India Diaries: Hyderabad

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Every December, the Somebol clan makes its annual trip to India to visit both sets of parents. It also gives our kids the best kind of holiday perk: time with their cousins.

Our parents live in Hyderabad, a city in south-central India on the Deccan Plateau. Hyderabad has many things going for it: history, architecture, pearls, politics, and an impressive ability to turn a 20 minute drive into a reflective life journey.

I’m especially drawn to history and archaeology, so during our visits I try to get beyond the usual checklist. I look for lesser-known sites, small museums, forgotten ruins, and day trips that don’t show up in most guidebooks. The intent of this report is to document the off the beaten track historic places I’ve visited, along with a bit of background to put them in context.

But first, a brief history of Hyderabad.

Archaeological finds in and around Hyderabad include Iron Age sites dating back to roughly 500 BCE. The city’s most relevant recorded history, however, begins with the rise of Golconda Fort, established in the 12th century by the Kakatiya rulers as a defensive outpost.

Golconda grew in prominence under the Qutb Shahi dynasty (15th–17th centuries). In 1591, the Qutb Shahis founded the city of Hyderabad, east of Golconda, which would eventually become the region’s political and cultural center.

After the Qutb Shahis, the region came under Mughal control, and later the Asif Jahi dynasty (the Nizams of Hyderabad) rose to power in the 18th century. Hyderabad remained one of the most significant princely states under British paramountcy until it was integrated into the Indian Union in 1948.

Some Interesting Facts About Hyderabad

• In the 1930s, the Nizam of Hyderabad was considered the richest person in the world, and among the wealthiest individuals in recorded history.
• His collection of jewels included the Jacob Diamond (around 180 carats), which he reportedly used as a paperweight.
• The princely state of Hyderabad was the largest in British India and one of the few granted a 21-gun salute.
• The Hyderabad Nizams had close ties with the Ottoman Empire. After World War I, there was even a plan floated to shift the caliphate to Hyderabad. Two of the Ottoman Sultan’s daughters married the Nizam’s sons, but the idea never materialized, especially as India moved toward independence in 1947.
• Mines near Hyderabad were among the world’s earliest major sources of diamonds, before later discoveries in places like Brazil and South Africa reshaped global supply. In fact the Kohinoor diamond was mined here.
• And the best part of Hyderabad is the food. This is not a fact so much as a universal law that becomes clearer with every meal.

 

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Chowmahalla Palace

Chowmahalla was the ceremonial and administrative heart of the Nizams of Hyderabad, built up over time as the seat of the Asaf Jahi dynasty. Construction of the complex “as it stands today” is generally dated to 1769, begun under Nizam Ali Khan, Asaf Jah II. The name itself is a literal clue: chow/char meaning “four” and mahal meaning “palace”, referring to the idea of four palaces within the complex.

While Chowmahalla remained the dynasty’s formal seat, the 7th Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, is closely associated with King Kothi Palace as his primary residence. Even after his accession in 1911, he continued living at King Kothi rather than shifting to Chowmahalla.

After the end of princely rule and especially following the abolition of privy purses in 1971, the family’s estates entered a long period of uncertainty. Mukarram Jah (Asaf Jah VIII) later relocated to Western Australia and then Turkey, and during his absence several Hyderabad properties were encroached upon and fell into disrepair. Over time, this neglect also meant that many objects and collections dispersed, and parts of the palace grounds were compromised.

Princess Esra, the ex wife of Mukarram Jah, started the renovation and restoration works on the places in 2000, the palace was opened to the public in 2005. In parallel, Falaknuma Palace was leased to the Taj Group, undergoing a long restoration that started around 2000 and culminated in the Taj Falaknuma Palace’s reopening as a luxury hotel in 2010.

Today you enter the palace through a small gate that gives no hint of what’s inside. It’s the architectural equivalent of a modest paperback cover hiding a very expensive hardback. The approach also makes it hard not to notice what’s missing: the palace grounds that once framed Chowmahalla have largely been eaten away over time, replaced by tightly packed little shops that press right up to the perimeter, as if the city is gently but persistently reclaiming the space.

Walking through the palace, I felt a tinge of sadness. Even though the buildings have been restored, the atmosphere still carries an unmistakable sense of a glorious past. You can see the grandeur and, more importantly, you can feel where it used to be heavier. The restoration brings back the shell, but not the world that once animated it, and there’s something quietly sobering about knowing that what was lost isn’t coming back.