Hyderabad, Golconda
This is the first dedicated guide to bring together the extraordinary architectural heritage of Golconda and Hyderabad, the twin capitals that served successive dynasties: the Qutb Shahi sultans and the Asaf Jahi rulers, more commonly known by their title, the Nizams. Golconda's hulking fortifications, ceremonial gateways, and slowly crumbling palaces, pavilions, and barracks paint a vivid picture of one of India's most powerful and prosperous royal cities during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It's a world apart, and quite arresting. These structures are then set alongside the courtly and civic buildings of Hyderabad itself, many of them commissioned by the Nizams, who governed this region well into the twentieth century. Sardar provides solid historical grounding for each site, weaving in religious and cultural context to give readers a richer sense of what they're actually looking at. Her tour of Hyderabad begins in the Old City before moving outward through the various districts of the modern metropolis, finishing with the churches and clubs that survive in the former British cantonment of Secunderabad to the north. For those with the time and curiosity to venture further, she also covers the rugged hilltop citadel of Golconda, now partly swallowed by the fast-growing suburbs of one of India's most energetic cities. Generously illustrated with Surendra Kumar's accomplished photography and supported by practical city maps, this guide is a reliable companion for any visitor to Hyderabad.
- Author: Marika Sardar
- Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
- Genre: Architecture
- ISBN: 978-8184956948
- Pages: 108 pages