The Week India - July 29, 2018

JULY 29, 2018 • THE WEEK 85

HISTORY Qutb Shahi tombs in Telangana

Buried truth

Restoration of the Qutb Shahi tombs leads to surprising discoveries

BY RAHUL DEVULAPALLI

TOURIST GUIDES AT the Qutb Shahi tombs—

among the oldest heritage sites in Hyderabad—

have a sheepish look these days. Until two years

ago, they were reeling out the myth that Sultan

Quli Qutb Shah, the founder of the Qutb Shahi

dynasty, was a saint whose tomb, devoid of any

ornamentation, was evidence of his simplicity. Re-

cent eff orts to restore the tombs present a diff erent

story— ornamental stucco was found beneath lay-

ers of cement plaster on the exterior walls of Quli

Qutb Shah's tomb. Th e decoration on the minarets

and details on the merlons below the dome were

also restored.

Th e tombs of the seven rulers of the dynasty are

on a 100-acre site, along with around 40 tombs of

courtesans and other members of the royal family.

Ever since the Aga Khan Trust for Culture initiated

conservation and restoration work of the tombs in

collaboration with the state government’s Herit-

age Telangana, new fi nds have upended age-old

notions about the rulers of the Qutb Shahi dynasty.

In 2013, the trust had signed a memorandum of

understanding (MoU) to take up the work in a

three-phased manner inside the Qutb Shahi Her-

itage Park, which has 80 monuments, including 23

mosques, seven step wells, a hamam or Turkish

bath, tanks, gardens and enclosure walls. After

Quli Qutb Shah, tombs of the six successive rulers

of the dynasty were constructed over a period of

169 years. Th e fl oral designs and other decoration

on the tombs have been infl uenced by Persian,

Pathan and Hindu architecture.

Another discovery of the restoration team was

of an enclosure wall around the garden of Quli

Qutb Shah’s tomb, constructed 56 metres from the

tomb. Since one side of the 16th century wall was

partly in ruins and partly buried, the craftsmen

constructed the wall as per the original design.

Some work was also done on the mausoleums of

the fourth and fi fth rulers, Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah

RESTING PLACE

The tomb of Ibrahim Quli Qutb

Shah, the fourth ruler of the ynasty

Place State/UT

Hampi Karnataka

Mahabalipuram Tamil Nadu

Udaipur Rajasthan

Ahmedabad Gujarat

Lucknow Uttar Pradesh

Ross Island Andaman and

Nicobar

Bundelkhand

and Bagelkhand

Madhya Pradesh

Murshidabad West Bengal

Bishnupur and

Ambika Kalna

West Bengal

Mughal

monuments and

tombs

Delhi

HISTORY

LOCATIONS

SAGAR THAMMINEDI