Bidar
A window in the tomb of Mahmud Shah Bahmani, in the necropolis of the Bahmani sultans. This is in the village of Ashtur, a few kilometers outside of Bidar.
For a city that is largely unknown to tourists, at least of the foreign backpacking variety, Bidar has an embarrassment of fantastic things to see. From the early 15th century, until the early 16th, under the name Muhammadabad, the city was the capitol of the Bahmani Sultanate, the first Islamic rulers of southern India, who's sway extended over much of the Deccan.The Bahmanis, who were Shiites originally from present day Iran, built a number of truly magnificent monuments in the city, including Bidar's massive fort, and the huge necropolis in Ashtur. After the fall of the Bahmanis, the city was ruled by the Barid Shahi kings of the Bidar Sultanate, who produced a number of smaller, though certainly still beautiful, tombs.
I rode into Bidar at about 10 P.M, having traveled from Hyderabad. I wound up spending only one full day there, though I was on my feet virtually the whole day exploring the place. The entire time, I didn't see another foreign tourist, and very few domestic ones. The town seemed very friendly, at least judging from from my brief stay there.
The most famous thing to see in Bidar is the huge, formidable-looking fort, the largest in South India. Established by the Hindu predecessors of the Bahmanids, in it's current form it dates back to the early 15th century. For much of the 15th century, into the 16th, it was the capitol of the most powerful rulers in the South.
Immediately after waking up, intent on beating the mid-day heat (which in Karanataka in October is as hot as the East Coast of the U.S. at its hottest), I had a breakfast of biscuits and bananas, and then wandered out of my hotel and got an auto-rickshaw straight to the fort. When I got there, the place was just opening up.
The second gate of Bidar Fort, the Sherza Darwaza, as seen through the first. Notice the two lions just above the arch. In Shi Islam, lions are said to symbolize Ali. The word "Sher" means lion (and I think any big cat, but don't quote me!). Bidar fort has three moats and three walls. The motorbike does not date from the 14th century. The fort is still an active place. It has a couple of villages in it, and roads from the city of Bidar cross through it...you'll be walking along near some crumbling, ancient ruin, and suddenly find yourself stepping out of the way of a speedy rickshaw driver.
The inner moat of Bidar Fort, leading to the third gate, the simple yet elegant Gumbad Darwaza. The architecture of Bidar fort is based largely on Persian models, as the Bahmanis were themselves originally from that neck of the woods, though they were Tajiks and not Persians proper. Note the Auto-rickshaw and bicycle.
Gumbad Darwaza and dog. Gumbad Darwaza translates into "domed gate."
Another view on the Gumbad Darwaza.
Bastions of Bidar Fort. The fort, along with much of Bidar itself, is situated on a plateau which overlooks a wide swath of the Karnataka countryside.
Spikes on the door of the Gumbad Darwaza. I wonder how they got bent like that. It's probably an exceedingly gruesome story...I'm sure Bidar Fort has seen more than its fair share of those.
Picturesque decay in one of the far corners of the fort. Inside the fort, a few of the structures have been fairly heavily restored, mostly in the area around the two main palaces, and the walls and gates were so solidly built to begin with that they don't appear to have aged all that much. But strewn throughout the less visited areas of the fort are numerous, crumbling,old structures, which in a hundred years or so might very well be ground down into dust.
Bidar Fort dogs asleep near an arch.
Looking across the gardens in the core of the fort towards the ruinous Gagan Mahal. At this point, I had wandered in the fort for some time, but when I came here, I found that practically all the major buildings were closed. As it turned out, I had to go into the fort's museum and track down the guy with the keys. However, what's usually considered the fort's main attraction, the Rangeen Mahal (which I think translates to "Colorful Palace") was off limits as they were doing restoration work. Still, I got to tour a good portion of the place. My guide from the museum didn't know much English, and his Hindi had a pretty heavy southern accent, but we got along pretty well, and he wasn't at all pushy about his tip.
Inside the Sola Khamba Masjid, or sixteen pillared Mosque. Dating from the 15th century, it's an example of an Indian monument that has gone through a bunch of restoration in just the last few years. The whole interior of the mosque has been coated in white cement, meaning that very little of the actual building material is in evidence. The effect here, in this lighting scheme, works quite well, but frequently the Archaeological Survey of India's ideas on how to go about restoring these sights just comes off as haphazard and sloppy: Though completely smearing an old building in concrete might keep it standing longer, it detracts heavily from its aesthetic appeal.
