It is a parking lot behind the High Court building in Hyderabad. In the middle of the parking area against the backdrop of a gabled hospital roof, is a black pillar which doesn’t get a second glance from milling litigants and lawyers. Walk a few steps closer and it turns out to be a 10-feet high octagonal fluted column with elephants and yalis (mythical beasts) on top. It looks like a fountain with the trunks of the elephants and the mouths of yali functioning like spouts. Indeed it is. Or rather was and is the only remnant of Amin Bagh, the garden by the riverside constructed nearly 400 years ago by Mirza Muhammad Amin Shahristani, the premier noble during the reign of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. Muhammad Quli, who built Hyderabad, ruled between 1580 till his death in 1611.
War spoils
When Leonard Munn mapped Hyderabad and its environment in 1914, he marked out the Victoria Government Maternity Hospital that was functioning from the area. The map shows the fountain surrounded by a garden along with a few hospital facilities. The fountain is perhaps the only relic from the time of founding of Hyderabad 425 years ago, that has survived the Mughal as well as the modern depredations. It remains there uncared, unused and unappreciated.
Historian Philip M. Wagoner believes the fountain most likely was war spoils from another location.
To understand how the fountain came to be installed at the location, one has to understand the times in which it was installed. After Muhammad Quli decided to move his capital from Golconda to Hyderabad, it wasn’t enough for the noblemen to stay close to the king. They had to flaunt it. For that, the noblemen used their wealth to show off. To the northwest of Charminar was the palace complex of Muhammad Quli. Once the king moved to the new city in 1591, his courtiers began moving out of Golconda. They started building palaces and began competing with each other. Some had pools in the courtyard big enough for rowing skiffs, drum houses at the entrance were the norm, and a few noblemen fixed chinaware on the walls for rooms called Chini khana, others fixed mirrors and called it Aina khana ! Imagine walking into a nobleman’s house and seeing cups and saucers plastered on the wall from floor to ceiling or mirrors for that matter?
Mirza Muhammad Amin, who hailed from Shahristani near Isfahan in Iran, came highly recommended and was appointed Mir Jumla at the behest of Mir Momin who was running the kingdom’s administration. It was a role that was something like finance minister as well as commander of the army. It was in this role that Muhammad Amin Shahristani went on to create a garden palace near Musi and hence the name Amin Bagh. Unfortunately, many people erroneously think the garden was built by Amin Khan.
Another legacy left behind by Mirza Muhammad Amin is the Jama Masjid which is in the northeast corner of Charminar. Unfortunately, very little of the masjid survives to this day as it has been overrun by encroachments. The minarets can be seen right behind the Cafe Coffee Day outlet near Charminar. A low concrete roofing has been laid in front of the masjid to allow more people to pray which blocks the view of the minarets and artisanship that went into their creation.
The Jama Masjid had a hammam (Turkish bath) which Mughal emperor Aurangzeb used during his stay in Hyderabad after the conquest of Golconda 1687.
The clue about the builder of the masjid is in the inscription which credits the construction to Malik Aminul Mulk with the caligraphy on the stone by Baba Khan.
One relic, one masjid, one memory and one man.
