How a cat’s face points to a 16th-century ‘plague’ in Golconda and tells Hyderabad’s origin story

“The ‘plague’ of the 16th-century fortified city of Golconda is quite an understudied area with very little detail available,” says Farooqui. “While there are figurines like pigeons, peacocks, parrots, squirrels, and griffins here and there, the cat face is present only in one place and that becomes intriguing. That is why it is linked to the plague and why Charminar was built to commemorate the end of the plague. It is a legend,” says Prof Farooqui.

One theory suggests that the cat’s face (left) was carved in honour of the felines that kept the population of rats down and commemorates the end of a plague that ravaged Golconda in the 16th century. On the right is a pictorial representation of the cat’s face from author Khwaja Owais Qarni’s ‘Sketches of Hyderabad’. (Express Photo by Rahul Pisharody)

Golconda: Devastated by an epidemic

“While there are figurines like pigeons, peacocks, parrots, squirrels, and griffins here and there, the cat face is present only in one place and that becomes intriguing. That is why it is linked to the plague and why Charminar was built to commemorate the end of the plague. It is a legend,” says Prof Farooqui. According to her, the overcrowded city of Golconda was devastated by an epidemic in the 16th century and whether it was cholera or plague that led to the deaths is still debatable.

The iconic monument Charminar was built by the fifth ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah, who moved the capital of his kingdom out of Golconda Fort by building a new city to the south of the river Musi. Charminar is believed to have been built as the epicentre of the new city.

Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah. (Express Photo by Rahul Pisharody)

A public square here, called Jilukhanah or present-day Char Kaman, with four independent archways and a water fountain Char-su-ka-hauz or today’s Gulzar Hauz in the middle, led to four highways. This square was built as a replica of Maidan-i-Naqsh Jahan of the central Iranian city of Isfahan. According to historians, the city itself was designed by Minister Mir Momin Astarabadi – a minister of the Golconda Sultanate – as Safahan-i-Nawi, literally meaning new Isfahan.

Charminar, not just a foundation monument

A former director of archaeology and official in the Nizam government, Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami, quotes the 16th-century manuscript ‘Tazuke Qutb Shahi’ to talk about the construction of Charminar in his 1927 book ‘Landmarks of the Deccan’. Notably, Bilgrami refers to cholera instead of plague when talking about the creation of Hyderabad city. “Owing to the outbreak of Cholera, the inhabitants fixed a huge Tazia in the heart of the city on Thursday, 1st Moharrum 999AH, so that it may serve as a charm to safeguard them from the epidemic, and when it subsided, the huge building of Charminar was constructed of stone and mortar at the same place,” he quotes from ‘Tazuke Qutb Shahi’.

Bilgrami refers to the Charminar as a prototype of a Tazia or Taboot, which is the representation of the tomb of Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed. However, it was not just a foundation monument. He says the first storey was used as a madrasa with chambers for students while the second storey was a mosque.

More interestingly, a water reservoir here used to get water from as far as the Jalpalli tank, over 8 km away, and water was distributed to the inhabitants of the city and the royal palace from here. Quoting French traveller Thevenot, who visited the city 66 years after its foundation, M A Qaiyum, in his book ‘Charminar in Replica of Paradise’, says, “all the galleries of the building (Charminar) seem to make the water mount up to that it be conveyed to the King’s Palace and reach its highest apartments.”

Bilgrami refers to the Charminar as a prototype of a Tazia or Taboot, which is the representation of the tomb of Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed. (Express Photo by Rahul Pisharody)

Noted historian Dr M A Nayeem, in his book ‘The heritage of the Qutb Shahis of Golconda and Hyderabad’, elaborates on the foundation of Hyderabad while hinting at the aforementioned 16th-century epidemic. Nayeem, who authored over 25 books on the Deccan, quotes the Persian manuscript Tawarik-i-Qutb Shahi to say, “Insanitary conditions in Golconda resulted in epidemics, like plague and cholera”.

Nayeem quotes Abdul Qadeer Khan Bidri in another manuscript ‘Ahwal-i-Tarikh-i-Farkunda’, “decimated by pestilence, the nobility of Golconda submitted a petition to the Sultan for building a new city. The Sultan graciously acceded to the request. And the Puranapul (bridge) built earlier in 1578 by his father, Ibrahim, showed the way to the side where the extension of the capital would take place.”

He says the reign of Muhammad Quli was marked by the blossoming of the kingdom in the fields of art, architecture and literature and Charminar as the centre of the city with the Char Kaman was planned as an architectural replica of paradise.

The legend of Bhagmati and Bhagyanagar

The story of the origin of Hyderabad is, however, incomplete without the controversial reference to Bhagmathi, Baghnagar or Bhagyanagar. One of the historical accounts is that of Bilgrami in his book ‘Landmarks of the Deccan’ in which he says, “Sultan Muhammad Quli’s sweetheart Bhagmati, resided in the Chichlam village which is now called Shah Ali Banda and the City of Bhagnagar was styled after her name, but after her demise, it was denominated Hyderabad and seven years after the completion (1597) of the city, Farkhunda Bunyad (meaning foundation of fortune or luck) became its chronogrammatic epithet.”

This argument in connection with Bhagmati has been contested by a large number of historians. Renowned historian Prof Haroon Khan Sherwani wrote in his book that “there is no evidence in contemporary and near-contemporary sources” linking Bhagmati to the name of the city. According to historians, Sultan Muhammad Quli himself named the new city ‘Haiderabad’ (city of Haider) after the title of the fourth Caliph of Islam Hazrath Ali and refers to the city in one of his poems as “Shahre Hyderabad”. Nayeem says the city was referred to as Bagh-nagar (city of gardens) by some Mughal historians and European travellers like Francois Bernier, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier and Jean de Thevenot.

The story of the origin of Hyderabad is, however, incomplete without the controversial reference to Bhagmathi, Baghnagar or Bhagyanagar. (Express Photo by Rahul Pisharody)

Nayeem argues that there is no mention of Bhagmati or Bhagyanagar in the historic record ‘Tarikh-i-Muhammad Qutb Shahi’ which was completed during the reign of the ruler. The legend is also not attested from epigraphic or numismatic evidence as all coins of the era mention either Darus-Saltanat-Golconda or Darus-Saltanat-Hyderabad. There are no monuments, inscriptions or even a tomb of Bhagmati. He says three local contemporary chronicles ‘Tarikh-i-Muhammad Qutb Shahi’, ‘Hadiqat-us-Salateen’ and ‘Hadaiq-us-Salateen’ have not mentioned Bhagmati or Bhagyanagar even once.