Sprawled over dozens of acres of land, behind a high curtain of granite, Golconda is a fortress of fables, secrets and unknown twists and turns. There is no end to fanciful tales: “That cannon on top of the hill has gold! There are gems buried inside the 12 palaces! There are secret passageways to Charminar and Goshamahal!”
On a bright sunny day, Muhammad Habeebuddin, who said he lives near Chota Bazaar of Golconda fort, called me. “You really don’t know Golconda fort. Come with me I will show you. Meet me at Banjari Darwaza,” he commanded.
No small talk. He jumped right into the job of guiding me to the lesser known side of Golconda fort. The one which leads to the Atharah Seedi Burj (18 steps bastion). “Do you know what is this?” he asked me showing a mural hewn on a rock. No.
The mural, in the corner of a wall is a part of a dumpyard for the locals. One dairy farmer has chosen the spot for dumping cowdung.
“I think this is a prison. It looks like one. You can reach either from here or from the top,” he said leading me up a flight of stairs. On the top, there are three domes. As we crawl through a hole and climb down stairs, there is a huge square with walls rising up to some 50 feet into the air.
There is a walled up doorframe on one side with four-inch holes at the top for door jambs. Lower down, there are a pair of square holes where a log of wood might have been used for barricading it in the night or during a crisis. Beneath the three domes are three rooms with the bigger one being the archway that has also been walled up.
“This looks more like a gateway rather than a prison,” I tell Habeeb who nods after listening to whatever we noticed.
“Who can confirm that it is a gateway and not a prison?” asks Habeeb.
A guide book written in 2015 shows a pathway through the same location, albeit with a legend that it is Patancheru Darwaza. It does look like a gateway considering that it has an open square with doorways on either side.
While the newer gateways of Golconda have two doors with a wickedly curving zig zag path so that elephants cannot rampage through, this was perhaps an older gateway. The western Mecca Darwaza entrance of Golconda fort, which is controlled by Indian Army, also has a similar square entrance plan.
From atop the rugged structure, the pieces of puzzle fall into place. There is a barbican (a curved wall at a distance from the doorway so that the door cannot be bombarded directly). A moat still filled with some water despite the harsh summer was the second line of defence. And on top there are smooth holes for a draw bridge which could be pulled up in an emergency.
And this relic of medieval fortification which could easily be a lesson in warfare remains out of sight despite the Golconda fort being an Archaelogical Survey of India property. To be fair, the ASI is functioning with a minimal staff lacking physical protection.
At a time when India has jumped 16 places in world tourism ranking, it is time Hyderabad pays attention to its tourist potential beyond the luxury hotel on a hilltop, a medieval city square and a film city.
