Term 1 at ISB is finished and the (far) out of towners are stuck on campus with either the conference to volunteer for or LDP on the weekend.
Manish, Raj and I headed off to Golconda Fort after several rounds of discussions between ourselves and MANY others regarding schedules and inclinations. We wanted to see the sunset over Hyderabad from the ramparts of the Golconda Fort.
A brisk auto ride brought us to the outer walls of the fortified city and immediately a feeling of
history came upon us. This was the very marketplace, village and warground that the Kakatiyas, Tughlaks and Mughals passed through.
The fact that the Kohinoor and Hope Diamonds had emerged from this very soil was in the back of my mind.
Along the entrance we hired on a guide boy who would have beaten the best of ISB’s CP/ACP’ers. He started us off at the 15 foot entrance dome where a single clap reverberates 5-6 times. The inner dome has a series of cleaves designed to echo and project the sound of a clap to the top of the 120 meter high fort. A watchman at the top of the fort would be able to signal for the gateman below to close the gates and vice versa.
7 Tombs:
On the way to the Fort, we had seen several “Gumbaz” which reminded me of the Lodhi area of Delhi. The guide told us that those were the resting spots for 6 Qutub Shahis. A royal dead body was not allowed to pass through the gates of Golconda so they built underground tunnels to each gumbaz and those routes are now closed for safety.
The seventh Gumbaz does not have a dome. Each Shahi, by custom started construction of his resting spot during his reign and when he did eventually die, the final dome was put into place. The last Qutub Shahi was apparently deposed from Golconda before his death and the seventh tomb remains incomplete.
While huffing and puffing through the 350 or so steps to the top of the fort, we caught some good glimpses of Hyderabad and the following Fort landmarks.
Durbar: In the durbar of the common people, the king used to have a vantage point which was in a blind spot of the public below. He could see everyone and pass judgement but it was apparently very hard to see the king.
The domed ceiling of the durbar hall is designed to echo and magnify the sound of a knife being unsheathed so as to give advance warning to the king’s guards. The guide started flapping his shirt fabric and the reverberations in the dome were like that of a drum.
Whispering walls:
There is a corridor in the fort where secret messages can be passed. In every chamber, there are 4 corners, and a message whispered in one corner can be heard as clear as a bell in the diagonal corner 20 feet away.
Sound and light show
The show starts off with the booming voice of Amitabh Bacchan welcoming us to the fort and a ghazal by Jagjit Singh. Invariably there is always a small kid in every show to spoil the best parts. Somehow we managed to get him to shut his trap and enjoyed most of the show. It ran through the whole history of the fort and ended off with another lovely ghazal by Jagjit…yeh kila usi shaan ki nishani hai….
