The road beyond Toli Chowki is still called the saat gumbad (seven domes) road. But inside the necropolis of the rulers of Qutb Shahi dynasty, it is no longer the seven domes that are wowing tourists and visitors. The attention is drawn to the greenery, to the medieval hammam,funerary mosques, subterranean water channels, and stepwells. A dramatic transformation is underfoot at the necropolis that has shifted the spotlight from the monuments to a more holistic experience at the foothills of the Golconda Fort.
A 10-year collaborative effort of the Telangana government with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) has turned the necropolis into a funerary park as it was once envisaged by the royalty that built the Qutb Shahi tombs. “Where are the wells? Show us the wells. Are there six or seven?” visitors are often heard asking the tour guides, who usually point out the domes and weave fanciful tales of romance and wealth of the Golconda dynasty that ruled the region between 1518 and 1687. The tombs were built during the lifetime of the rulers, a tradition started by the first king, Sultan Quli. The founder of the Qutb Shahi dynasty built his royal complex to the north with a communal hammam (Turkish bathhouse), prayer halls, quarters for his soldiers as well as his tomb.
The six wells that were conserved and restored are scattered with the Western Baoli, the farthest from the entrance. The Badi Baoli, the Bagh Baoli and the Eastern Baoli are near the entrance. The Hammam Baoli is behind the hammam and the Eidgah baoli is on the southern extreme of the complex.
The decade-long conservation effort has unravelled how the craftsmen and artisans created wells, water structures and orchards that thrived in the heat of Indian summers.
According to historians, the distinctive Eidgah Baoli was among the first to be built alongside the Eidgah. The deep well is out of bounds for visitors due to safety concerns.
“It is 25-metre or eight storeys deep. It is a construction that is monumental due to the use of dressed stone, and the finish. Its architecture is in a league of its own,” says CEO of AKTC, Ratish Nanda, who has helmed the project and navigated legal, social and political landmines over the past few years.
He uses a pen and paper to draw squares to explain the integrity of the stepwells with the grave architecture. “All the domes were sited inside a funerary garden with an independent supply of water for the plants. Only when we began work did we realise that there were missing wells. We searched and resurrected those,” informs Mr. Nanda.
The wells were spotlighted recently when they were selected for the ‘Distinction of Merit’ by the UNESCO Asia-Pacific region for Cultural Heritage Conservation. The citation noted: “In recovering the stepwells and associated aqueducts from a state of neglect and partial ruin, the project has revived the function of historic waterworks of irrigating the surrounding orchards and forests, thus enabling holistic restoration of the historic landscape”.
The restoration of the wells has made the complex sustainable where it does not source water from outside. In 1999, author Ali Akbar Husainwrote: “…since 1965, when the Andhra Pradesh Department of Archaeology took over its management, it has been embellished with modern fountain jets and is now treeless too, thanks to the Department’s untiring zeal”.
To saythat the wells were in a state of disuse would be an understatement. The treeless landscape had concrete fountains and a Japanese garden, where water was pumped occasionally. Except for the Badi Baoli, which remained accessible, the other baolis had collapsed or disappeared. Then, the western wall and arcade of the Badi Baoli collapsed in the monsoon of 2013.
The AKTC had to tweak its scheduled conservation work and begin with the well. It took three years and 600 cubic metres of stone masonry to restore the deep arcaded stepwell including the delicate stucco work on the medallions.
The restored well changed the balance where instead of needing to get water tankers from outside paying ₹2 per litre, the AKTC had its own source of water for undertaking the conservation work. It was used to water the plants sprawled over 106 acres. The other wells were similarly restored, some with the help of US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation. “The wells, which were not in use, had been filled with debris, and some of themhad collapsed. The orchards that used to be irrigated with the water drawn from the wells withered away as the wells collapsed. We restored six wells, but two more that were known to exist could not be traced. Their granite was quarried away in the 19th century,” says an AKTC official.
If the project document now notes how 20 million litres of water is collected in the series of wells, it goes with the unstated fact of the amount of mud and debris scooped out of the structures. According to officials, about 1670 cubic metres of rubble and soil were excavated from the wells.
The wells are not just structures that store water. These were works of art that matched the geophysical location. The ramp to draw water from the Eidgah Baoli has carved lions and the big, deep and wide stepwells were perfectly matched to the rocky Deccan plateau. The wells and and stepwells were recreational spaces during hot Indian summers. As Ali Akbar Husain writes: “A network of wells, baolis (stepped-wells), and water-storage tanks surrounds the citadel and its north-eastern extension (the Naya Qila or new fort) — a reminder of vanished gardens within and outside the citadel”. Historically, the garden was known as Bagh-i-Faiz Athar (garden of bountiful entertainment).
Along with conserving the wells, the old gradient and layout of the gardens have been restored. The outlook for the restoration of the garden was set out by Landscape architect Mohammed Shaheer before he passed away in 2015: “...a primary intent of the landscape plan (at Qutb Shahi Heritage Park) would be to restore in some way the visual integrity of this historical landscape. Its architecture and spatial quality can be better appreciated and understood if the visual dominance of its urban surroundings can be reduced or indeed excluded.”
The restoration effort is now on its way to show how the the domes were sited within their symmetrical gardens and different wells used for different purposes. The wells inside the Qutb Shahi complex come in all shapes and sizes; as do their functions. The deep unornamented well adjacent to the hammam has well marked structures to channelise the water from the well to the garden. The water from the hammam baoli was used only for the hammam and the bathers.
“To restore them as much as possible to the original layout, archival images were studied and we researched poetry of the Qutb Shahi era to find the flora and fauna mentioned in them. We brought back native and aromatic plants. Desi gulab and mogra were chosen to be planted in parterres, along with citrus and pomegranates,” says Asiya Khan, who was part of the team that worked on the greening of the tombs complex. Trees are vital to all of these gardens, several of which have their own small orchards of assorted fruit trees. Orchards of sapota and orange were also planted, and a trellis was laid out for grapes as seen in archival images on the outer fringe of the garden enclosure of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, she informs.
The restoration of the tombs, wells and the landscaped gardens with an integrated interpretation centre dovetails with the State government’s plan to get the UNESCOnesco World Heritage Tag. It was very much in evidence when Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister K.T. Rama Rao dedicated the six restored wells at a simple event. “The Qutb Shahi Tombs are among Hyderabad’s most important historical legacies. That is the reason why the Telangana government is keen to conserve and showcase this site. It is my belief that combined with the Golconda fort, the tombs, adjacent baolis and beautiful trees, we can aim and hope to get the UNESCO heritage site tag which Hyderabad so richly deserves,” Mr.Rama Rao had said at the ceremony.
Will the tombs, wells and the fort help Hyderabad gain the coveted cultural tag? That’s the million dollar question. Right now, visitors and tourists seem to be voting with their feet as they throng the medieval garden complex.
