bijapur Sultanate and then the Mughals and then by the Nizams and finally it became a part of the Mysore state. There is also a museum inside the fort, which gives information about the fort and the Bidar kingdom
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| The ruins inside the fort. Many monuments remain scattered all over the fort. |
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| Rangin Mahal, Tarskash Mahal and Solah Khamba Masjid |
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| Diwan-i-Am or the Audience hall, now in ruins |
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| Can you spot the guy walking over the ruins.? |
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| The Royal tombs, remains hidden from the general public. The place is covered on all sides with walls. |
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The main entrance gate of the fort Sharza Darwaza,besides the other six entrances
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I could not resist myself clicking a selfie though my action cam
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It was around 4.30 pm by the time, we came out of the fort. After having some snacks and tea, we explored on the google maps to find out any other place that we have left. We found a Gurudwara, the Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Sarowar. Since it was quite near, we headed towards it. Since the Gurudwara is located on a small hillock, the serpentine roads looked amazing. After entering inside, we went to the Amrit Kund and washed our hands and feet and then moved into the Darbar Sahib Hall. After few minutes of "Peace of mind", we came out and spent some minutes in the garden. It is a mojor Sikh pilgrimage in Southern India besides the Huzur Sahib Gurudwara at Nanded, Maharastra.
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| The Darbar Sahib inside the Gurudwara. |
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| Khanda or the Double edged sword in the centre of the Chakra |
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| The entrance way of the Guru Nanak Jhira Sahib. |
After a hectic day, literally covering all the places, we were eagerly waiting for our visit to the Narasimha Jhira Cave temple on the next day. But to our dismay, the entry was closed for the public for some renovation work. So without much thinking, we decide to visit BASAVAKALYAN, the spiritual capital of Karnataka and then to NAL DURG. one of the biggest land forts of Maharastra.
Stay tuned for the upcoming blog on the BasavaKalyan and Naldurg. Do post your views about the blog in the comment section.
