Charminar

About

At the heart of Hyderabad's old city stands the Charminar, a square monument whose four towering minarets have defined the skyline since the late sixteenth century. Each side of the structure measures twenty metres, and from every face a grand arch opens directly onto the street below, so that the building flows outward into the life of the city rather than enclosing itself from it. At each corner, a 56-metre minaret, fluted and built into the main body of the structure, unlike the detached minarets of the Taj Mahal, rises to a bulbous dome adorned with delicate petal-like relief work and a double balcony.

The monument is built from granite, limestone, mortar, and pulverised marble. Inside, 149 winding steps climb to the upper storey, where an active mosque has welcomed worshippers for well over four centuries. The main gallery provides 45 covered prayer spaces, with a broad open expanse beyond them to accommodate the congregation for Friday prayers. A small fountain and water cistern at the centre of the structure allow for ritual ablution before prayer. Clocks placed on each of the four cardinal faces were added in 1889.

Surrounding the Charminar, the Laad Bazaar to the west has long been celebrated for its jewellery and bangles, while the nearby Pathargatti boulevard is renowned for pearls. The adjacent Makkah Masjid, whose central arch incorporates bricks made from soil brought from Mecca, stands as one of the great congregational mosques of the Deccan. Together with the four gateways of the Char Kaman and the fountain of Gulzar Houz, the Charminar forms an ensemble that remains as much a living neighbourhood as a place of devotion.

History

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, fifth ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, commissioned the Charminar in 1591 on relocating his capital from Golconda to the newly founded city of Hyderabad, with construction completed at a reported cost of nine lakh rupees. The Archaeological Survey of India records that the monument is widely understood to commemorate the eradication of a plague that had afflicted the region, while the seventeenth century French traveller Jean de Thévenot recorded a further tradition that it also marked the turn of the second Islamic millennium, 1000 AH. Qutb Shah, himself an early poet of Dakhani Urdu, is remembered to have offered prayers in Dakhini couplets at the laying of its foundation. A minaret struck by lightning in 1670 was repaired, and further renovation followed in 1820 under Sikandar Jah, after which the monument passed under Mughal custodianship before coming into the care of the Archaeological Survey of India.

Significance

The mosque on the Charminar's upper floor has served Hyderabad's Muslim community without interruption since 1591, its main gallery holding forty five covered prayer spaces that open onto a wide court for the crowds of Jumu'ah and the Eid festivals, held in the shadow of the neighbouring Makkah Masjid. Recognised by the Archaeological Survey of India as an archaeological and architectural treasure and placed on UNESCO's tentative World Heritage list alongside Golconda Fort and the Qutb Shahi Tombs, the Charminar is enshrined in the official emblem of Telangana: a monument that carries religious, civic, and cultural authority all at once.

Architecture

Indo-Islamic monument architecture: a square granite, limestone, and marble structure with four 56-metre fluted minarets rising from its corners and a grand arch opening onto the street on each face