Monumental glory

Known for its metal craft, Bidar is also home to unique monuments and is an important pilgrim centre for Sikhs, says K.J.S.Chatrath

SOMETIME back, one of my old colleagues posted in Bidar district in Karnataka inviting me to visit him. I checked up the logistics of travel and quite soon I was in Bidar — a place steeped in history and full of wondrous monuments.

The present-day Bidar lies at a central position in Deccan, a plateau 2300 ft above sea level. It shares its border with Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and its state capital Bangalore is almost 700 km from Bidar.

It is said that this area at one time had dense bamboo clusters and used to be called Bidarooru — which came from bidaroo, meaning bamboo, and uru, meaning town. With the passage of time, the place acquired its present name. A board put up by the Archeological Survey of India in Bidar helpfully explains the history of the town. It speaks of the legendary association of Bidar with the ancient Vidharbha. It was initially under the Kalyani Chaulakyas (977-1190) followed by a few other dynasties and finally went into the hands of the Bahamanis, whose ninth ruler shifted his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar and built the present fort. Gulbarga was their capital. Finally, it was annexed to the Mughal empire by Aurangzeb.

The mammoth fort is said to date back to the 8^th century though major renovation and expansion was done in 1426 by Sultan Ahmad Bahamani. The fort, located on the edge of a plateau, was constructed with large stones and mortar. It is irregularly shaped and surrounded by 5.5 km of walls with triple layers of trenches cut out of solid rock, 37 bastions and seven gates. Inside the fort, lie the remains of a variety of buildings and structures: royal baths, pleasure pavilions and royal palaces such as Rangin Mahal, Takht Mahal, Diwan-i-Aam, Gagan Mahal, Zanana Mahal and the Solah Khambah Mosque. There are gardens, fountains, tanks and waterways, too, giving it a luxurious look.

These palaces were tastefully decorated with coloured tiles and mural paintings. The style of architecture, borrowed from Persia, was modified and adapted to suit the taste and needs of the Indian court.

One of the towering structures of Bidar is the building of Madrasa Mahmud Gawan, a merchant who arrived in Bidar kingdom when it was ruled by the Bahamani kings in 1453. He was knowledgeable in Islamic theology, Persian language and mathematics. A poet and a good prose writer, he became a minister in the court of Muhammad Shah-III (1463-1482).

The imposing three-storeyed madrasa building had 100-foot-high minarets in four corners. It consisted of a large rectangular courtyard, with access to halls and rooms on the sides. Mahmud Gawan was familiar with renowned colleges at Samarkhand and Khorasan and his own college or madrasa was modelled on the West Asian architecture.

The decorations consist of floral designs and decorative inscriptions. This spacious building accommodated a mosque, lecture halls, living quarters and the famous library of Mahmud Gawan.

It fell into bad days after Gawan was beheaded on charges of treason. After the capture of Bidar by Aurangzeb in the late 17^th century, the building was used for storing powder magazine. Unfortunately, lightning struck the powder magazine and there was a huge explosion, impacting the greater part of the building. Most of the rooms and three minarets were destroyed leaving only one minaret and a few cubicles.

In a separate walled garden called the Lalbagh, stands the Solah Khambah Masjid with 16 pillars. Its facade consists of a long row of arched openings and is said to be one of the largest mosques in India. It was originally built in the early 14th century during the Tughlak occupation of Bidar but was extended later. It served as the principal place of worship within the fort.

The Rangeen Mahal or the coloured palace was built by Ali Barid Bider (1542-1580), who succeeded Qusim Barid — founder of the Barid Shahi Dynasty. It is famous for its beautiful woodcarvings and glazed tile decorations. The ceiling of the hall is supported by exquisitely carved wooden columns which have both Muslim and Hindu designs.

In the middle of the town stands the Chaubara, a huge 71-foot tower. It was constructed as an observation post to give unhindered visibility of the entire town from the top. A winding staircase with 80 steps leads to the top of the tower.

Bidar is a Sikh pilgrim centre, too. Legend has it that Guru Nanak visited Bidar when the area was facing a drought. When the local people sought his help, he made water flow from a rock. Now the Nanak Jhira Gurdwara stands at the site. The water that still flows from this place is said to cure ailments.

The town is famous for Bidriware. It is said that this craft was introduced in Bidar by a group of skilled workers brought from Iran by Sultan Ahmed Shah Wali Bahamani in the early 5th century. It became a part of the training imparted in Madrasa Mahmud Gawan.

An alloy of zinc and copper is used as the base metal for making various articles like flower pots, small boxes and trays. Then the artisans sketch intricate floral and geometric designs on the black surface using a sharp metal sketcher. Fine wire or flattened strips of silver are then hammered into these grooves. The uniqueness of the articles made in Bidar is ascribed to the soil used for polishing the finished product. This soil is collected from areas in the fort. As the story goes, the areas which were used as gunpowder stores in the past are the spots from where the soil is collected.

The importance of Bidar in the past can be gauged by the fact that a Russian traveller came all the way from his country to Bidar and spent over three years there. Fortunately, his brief account of the visit has survived over six centuries. It was in 1471 that Afanasy Nikitin journeyed from Tver, 150 km north of Moscow, along the Volga and further south along the Black Sea and the Caspian into Iran and Oman and finally reached India’s western shores near Mangalore — what were then the Bahmini and Vijayanagar kingdoms. Nikitin lived in India for three years from 1471 to 1474. It is important to note that his voyage took place almost 27 years before the famous and more talked about voyage of Vasco da Gama to India in May 1498. Nikitin has left an interesting account of life during those times.

At a little distance and at lesser elevation is Ashtoor, where there is a cluster of tombs. While there are tombs over the graves of important people, no tomb/grave of Mahmud Gawan has been located. The reason perhaps is that he was not in royal favour towards the end of his life and was beheaded on the orders of the ruler Sultan Muhammad-III.

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