“The necropolis of the Qutb Shahi Sultans at Golconda, Hyderabad, is a unique collection of 100+ monuments across a 106-acre landscape. Since 2013, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture has partnered with a host of agencies to conserve the monuments and restore their gardens.” – Ratish Nanda for Sarmaya Talks. Ratish Nanda is a conservation… Read more »
The Deccan’s diversity of art, culture and language is the result of centuries of shifting politics. Let’s get to know the prominent early and late-mediaeval kingdoms of this vast region through Sarmaya’s rare photographs, coins, books, engravings and maps
This is a photograph of the interiors of the Golconda Fort complex in Hyderabad by an unidentified photographer. During the Qutub Shahi Dynasty (16th-17th centuries), the Golconda Fort became a prominent power house. Ibrahim Qutub Shah (1518-1580) significantly strengthened the fort with stone and mortar during his reign, and it was subsequently fortified throughout succeeding… Read more »
What the chain of diamonds trickling from the marketplaces of Golconda tells us about the dynasties that branded and traded, and won and lost them
If you’ve never been to Hyderabad, you might associate certain stereotypical things with it, like the jaw-dropping Nizam’s jewels that leave the vaults of the RBI to make their appearances at crowded exhibitions now and again. Or what many consider the definitive dum biryani—and they’re willing to fight you over this. Or the behemoth that… Read more »
Journalist and Hyderabadi Yunus Lasania traces the indelible ink of the Qutb Shahi dynasty’s Persian influence on the city’s living, breathing culture