The recent Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation rekindled the demand for renaming Hyderabad to Bhagyanagar. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath in his speech asked when Faizabad can be renamed Ayodhya and Allahabad can be renamed Prayagraj, why cannot Hyderabad too be renamed Bhagyanagar. Following this, the Islamist party AIMIM chief Assaduddin issued a threatening challenge that Hyderabad can never be renamed as Bhagyanagar. This set a debate in social media and among intellectuals with usual suspects claiming that Hyderabad was never Bhagyanagar.
Let us now examine how did Hyderabad come into being and whether Bhagyanagar was the original name of Hyderabad.
A short video by Nijam Today gave multiple historical references and evidence of Bhagyanagar being renamed to Hyderabad by Quli Qutb Shah in 1590.
The names of cities carry history with them. During the Islamic invasions and their rule, several cities in the country were renamed by tampering with the existing local history. One such case is renaming of Bhagyanagar to Hyderabad.
During the Islamic rule of Qutb Shahi dynasty, Bhagyanagar, which means City of Fortune in Sanskrit, was renamed as Hyderabad. But natives, foreign traders, and even some administrators continued to call the city Bhagyanagar, preserving the indigenous tradition and culture.
Several global travelers and historians well chronicled this fact. This video lists various references to Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar (City of Fortune).
The famous songs in the Telugu film, “Vichitra Bandham” released in 1972 featuring Akkineni Nageshwara Rao written by freedom fighter Shiv Atreya referred to the city as Bhagyanagar which was universally accepted without any protests or objections.
Off late new theories have been floated deliberately trying to delink Bhagyanagar from Hyderabad.
1. In 1608-11 barely 17 years after the formation of Hyderabad, East India Company merchant named William Finch in his travel book ‘Early Travels in India’ refers to Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar in page 131 chronicling his visit to Golconda.
2. Dr Ghulam Yazdani in 1944 work, “The antiquities of Bidar” referred to the usurper of Bidar throne and Bhagyanagar.
3. 1934 & 1943 editions of Nizam’s official Journal ‘Islamic culture’ had English translations of letters written to Shahjahan and Aurangazeb referring to Bhagyanagar.
4. Thomas William Beale, a British Civil Servant in his Oriental Biographical Dictionary also refers to Bhagyanagar and its renaming to Hyderabad.
5. Tarik e Sultan Muhammed Kutubshahi written in 1617, officially mentions the change of capital of Sultan Quli Qutub from Golconda to the newly created Hyderabad.
6. 1951 Nawab Ali Yawar Jung Bahadur (Osmania University Vice-chancellor) in his inaugural address during the 14th Indian Political Science Conference clearly traced the origin of present day Hyderabad city to the ancient city of Bhagyanagar.
This article is based on Nijam Today video published as part of content sharing agreement with smart4bharat.com
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