Stories of the origins of temples are usually fantastic ones in Hyderabad; they reinforce beliefs and faith. And so it is with the Murali Manohar Temple in the Kishenbagh area. The area gets it name from the other name of Murali Manohar, the beautiful flute player: Lord Krishna. Now, the temple can barely be spotted on the Bahadurpura and Rambagh stretch of road. With high mud walls that block the view to a small unpaved road leading to it, the massive orange door soaring 30 feet into the air gives a hint of the glory days of the temple.
The first fantastic story. “Raja Raghu Ram Bahadur who lived in Delhi and who had no children had a dream,” says Parthasarathy, the senior priest at the temple. “In his dream, he saw a garden and an idol of Lord Krishna buried five feet in the ground in Hyderabad. The dream was very vivid about the location and the site,” says the priest. Raghu Ram Bahadur followed his dream and came to Hyderabad on horses and a number of aides and searched for the location and when they dug five feet deep they discovered this idol. It was installed here and a small temple was built on the site to house the Lord.
The dream had a happy ending with the Raja Raghu Ram Bahadur having children once the temple was constructed and the prayers began in right earnest.
The temple is still a small affair with the gopuram hardly visible from amidst the cluster of trees that surround it. The rangasthalam blocks the view from the front. Only when you get on to the dhwajastambam (flagpole) that the gopuram with acrobatic animals and humans in myriad poses become evident. It is a narrow gopuram that tells of a style which doesn’t fit into either the Southern temple idiom or the temple idiom across the Vindhyas.
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The other fantastic story, but closer to reality. According to historians, the temple was built by Raja Raghu Ram Bahadur who was a vakil or an agent of the Nizam. Away from the walled city, the temple was located in a garden and it was closer to the dargah of Syed Shah Najmullah Hussaini. Besides building the temple, Raja Raghu Ram Bahadur also helped construct buildings to commemorate the Urs or the annual pilgrimage of the Sufi pir. The Nizam Sikander Jah granted two jagirs one while the temple was being built, and another for the naqqar khana or the drum house.
But the temple is a transformed place during the Brahmotsavam celebrated in Kartika masam according to Hindu calendar. “Even now many couples believe that praying at the temple will help them bear children. I have had dozens of women who have had children and placed at this temple,” says Parthasarathy, who has led the prayers at the temple for 42 years.
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The space for the temple now is a sprawling big affair with vast open grounds, gardens, a step well and housing facilities for the temple staff. The drum house is a vast open quadrangle with a number of rooms built with carved stone and mortar.
What might have been the gaushala or a serai for travellers are now classrooms for children from the neighbourhood. Here, children are dropped off by women whose faces are either covered with pallu or by a burqa. A perfect tribute to the temple builder who patronised both a temple and a dargah.
