A HISTORY BEHIND AREAS AND STREET NAMES OF HYDERABAD AND SECUNDERABAD: Part-2

Posted by By WORLD9.TV at 20 July, at 09 : 59 AM Print

By

D.Ramachandram

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Introduction of Hyderabad and Secunderabad:

Hyderabad, the present name of our city was once called as ‘Bhagnagar’ which stands for ‘City of Gardens’. There appears to have been a number of gardens in and around the city of Hyderabad, such as Bashir Bagh, Amin Bagh, Bir Ban Bagh, HardikarBagh, BaghLingampally and Jam Bagh etc. Hence it was called as Bhagnagar. But, according to ‘Mahanama’, compiled by Ghulam Hussain Khan Jauhar around 1810 AD, the city of Bhagnagr was named after the lady ‘Bhagirati’, who was the queen of Ibrahim Qutub  shah, who married her during his exile at Vijayanagar. Bhagirathi, as narrated in Mahanama, had purchased seven villages and laid the foundation of the city of Bhagnagar. Hence, the city was named after Bhagirathi, the mother of Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah, who decreed that his capital city should be ‘a replica of heaven on earth’.

Some of the Telugu contemporary works have different story to offer. Poet Sarangu Ramayya named the city as ‘Bhagyanagaramu’ or ‘Bhagyanagara’ of Bhagirathi Pattanam (city of good fortune). There is one more theory that suggest that Sultan Quli Qutub Shah, the son of Ibrahim Qutub Shah and the founder of the city, named it after his beloved Bhagmati. However, one thing remains certain, whether he named it after his lover or mother, local inhabitants popularly used to call it ‘Bhagnagar’ and continued to call it so till the end of 17^th  century.

Later, probably it changed to Hyderabad, after the name of Hazarat Ali, a well-known Shai Imam. Yet another name in circulation around that time was FarkhundaBuniyad, which meant ‘the city of good fortune’, the literal Persian translation of the earlier Bhagnagar. And the same was also found inscribed on the Asafjahi coins. While local people called it Bhagnagar, Khafi Khan a writer in 1687 informed that the city was re-named as ‘Hyderabad’ only after the death of Bhagmati. Persians called it ‘Aiderabad’ and Muslim nobility named it ‘Hyderabad’.(Contd..Part-3)

BLOG Bhagyanagar, Hyderabad Areas and Streets history, Hyderabad History, Nizams, Secunderabad Areas and Streets history, Secunderabad History