Living Hyderabad: drum house on the hillock

The picnic was on the banks of Hussainsagar Lake. The men sat around warming themselves by the fire in winter and a little later decided to take a hike up the hillock where a small palace stood. The men who were visitors to the city didn’t know who owned the palace on the hillock that overlooked the shimmering lake. Some of the men were tipsy and as they were stopped from entering the garden of the palace, they began squabbling with the guards. The outsiders unsheathed their swords and killed the guards.

The king Muhammad Quli, who owned the garden palace, heard about the tumult and ordered that all outsiders be evicted from the kingdom. A free-for-all began with locals and outsiders bringing out their weapons. By night fires were blazing across the small city. The king summoned the top police official and asked him to shut down the riot. By morning, the riot was over as rioters were caught and summarily punished.

Generations later, the outsiders known as Mughals conquered the kingdom and they set up drum house on the hillock: Naubat Pahad. The drum house was the point of communication for the Mughal soldiers garrisoned on the large open space on the other side of the hillock. After the conquest, Aurangzeb renamed it Fateh Maidan and Hyderabad as Dar ul Jehad (land of war).

Naubat Pahad no longer rings a bell. Say Birla Temple and the lights get switched on. This was not always so. Till a few years ago, Naubat Pahad meant the hill that overlooks the Hussainsagar Lake, the Assembly building, Fateh Maidan and Ritz Hotel. Old timers still remember the pleasant drive on the Tank Bund.

Now, the identity of the hillock is that of Birla Temple and Birla Planetarium. While the alabaster white temple glistens with the first rays of sun falling on it, a modern glass and concrete building reflects the evening sunrays. The presiding deity of the temple is Lord Venkateshwara. Conceived sometime in the 60s, the temple was inaugurated in 1976, according to priests.

In summers, the marble flooring remains hot only during the time the sunrays fall on it. Even a small amount of shade cools down the floor, say visitors. Saturdays is the best time to see the devotees making a beeline for the temple. The one way road from Adarshnagar becomes clogged as devotees try to reach the temple navigating the narrow road.

On the foothills of the hillock is a massive banyan tree where Goethe-Zentrum organised charming cultural events.

Mystery, folklore and greed were dished out in full measure in the winter of 2012 when the hillock was dug up under the directions of the state Archaeology Department then headed by P Chenna Reddy. The mystery began when a construction worker revealed that he saw a cave-like structure with a suitcase to a schoolboy. The school boy told his father. The treasure hunt began in full earnest with earthmovers being brought in to tunnel under the hill.

It was all in vain even when the National Mineral Development Corporation was brought into the picture. Officials of NMDC then said they could identify a bunker-like structure within the hillock. But alas! Nothing came out of the treasure hunt. The school behind which the treasure hunt took place is a re-purposed palace of Wanaparthy Samasthanam. Now, afternoons echo with the laughter and bonhomie of children in a school which doesn’t require uniforms. The hill no longer even resembles a hill as it is overrun by houses, offices and apartment blocks. The palace turned into a school is the only hint of a glorious time and leisurely days.