Mir Alam - a prime minister and his legacy

 Mir Alam - a prime minister and his legacy

         Nawab Mir Alam Bahadur and Raja Chandu Lal Bahadur, miniature painting, San Deigo Museum of Art, 1800 A.D

       

      The city of Hyderabad which was founded by the Qutub Shahi dynasty has gone through major developments over a period of time. In the architectural structures and especially the water systems.  Besides the monuments, mosques and the temples, the city also has many water reservoirs. Mir Alam Tank is a reservoir in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It is located to the south of Musi river. It was the primary source of drinking water to Hyderabad before Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar were built. The tank is named after Mir Alam Bahadur, then Prime Minister of Hyderabad State (1804 - 1808), during the reign of Asaf Jah III, the third Nizam of Hyderabad state. The Mir Alam Tank was built by French engineers and it shows impressive engineering with 21 arches holding over 20.7 square km  of water. The water tank was fed by a tributary from the Musi River. The primary inflow and outflow of water here had been the  Musi River. This tank had been built considering the necessity for the supply of water to the city.

Who was Mir Alam?   Mir Abul Qasim Mir Alam was born near the Charminar in an area known as Irani Gully. His father Syed Raza hailed from the Nuria Syeds of Shustar region of Iran and settled down in Hyderabad. Beginning his career as a 'vakil' to one of Nizam’s courtiers, Mir Abul Qasim led the Nizam’s soldiers to fight Tipu Sultan in the Anglo-Mysore war of 1799.  Mir Alam served as Prime Minister of Hyderabad State from 1804 until his death in 1808. He was a scholar  in Persian who became a philanthropist. As per sources he had built rest houses or ''caravanserais'' on the road from Hyderabad to Pune and the road from Hyderabad to Masulipatnam. It is mentionable that he belonged to the Salar Jung family. During his prime ministership Chandu Lal was appointed as ''peskhkar''. He was the great grandfather of Salar Jung I. Mir Alam laid the foundation for the water tank on 20 July 1804 and it was completed in about two years by June 1806. The legacy of Mir Alam continued when his son-in-law Munir ul Mulk became a minister in the Nizam’s court. Munir ul Mulk’s grandson Nawab Mir Turab Ali Khan,  Salar Jung I became prime minister of Hyderabad state in 1853 A.D.

        Another edifice gifted by is near Charminar, a bustling market, the Mir Alam Mandi. It is framed by a graceful arch. Currently it houses many shops with tinned roofs.The Mir Alam Mandi is spread over 200 acres of land and operated by 300   vendors.

       Mir Alam died in 1808 and is buried in Daira Mir Momin some distance from Mir Alam Mandi and Mir Alam Tank. A park is made  near the shore Mir Alam tank. The park is constructed using the Deccani theme. Qutub Shahi, style painting is on the walls.

Nawab Abul Qasim Mir Alam Bahadur, portrait.

The Mir Alam reservoir was built much  later after  Hussain Sagar Lake,  but it was a major source of water to the city of Hyderabad. The artificial lake was also the place for travellers, who used to carry the  water of the lake with them when they started out on long sojourns.

       Near to the lake is also the Mir Alam Eidgah used for prayers to this day.  Thus the legacy of Mir Alam Bahadur continues in Hyderabad.

Mir Alam Eidgah,  1938, photo credit S.A Jabbar

pic source - https://www.outlookindia.com/outlooktraveller/travelnews/story/45365/eid-in-hyderabad-1938Phot

o Credit: S.a Jabbar

       View of Mir Mahmud Nimatullahi Dargah overlooking the Mir Alam Tank, 1890s 

pic source https://dome.mit.edu/handle//20292

                                                    

      Bund, Mir Alam Tank, Hyderabad, 1903, British Library, London, U.K .

                         

                                                                   Mir Alam tank, photograph, 21st century. 

                                         Pic source - http://wikimapia.org/4001321/Mir-Alam-Tank

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                      Mir Alam Mandi, photograph, 21st century.

Posted by:

Soma Ghosh

©author

References:

1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_Alam
2. https://templesinindiainfo.com/mir-alam-tank-lake-hyderabad-telangana/

3.http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/online

4.https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/living-hyderabad-mir-alam-bahadur-is-remembered-for-his-gifts-                     to-the-city

5. https://www.thehansindia.com/news/cities/hyderabad

6. Images from Wikimedia Commons unless mentioned otherwise.

7. Pictorial Hyderabad, Vol.II, Hyderabad : Chandrakanth Press, 1934

The Hyderabad Residency : a mansion with a love story

 The Hyderabad Residency : a mansion with a love story

              The Koti area of Hyderabad, also a part of ''Chadarghat'' ot ''Chudderghat'' in the past, as mentioned in many sources has a very interesting building with an amazing history. The British Residency commissioned by James Achilles Kirkpatrick. It has been referred to as Hyderabad Residency, Koti Rersidency and Chudderghat Residency at various places. However today the building has grown old but still retains some of its charm and opulence and whispers stories of times gone by.

The British Residency, Hyderabad.

     James Achilles Kirkpatrick, a Scottish bureaucrat was the British resident in the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad during 1798 -1805 A.D.The stately residence was designed by Samuel Russell of Madras Engineers and construction began in 1803. It was paid for by the NIzam who had adopted him as his son and given the name Hashmat Jung. The building is in the Palladian style with a classical portico with six Corinthian pillars. 

 Kirkpatrick wore Mughal-style clothing at home, smoked a hookah, chewed betelnut, enjoyed nautch parties,  Kirkpatrick was born at Madras in India, was  educated in Britain, spoke Tamil as his first language, wrote poetry in Urdu, and added Persian and Hindustani to his linguistic armoury.

  With fluent Hindustani and Persian, he openly mingled with the social elite of Hyderabad. Kirkpatrick fell in love with Khairunnisa and married her, who belonged to an aristocratic Muslim family. She was the granddaughter of Nawab Mahmood Ali Khan, the prime minister of Hyderabad.She stayed at the ''zenana'' or the women's quarters in ''purdah''. There is a miniature model of the building at which Khairunnissa looked at from her ''zenana''. Their love story created much furore in Hyderabad and British India of that time. They had two children who left for England when they were very young. Kirkpatrick  died in Kolkata in 1805.

                             

James A. Kirkpatrick and Khairunnisa, portraits by George Chinnery,1805.

The mansion served the residents to came after him as successors. It was the embassy of the East India Company in Hyderabad. During the rebellion of 1857 Maulvi Allaudin and Turrebaz Khan attacked the Residency, after this marte towers were erected which were however demolished in 1954. 

"The British Residency at Hyderabad," from Vol. 3 of 'The Indian empire' by Robert Montgomery Martin, c.1860

The British Residency, photo by Raja Deen Dayal, 1880s.

Children of James A. Kirkpatrick and Khairunnisa

The building built in broadly European neo-classical style has a Palladian style in its north side and an Indian style on south side, corridors with lattices, a magnificent Durbar hall and a double staircase which divides at a landing adding a sense of  mystique to the place. The building campus has few graves of residents and others. The bastions add a sense of old worldliness to the campus of over 40 acres. The building and the love story form the main plot in William Dalrymples's popular book ''The White Mughals''.

Double staircase, The British Residency, Hyderabad.

The Darbar Hall, British Residency, Hyderabad.

Image source - @theworldofinteriors) on Instagram

It houses a College for Women after Independence, though the main buidling is  now emptied for restoration. This building is now a protected monument with the Archaeological Survey of India.

The British Residency, Hyderabad, posterior view.

Posted by

Soma Ghosh

© author

References:

1. https://alchetron.com/British-Residency,-Hyderabad

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Achilles_Kirkpatrick

3. http://www.minorsights.com/2014/04/the-hyderabad-residency.html

4. Images are from Wikimedia Commons and Flickr. Darbar Hall is from @theworldofinteriors) on Instagram