A Return To Grandeur

The funerary complex of Hyderabad's founding rulers is restored to its breathtaking glory after the conclusion of a monumental, decade-long conservation work involving hundreds of experts and craftsmen

- AMARNATH K. MENON

As the great Mughals ruled and shaped north India, there arose and fell in the region centred around Hyderabad the Qutb Shahi dynasty (1512-1687). Patrons of the arts and learning, the nucleus of their power was the Golconda Fort, and scattered around it they constructed, through patient accretion, one of the most remarkable set of buildings in the entire medieval world. Spread over 100 acres, the successive line of rulers shaped a complex of 40 mausoleums, 23 mosques, five baolis (stepwells) a hammam (bath), ornate pavilions and other garden structures. Once renowned for their sombre splendour, the garden necropolis had fallen upon hard times in recent decades—its lush vegetation stripped away by unbridled urbanisation, its magnificent structures robbed of granite blocks, the baolis a repository of rubble, the domes blackened by neglect, intricate masonry in a dilapidated state. That was the situation when, in 2013, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) along with the Telangana government resolved to both restore the structures and revitalise the ecology of the landscape it is nestled in. They called it the Qutb Shahi Heritage Park. Thus started an intensive, decade-long conservation process involving hundreds of restorers and craftsmen that also sought to establish the area as a cultural space. Finally, Rahim Aga Khan, the second son of Karim Aga Khan, the head of the Nizari Ismaili Shia sect, formally handed over the refurbished Qutb Shahi Heritage Park (QSHP) to Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy on July 28. The AKTC was established by Karim Aga Khan to promote and preserve the diverse cultural heritage of Muslim societies.