Prince, Poet, Lover, Builder: Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the founder of Hyderabad

176 Pages·1991·15.6 MB·English

by  Luther, Narendra

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Hyderabad (Bhagnagar). An Artist's impression of the
original layout.
Conceived by S.R Shorey, based on historical accounts.
Drawings/colour artwork by Akshara Advertising, Hyderabad
after Shorey's axonometric drawing.
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Prince
Poet
Lover
Builder
Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah
The Founder of Hyderabad
Narendra Luther
Publications Division
Ministry of Information and Broadcastin
Government of India
First Edition ; 1991, (Pausa 1912)
Reprint; 2010, (Saka 1932)
© Publications Division
ISBN : 978-81-230-1635-1
BlO-ENG-REP-081 -2009-10
Price: Rs. 133.00
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Preface
I
ndian history is long and full of diverse pageants. Many
kings and emperors, conquerors and adventurers, tyrants
and despots, dictators and duces have strutted across its stage
and then passed into oblivion. Our history has largely been a
narration of their achievements and failures, a record of their
crusades and enterprises, a catalogue of their passions and
prejudices, a tale of their pride, cruelty, eccentricities and
ambition.
On a different plane, there have been poets and writers,
artists and sculptors, teachers and thinkers, saints and scholars,
educators and reformers—people who eschewed power as
such and pursued virtue and made a far more valuable
contribution to the social and cultural history of the land.
The paths of these two sets of people seldom crossed.
Yet, together they interwove a tapestry unique in its pattern
and colour scheme.
There was yet another band—a very small number—of
people who defied either category. Their versatile personalities
transcended the two boundaries.
Those names stand out. Asoka, Akbar, Nehru—to name
Just a few. Even when history of kings and wielders of political
power is cleansed of warmongering, conquest-making,
cruelty-inflicting tyrants, those names will remain. They
sought glory in fulfilling a larger destiny. They had visions of
a happier, lasting future for the vast masses. They struggled
to impart a meaning to the mystery of life as it is lived by the
common man.
There were some others also, like them elsewhere in the
country, not projected on the national screen but at the regional
level. Their names too endure.
One such man was Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah who
ruled over that part of the Deccan which broadly constitutes
the State of Andhra Pradesh today. He lived from 1565 to
1611 and ruled over the kingdom of Golconda for 31 years
out of a life span of 46.
After the passage of nearly 400 years, his name is still
enshrined in the hearts of the people today. They remember
him with affection. They pay homage to him every year by
celebrating his birthday. This book is an essay on him; it is an
inquiry into the reasons for the abiding popularity of this
versatile person. He did not have a mission. He lived life in
its fulness as is given only to a prince to do. He did not seek
to wage wars. He fought only those battles which were thrust
upon him. His conquests were of a different sort. He drank,
made merry and wrote poetry. He fell in love with a commoner
with an intensity and sincerity rare among princes. He founded
the capital city of Hyderabad and built its architectural
centrepiece, the Char Minar. He was a many-faceted
personality, a prince, a lover, a poet, a builder. It was the sum
of all these which made the man whose legend lives.
It is the story of this man that we are going to tell in the
pages that follow. Why has his name survived so long? And
is he relevant today? An earnest attempt has been made to
answer such queries.
A word of caution. This is not a history of a king for
scholars. It is a story by a layman for the millions. With the
passage of four centuries, many facts have got blurred, over-