Golconda

Qutb Shahis

c. 1518–1687 CE

Sultans of Golconda (1518–1687) who ruled Telangana and, from the 1520s, the coast between the Krishna and the Godavari. Later they ruled the northern coast and the Guntur country, and in the 17th century much of the Karnatak to the south. The founder, Sultan Quli, had governed Telingana for the Bahmanis. Ibrahim joined the alliance that destroyed Vijayanagara in 1565, and Muhammad Quli founded Hyderabad about 1589–91. From 1636 the kings paid tribute to the Mughals, and in 1687 Aurangzeb took Golconda by treachery after an eight months' siege. Persian nobles held the high offices, but Telugu soldiers held the forts and Brahmin accountants kept the revenue. Under the last king two Brahmin brothers, Madanna and Akkanna, ran the state.

Kapaya Nayaka

c. 1336–1368 CE

Musunuri chief (fl. c. 1336–1368), cousin and successor of Prolaya Nayaka. He took Warangal from the Delhi governors and ruled as 'lord of the Andhra country'. He is identified with the Kanya Naik of Barani and the Krishna Naik of Ferishta. He helped the founders of the Bahmani kingdom, then lost Kaulas and Golconda to them. He was overthrown by the Recherla Velamas in about 1368.

Muhammad Shah I

1358–1375 CE

Second Bahmani sultan (1358–1375), son of the founder. He organised the court, the army and the four provinces, struck the dynasty's own gold coin, and fought the first great wars with Warangal and Vijayanagara. In Ferishta's account the ruler of Warangal ceded Golconda to him and gave up a jewelled throne, the Takht-i-Feroza or turquoise throne. The Burhan-i Ma'asir tells of the Telingana war in a single sentence.

Anapota Nayaka (Recherla)

c. 1361–1384 CE

Recherla Velama chief (r. c. 1361–1384), son of Singama Nayaka. He fortified Rachakonda in 1365 and overthrew the Musunuri chief Kapaya Nayaka about 1368. By July 1369 he ruled Warangal, Bhongir and Rachakonda. With his brother Mada of Devarakonda he made the Recherla family the leading power of Telangana.

Ahmad Shah I

1422–1435 CE

Ninth Bahmani sultan (1422–1435), called Wali, 'the Saint'. He took the throne from his brother Firuz and defeated Vijayanagara. In 1424 or 1425 he took Warangal, killing its raja, and the Velama rayas of Devarakonda and Rachakonda then paid him tribute. He moved the capital from Gulbarga to Bidar. He had to march into Telangana again to put down the chiefs who rose while he fought Gujarat and Malwa.

Humayun Shah

1458–1461 CE

Eleventh Bahmani sultan (1458–1461), remembered as Zalim, 'the Cruel'. In Telangana he put down the revolt of his cousin Sikandar Khan, who claimed the province. He sent an army against the Velama fort of Devarakonda, which was routed by its defenders and an Orissan relief force in 1459. He camped at Warangal, left Mahmud Gawan to hold Telangana, and returned to Bidar to take a savage revenge on a rising there.

Mahmud Shah Bahmani

1482–1518 CE

Fourteenth Bahmani sultan (1482–1518). He came to the throne at twelve and spent his reign as the puppet of his ministers, while the governors became kings. Telangana stayed loyal longest. He campaigned at Warangal in 1486 and gave the province to Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk in the 1490s. Bahmani mosques of his reign stand at Rachakonda (1484) and Golconda (1518), the latter still naming him as sovereign.

Shitab Khan (Sitapati) of Warangal

c. 1504–1516 CE

A Telugu chief of humble birth who held Warangal, Khammam and Bellamkonda in the early sixteenth century. Hirananda Sastri identified him with an officer who had fled the Bahmani Sultan Humayun Shah about 1461, and with the Sitapati of the Golconda chronicle. His pillar inscription in Warangal fort records that he took the fort from the Muslims on 21 January 1504. He put back the images of Krishna and of the Kakatiya family goddess. He supported Telugu poets and called himself king of the Bhogi family. Sultan Quli Qutb Shah of Golconda defeated him. He took shelter with the Gajapati prince at Kondapalli and fought on the losing side at Palanchinur. The Kistna manual thought he was a vassal of Orissa.

Ibrahim Qutb Shah

1530–1580 CE

Fourth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1550–1580), a younger son of Sultan Quli. He spent seven years as an exile at Vijayanagara under Rama Raya. He came back to take the throne with the help of the Telugu foot soldiers who held the forts. He joined the alliance that destroyed Vijayanagara at Talikota in 1565, and he conquered Rajahmundry, the northern coast and Kondavidu. Telugu poets dedicated works to him and to his officers, and Telugu records call him Ibharama. A Sanskrit copper-plate grant from Nellore calls him Malikibharama.

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah

1566–1612 CE

Fifth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1580–1612), third son of Ibrahim Qutb Shah. He founded the city of Bhagnagar, later Hyderabad, on the Musi river around 1589–91, and built the Charminar, the Jami Masjid and the Dar-ush-Shifa hospital there. Ferishta says he named the city after a singer, Bhagmati. The sources differ on who she was and on how the city got its later name. He wrote poetry in Persian and the old Urdu of the Deccan.

Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah

1593–1626 CE

Sixth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1611/12–1626), nephew and son-in-law of Muhammad Quli. He was a scholarly and peaceful king. He founded the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, began a new town called Sultannagar, sheltered the rebel Mughal prince Khurram (Shah Jahan) and had the first history of his dynasty written. His queen, Hayat Bakhsh Begum, was the mother of Abdullah Qutb Shah.

Abdullah Qutb Shah

1614–1672 CE

Seventh Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1626–1672). He was crowned as a boy and left the government to his mother Hayat Bakhsh Begum and his ministers. In 1636 he accepted the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as his overlord. His minister Mir Jumla conquered the Karnatak and its diamond mines. In 1656 Mir Jumla's quarrel with him brought Aurangzeb to besiege Golconda. An inscription in Persian and Telugu records the siege. He died without a son in 1672.

Shivaji

c. 1627–1680 CE

Founder of the Maratha kingdom (died 1680), crowned at Raigarh in 1674. In the Telugu country he is remembered for his Karnatak expedition of 1677. He made an alliance with Abul Hasan Qutb Shah of Golconda, and the king and his ministers Madanna and Akkanna received him at Hyderabad with great ceremony. He made a pilgrimage to Srisailam, crossed the Krishna near Kurnool and sent his army south through the Cuddapah country to Jinji. On the way home he took the fort of Bellary. In 1680 Bijapur gave him its rights over the Bellary and Anantapur country.

Aurangzeb (Alamgir)

1658–1707 CE

Sixth Mughal emperor (1658–1707). As his father's viceroy of the Deccan, he made Golconda pay its unpaid tribute. With Mir Jumla's help he besieged Abdullah Qutb Shah in Golconda in 1656, and won the handover of Ramgir and the Karnatak. As emperor he took Golconda in 1687 after an eight months' siege. He made the kingdom the Mughal province (subah) of Haidarabad and stayed near the fort until January 1688 to settle it. This page covers only his part in the history of the Telugu country.

Abul Hasan Tana Shah

c. 1672–1699 CE

Abul Hasan, called Tana Shah, was the last Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1672–1687). He was a kinsman and son-in-law of Abdullah Qutb Shah. He left the government to the Brahmin brothers Madanna and Akkanna, who allied the kingdom with the Marathas. Aurangzeb made this a charge against him and took Hyderabad in 1685. In 1687 Aurangzeb besieged Golconda for eight months, until a gate was opened by treachery. Abul Hasan died a state prisoner at Daulatabad.

Kam Bakhsh

1707–1709 CE

Youngest son of Aurangzeb (1667–1709). When his father died in 1707 he was on his way to govern Bijapur. He proclaimed himself emperor, struck coins and made Hyderabad his seat, where he had the subahdar Rustam Dil Khan trampled to death. His brother Bahadur Shah marched south and defeated him near Hyderabad on 13 January 1709, and he died of his wounds that night.

Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I (Mir Qamar-ud-din)

1724–1748 CE

Founder of the Asaf Jahi dynasty and first Nizam of Hyderabad. A Mughal noble of Turani descent, born at Delhi in 1671, he was made viceroy of the Deccan in 1713 with the title Nizam-ul-Mulk. He defeated and killed the governor Mubariz Khan at Shakar Kheda in Berar in 1724, received the title Asaf Jah, and ruled the Deccan as an independent sovereign until his death at Burhanpur in 1748. He is buried at Khuldabad near Aurangabad.

Nasir-ud-daula (Asaf Jah IV)

1829–1857 CE

Nizam of Hyderabad from 1829 to 1857, eldest son of Sikandar Jah. At his request the British officers who had supervised the districts were withdrawn. Misrule, debt and the arrears of the Hyderabad Contingent followed, and Chandu Lal resigned in 1843. By the treaty of 21 May 1853 Berar, Osmanabad and the Raichur Doab were assigned to the British to pay for the Contingent. A week later he appointed Salar Jang minister. He died on 16 May 1857.

Addanki Gangadhara

Telugu poet of the 16th century who dedicated his Tapatisamvaranopakhyanamu, the story of King Samvarana and Tapati, to Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao counted it, with Ponnikanti Telaganarya's Yayaticharitramu, among the only Telugu kavyas dedicated to a Muslim ruler. Its opening praises Ibrahim's conquests in the Telugu country.

Akkanna

before 1686 CE

Telugu Brahmin, brother of the minister Madanna, who commanded the army of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah of Golconda in the 1670s and 1680s. With his brother he received Shivaji at Hyderabad in 1677. The Mughal peace terms of 1685 demanded his dismissal with his brother's, and the two were murdered together at Golconda in March 1686.

Jamshid Quli Qutb Shah

before 1550 CE

Second Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1543–1550), the third son of Sultan Quli. The Golconda chronicle says he had his father killed at prayer and blinded the heir, his brother Qutb-ud-din. His reign was spent in wars with Bidar and Bijapur, and his younger brother Ibrahim fled to Vijayanagara. He died of a long illness in 1550.

Kancherla Gopanna (Bhakta Ramadas)

A Telugu devotee of Rama, remembered as Ramadas. He was a revenue officer who spent government money on the Rama temple at Bhadrachalam on the Godavari and was imprisoned for it. In the legend, he was freed when Rama and Lakshmana paid his debt to the king. He is credited with the Dasarathi Sataka and with devotional songs. Writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries make him a nephew of Madanna and an officer of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah. The Godavari district gazetteer of 1907 places him about 1725 under the Nizams.

Madanna

before 1686 CE

Telugu Brahmin who became chief minister (wazir) of Abul Hasan, the last Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda, about 1673, with the title Surya Prakash Rao. With his brother Akkanna he ran the kingdom for some twelve years. He allied it with the Marathas against the Mughals and kept an office at Bezwada. Aurangzeb made the employment of the two Brahmin brothers a charge against the king. They were murdered at Golconda in March 1686.

Mir Jumla (Mir Muhammad Said Ardastani)

before 1663 CE

A Persian merchant who became chief minister and army commander of Abdullah Qutb Shah of Golconda. He is known by the title of his office, Mir Jumla. He conquered the Karnatak south of the Krishna, including Gandikota and the diamond country of Cuddapah, and he leased the diamond mines. His quarrel with the king in 1655–56 brought the Mughal prince Aurangzeb to besiege Golconda. He then joined Mughal service as Mu'azzam Khan and died in 1663 after an expedition to Assam.

Ponnikanti Telaganarya

Telugu poet of the 16th century, author of the Yayaticharitramu, the story of King Yayati in five cantos written in 'pure Telugu', avoiding Sanskrit words. He dedicated it to Amin Khan, a general of Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda, and its opening praises Amin Khan's family as servants of the sultan.

Rustam Dil Khan

before 1708 CE

Mughal subahdar (governor) of Haidarabad (Hyderabad) under Aurangzeb, and son of the earlier subahdar Jan Sipar Khan. He built the Kali Masjid outside the Yaqutpura gate in AH 1114 (1702). After Aurangzeb's death he submitted to the rebel prince Kam Bakhsh. The prince suspected him of a plot and had him trampled to death by an elephant in 1708.

Sarangu Timmana

Telugu poet of the late 16th century, author of the Vaijayanti Vilasamu, also called the Vipranarayana Charitramu, the story of a Vaishnava devotee tempted by two courtesan sisters. G. R. Subramiah Pantulu wrote in 1898 that Timmana called himself the karanam (accountant) of Golconda. C. P. Brown noted that it was printed with a commentary in 1849.

Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk

before 1543 CE

Persian-born officer of the Bahmani sultanate who governed Telingana from Golconda. He conquered much of Telangana and the Krishna–Godavari coast, and founded the Qutb Shahi dynasty. He was assassinated in 1543. According to the Golconda chronicle, he was killed at prayer in the mosque of Golconda fort. According to Ferishta, a slave killed him while he was examining jewels.

Qutb Shahi Tombs

c. 1543–1674 CE

Royal burial ground half a mile north of Golconda Fort. It holds the domed tombs of seven Qutb Shahi kings and members of their families, with mosques and a mortuary bath, built between the 1540s and the 1670s.

Taramati Baradari and Premamati Mosque

c. 1662 CE

A pavilion (baradari) on three terraces south of the Osman Sagar road near Golconda, and an unfinished mosque on a rock north of the road. Tradition links them with Tara Mati and Pema Mati, Hindu consorts of the Qutb Shahi kings. Neither building has an inscription. The only dated record of either woman is the grave of Pemmati at the Qutb Shahi tombs, AH 1073 (1662). The sources disagree on which kings the two women belonged to.

Golconda Fort

Walled hill fortress five miles west of Hyderabad. The Bahmani sultans received it from the ruler of Warangal in the 14th century. It became the seat of the Qutb Shahi sultans and was rebuilt in stone under Ibrahim Qutb Shah. It fell to Aurangzeb in 1687 after a siege of more than eight months.

Jami Masjid inscription, Golconda fort

1518 CE

An inscription of AH 924 (1518) over the doorway of the congregational mosque (Masjid Safa) in Golconda fort. It records that Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk built the mosque in the reign of the Bahmani king Mahmud Shah, son of Muhammad Shah. Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami used it to argue that Sultan Quli stayed loyal to the Bahmanis until 1518, and became independent only after Mahmud Shah's death.

Epitaph of Sultan Quli, Golconda (1543)

1543 CE

Inscriptions in three bands on the black basalt tomb-chest of Sultan Quli, in the Qutb Shahi burial ground at Golconda. An epitaph at its foot calls him 'the Martyr' and 'Bara Malik'. It dates his death to Monday, 2 Jumada II AH 950 (3 September 1543 in T. W. Haig's conversion). Haig noted that the epitaph gives him no royal title. Bilgrami read the word 'Martyr' as confirming that he was murdered at prayer.

Makka Darwaza inscription, Golconda (1559)

1559 CE

An inscription in Naskh script, more than 46 feet long, across the front of the Makka Darwaza (Mecca Gate) of Golconda fort. It records that the gate was built in AH 967 (1559), in the reign of Ibrahim Qutb Shah, who is named only as 'the namesake of the Friend of God'. It was built by the efforts of his minister Kamaluddin Husain, entitled Mustafa Khan, and the inscription was written by Muhammad of Isfahan.

Epitaph of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, Golconda (1612)

1612 CE

A Persian epitaph in Naskh script on the black basalt sarcophagus (stone coffin) of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, founder of Hyderabad, in the Qutb Shahi necropolis at Golconda. It dates his death to Saturday, 17 Zi'l-Qa'da AH 1020, and gives his age as 49 years and his reign as 31 years. Bilgrami converted the date to 11 January 1612, and T. W. Haig to 24 January 1612.

Musa Burj inscription, Golconda fort (1666–67)

1666–1667 CE

A Persian inscription on the Musa Burj bastion of Golconda fort, with a version in Telugu on another wall. It records the Mughal siege of 1656. Aurangzeb's commander Mir Miran was killed by a gunshot in his trench, and peace followed three days later. Abdullah Qutb Shah's commander Musa Khan then built the great bastion, finished in AH 1077 by the architect Dharmachar. The Telugu text, read by H. Krishna Sastri, dates the siege to Saka 1578 (23 January 1656) and the completion to Saka 1589 (1667).