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Bijapur
District and City are situated in the state of Karnataka. The best time to
visit Bijapur is between October and February.
The Chalukya Rulers of
Kalyani established the city in 10th and 11th
centuries and originally named Vijayapura or city of victory. In the 13th
century the Khilji Sultanate of Delhi conquered the territory. In 1347 the
Bahmani Sultanate of Gulbarga annexed it to their kingdom. Bijapur
was later one of the five successor kingdoms to Bahmani Sultanate in
1518. The Adil Shahi Dynasty rulers governed this territory from 1490
to 1686. Most of the important historical monuments in Bijapur were built
under the patronage of Adil Shah and the rulers who succeed him in
the Adil Shahi Dynasty. Adil Shah was the founder of the sovereign
state of Bijapur and his successors ruled the area until Mughal Emperor
Aurangzeb conquered the territory. In 1724 the Nizam of Hyderabad
included Bijapur in his domains after declaring his sovereignty. The
Maratha Peshwa Rulers defeated the armies of the Nizam of Hyderabad in
1760 and they ruled Bijapur until the British East India Company defeated
them in the Third Anglo-Maratha War in 1818. The British assigned Bijapur to
the princely state of Satara who administered the territory. In 1848
after there was no male heir to the throne of Satara, its territories were
annexed by the British East India Company and merged with their Bombay
Presidency. After India was independent in 1947 Bijapur was assigned
initially to Bombay State. In 1956 it was merged to Karnataka State that was
then known as Mysore.
Bijapur has three distinct
sections comprising of the Citadel, the Fort and the
remaining part of the city. The citadel was built under Yusuf Adil
Shah. It has a circumference of about one mile with massive walls and a
surrounding 100 yards wide moat that used to have water in it. The moat has
now been completely filled up. There are remains of a Hindu Temple in
the citadel leading to the conclusion that Bijapur was an important town
even before the Islamic Sultanate was established. The construction of the
Fort was completed during the reign of Au Adil Shah in 1566. Its wall
is about 6 miles in circumference and it is between 30 to 50 feet high. It
has 96 massive bastions of different architectural styles. In addition to
these there are another 10 bastions that have gateways in them. The width of
the bastions is about 25 feet or 7.6 meters. The wall between the bastions
is about 10 feet or 3 meters high. The entire wall is surrounded by a 30 to
40 feet moat that is quite wide. The remains of the ancient city outside the
walls are mostly in ruins now. There are tombs of various rulers, mosques,
caravanserais and many other buildings in the ancient city. In the
neighboring region there are some very important Hindu temples at Badami,
Aihole and Pattadakal dating mostly from the Chulukyan Dynasty
period.
Attractions:
Gol Gumbaj
is definitely the most famous monument in Bijapur. It is the tomb of the
seventh ruler of Adil Shahi Dynasty, Sultan Mohammed Adil Shah who
ruled from 1627 to 1657. The name literally means a round dome. He ordered a
renowned architect, Yaqut of Dabul to design and build his mausoleum
in his own lifetime. He wished his tomb to be as good as that of his father,
Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II. It is the second largest dome ever built
in the world, next in size only to St. Peters Basilica in Rome, Italy. The
floor area of the chamber is 1700 square meters or 5577 square feet. The
diameter of the chamber is 37 meters or 121 feet. The height of the dome
above the chamber floor is 51 meters or 167 feet. The walls of this chamber
are 3 meters or almost 10 feet thick. The dome does not rest on any pillars.
The construction of the
central chamber was done in a way that even the slightest sound echoes 11
times. In the whispering gallery of the central chamber minutest sound can
be heard 37 meters or 121 feet away. The mausoleum has a mosque, a
Naqqar Khana or the hall of the trumpeters that is now converted into a
museum and the ruins of guest houses. The construction of the tomb was never
finished with the result that there are only two minarets on the corners of
the tomb. The exterior face shows three huge blind arches. The central arch
is wider than the other two and has a small entrance gate with three rows of
arched windows. The entrance to the tomb is in the south. A meteorite (Bijli
Patthar) that had fallen during the reign of Muhammad Adil Shah, is hung
by a chain from a cornice. They believed that it guarded the tomb from
lightening. The base of the dome is beautifully carved with elegant petals
that hide the drum. On the exterior the diameter of the dome is 44 meters or
144 feet and its height from a surrounding circular platform is about 27
meters or 88 feet. The total height of the dome from ground level in its
exterior is about 60 meters or 196 feet. There was a unique architectural
style utilized to support the huge dome that has not been used any where
else in India and the only other example of it is in the Great Mosque of
Cordoba in Spain. The dome has a thickness of 3.5 meters or 11 feet. There
are six openings at its base. The corner minarets are not in harmony with
the rest of the architecture of the mausoleum. Because of the projecting
cornices at seven levels they give the tomb the look of a Chinese pagoda.
Inside the mausoleum in the
central chamber there are cenotaphs of Sultan Mohammad Adil Shah, his two
queens, his mistress Rambha, his daughter and his grandson. The main
cenotaph is made of a wooden canopy. The real graves are in the basement
which can be reached by going into a staircase below the western entrance.
Ibrahim Rauza
is the tomb of Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II who reigned from 1580 to 1627 and
was the fifth ruler of the dynasty. He was renowned for his religious
tolerance in the tradition of Mughal Emperor Akbar. The tomb is built on a
single rock bed.
Malik e Maidan
or the monarch of the plains is the largest medieval cannon in the world. It
is 4 meters or 13 feet long, 1.5 meters or 4 feet in diameter and weighs 55
tons. 400 oxen, 10 elephants and many men helped carry the gun from
Ahmednagar in 17th century as a trophy. It was placed on
Sherza (Lion) gate on a platform that was especially constructed for it.
It is said the gunner dived into a pool of water after firing it to avoid
the deafening noise. The cannon remains cool even in the hot summer
temperature and clings like a bell when tapped.
Upri Buruj
is an 80 feet or 24 meters high minaret in the north of Dakhani Idgah
Mosque in Bijapur and was constructed in 1584. It is a spherical
structure with stone steps winding around the outside. On top of the Buruj
there are two huge guns.
Chand Bawdi
was a water tank in the eastern part of Bijapur that was constructed during
the reign of Ali Adil Shah between 1557 and 1580. After the fall of
Vijayanagar Empire there was a large influx of people into Bijapur and this
tank was built for the water supply. The Sultan named this tank after his
queen, Chand Bibi.
The mausoleum of Adil Shah
commonly known as Barakaman (12 arches in Urdu) or Ali Roza II. This
was also never completed.
Asar Mahal
was the hall of justice and was constructed during the reign of Mohammad
Adil Shah in about 1646. It is believed that the building used to house the
hairs from the beard of Prophet Muhammad. Women are not allowed to enter
this building.
There are only 1 or 2 star
hotels in Bijapur.
The nearest airport is at
Belgaum where flights from Mumbai and Bangalore land.
The nearest train station is
at Hotgi. Other train stations in the neighborhood are at Gulbarga and
Sholapur.
Distances from Bijapur:
Sholapur – 101 kilometers or
63 miles
Gulbarga – 120 kilometers or 75 miles
Belgaum – 205 kilometers or 127 miles
Hyderabad – 420 kilometers or 261 miles
Mumbai – 500 kilometers or 311 miles
Bangalore – 530 kilometers or 329 miles
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