Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, campaigning in Hyderabad last week, made a pitch for renaming Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar, which BJP leaders claims to be its name earlier. “Some people were asking me if Hyderabad can be renamed as Bhagyanagar. I said — why not?” he said.
#WATCH | Some people were asking me if Hyderabad can be renamed as Bhagyanagar. I said – why not. I told them that we renamed Faizabad as Ayodhya & Allahabad as Prayagraj after BJP came into power in UP. Then why Hyderabad can't be renamed as Bhagyanagar?: UP CM Yogi Adityanath pic.twitter.com/hy7vvSLH0z
— ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2020
And on this, Asaduddin Owaisi said that the entire generation of those who want to rename Hyderabad will end but the city’s name will not change. Huh !
What’s there in name?
Renaming has been practiced widely across the world, in many cases it has been socially and politically controversial. This is because renaming is a lot more than simply changing a word on a map or a street sign.
Place names are an important element of a country’s cultural landscape, as they naturally document and reflect a locality’s heritage and identity.
Changing them is often seen as a re-writing of history. Renaming, therefore, is always a hotly debated issue.
The supporters of the renaming of the Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi argued that the Mughal emperor was an invader and a cruel ruler, who does not deserve to be memorialized in modern India.
So, there’s a lot in name. Right?
Does renaming Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar really matter? Let’s see.
History of ancient India:
Few months back, I read ‘Six glorious epochs of Indian history’ written by Swatantryaveer Vinayak Sawarkar. (Excellent book. Highly recommended for every Indian).
And I realized that, some ancient nations like India, China, Egypt, Mexico, Rome, Greece are thousands and thousands years old. In their extensive lives, there have been many instances of strong foreign aggression or assaults.
For many years, in the history of these nations, that have maintained their national existence and dominance, there have been golden pages of wars and victories for independence.
Before reading further, let us make this thing very clear that our India was a whole Hindu nation for years. And, our country, was giant, geographically and also with great culture, wisdom, knowledge, prosperity, art and… many such things which feels our hearts with pride.
Before British rule too, India faced many such crisis for freedom.
Alexander was the first one who attacked on India. And then there were many such events where foreign countries attacked India but defeated by then Indian kings.
And we had celebrated freedom at various times with huge bravery.
In ancient times, people from all over the world were keen to come to India. The Persians followed by the Iranians and Parsis immigrated to India. Then came the Mughals and they too settled down permanently in India. Chengis Khan, the Mongolian, had several invasions on the Indian subcontinent from 1221 to 1327.
Alexander the Great too, came to conquer India but went back after a battle with Porus.
He-en Tsang from China came in pursuit of knowledge and to visit the ancient Indian universities of Nalanda. Vasco da Gama from Portugal came to trade his country’s goods in return for Indian spices.
And lastly, the Britishers came and ruled over India for nearly 150+ years.
But under Mughals and British rule, many Muslim and English writers distorted the original and brave history of India.
India was constantly oppressed. The history of India is a series of defeats of Hindus.
Such statements began to be used not only by foreigners but also by some natives after that.
So based on this theory, I decided to look at the renaming of Hyderabad with historic perspective.
I researched for the same. And based on that I am writing further post with some references. So that we can discuss or understand whether renaming is really required or it’s just another political thing.
Renaming Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar:
We have to go back to the history of current ‘Hyderabad’ city, in the 16th century.
There’s an interesting thing I found on internet or articles available and some books.
While they are informative and occasionally insightful,there is an inherent bias and dishonesty among many of them. I mean, selective narrative. Complete history or references are not available and that really makes the things suspicious.
From a long time, Secularist-Islamist historians and Media have been on a campaign to hide and deform the glorious Hindu history and heritage of Hyderabad.
They say “Hyderabad was never Bhagyanagar. Bhagmati never existed”.
In wikipedia page of Hyderabad, it is mentioned that Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah established Hyderabad in 1591 to extend the capital beyond the fortified Golconda.
But, here is an old painting of Bhagmati. She must have exerted a tremendous influence. She had a contingent of 1,000 soldiers accompanying her. The city was Bhagyanagar then, because of her.
Sultan Quli Qutub Shah came to India from Hamadan(Iran). When he first stepped on Indian soil at Chaul, the port city on the western coast in India, he picked up a clump of black clay & pledged that he would establish his religion all over India.
Sultan Quli started his career in the service of the Bahmani king Shihabuddin Mahmud. He rapidly rose in the ranks and was granted the Governorship of Telinga country.
After the death of Bahmani sultan in 1518, Sultan Quli established himself as an independent ruler at Golconda. He fell in love with Bhagmati and married to her.
Here is a contemporary Qutub Shahi painting of wedding procession of sultan Qutub Shah & his Hindu wife Bhagmati. Quli styled her as “Hyder Mahal”(“brave beloved”). And so he renamed it as Hyderabad.
Source of the painting: Ashmolean Museum. Link is provided below:
jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/8/object/12395
Notice the Hindu style wedding with women carrying Aartis.
Secularist historians have made us believe that Golconda fort was built by Sultan Quli in 16th century. Recently, they celebrated 500 years of Golconda.
Simply unbelievable how my identity, my history, my nation, my civilisation was wounded.
It’s important to find what’s broken before we can fix to heal civilisational memory.
Golconda fort was NOT built by Sultan Quli. It existed much before Sultan Quli was even born. It was built by Kakatiyas
Direct evidences that Golconda fort dates back to at least 13th century are provided by archaeology. Archaeologist Manika Sardar conclusively proves the inner walls of Golconda fort date back to 13th century.
In fact, the Mughal chronicles such as Maasir-I-Alamgiri and Muntakhab Al Lubab admitted that it was held by Hindu kings before it passed into the hands of Mμslims.
The Hindu character of Golconda was gradually effaced. The hill temple was later converted to Taramati masjid.
Much later, Akkanna Madanna temple was destroyed by Aurangzeb. However, the cave temples survived. The Jagadamba cave temple exists even today inside Golconda fort.
Even today, we can see the traces of Hindu temples in the Golconda Jami Masjid. The kakatiya temple decorations such as stambhas, ratnas, vallis and sakhas are still present on its doorway.
The fact that Bhagyanagar was named after Bhagamati is proven by the chronological name of Hyderabad on coins is “Farkhanda Buniyad”.
Farkhanda in Persian means good luck( Sanskrit Bhagya).
Why did I mention, in earlier paragraphs, that all the available narratives are biased?
Because references to Muhammad Quli, his son, parents, and further mughal kings are available but there’s absence of evidences of existence of Bhagamati’s tomb and her other information.
Wikipedia has a very little information about Hindu queen Bhagmati as: Bhagamati was a mystic Hindu queen of Muslim sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah.
Isn’t it biased? The mystery wasn’t there about our queen. It’s the fake narration, and hiding and destroying some facts by those people, created mystery about her.
Whatever is available, is written by islamic writers. Muslim chronicler named Nizamuddin wrote about Bhagmati in 1594 in her own lifetime.
He testifies that Hyderabad/Bhagyanagar was named after her. But , notice the language used for her.
So this was the little information I got.
Bhagyalakshmi Temple of Hyderabad, near char minar has been under attack.
The secular ASI calls Bhagyalakshmi temple an “unauthorized construction” and pushes for removal of temple. Read the article:
India is still facing the similar kind of attacks and attempts even today as they were present in the history. But the difference is, in the history, mughals/foreigners attacked and demolished our temples and our history. And today our own people are trying to destroy the historical evidences from the city.
Conclusion:
By reading all these things and knowing the history of mughals and their behavior, I have no doubt that it was originally Bhagyanagar and changed to Hyderabad.
So, now that we are independent, no ruling of any mughal king on any state or city, why not to rename it to the original? Why not to restart again with old name?
I personally support the renaming of Hyderabad as ‘Bhagyanagar’, restoring back to original.
Note:
If you read or find anything related to this, from any historical fictions, travel guides or blogs, Archeology Department Books or any source, please add it in the comment box.
And also, if you like the post please like, comment and share.
Thanks.