Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/192

 GOLCONDA. The Story of a Siege and a Gallant Defence.

THE citadel of Golconda stands on a rocky hill rising abruptly from the plain, on the north bank of the river Musi, about seven miles from the city of Haidarabad, the capital of the Nizam's dominions. The citadel itself, strongly fortified, is surrounded by stone walls enclosing a large area, within which the city of Golconda, once the capital of the Qutb Shahi kings, formerly stood. The city has long since been deserted, and the interior of the fort is a now a cantonment where some of the Nizam's regular troops are quartered with their followers. It also contains the state treasury and some other buildings still in use, but the citadel is deserted.

When the hill on which the citadel now stands was first fortified we do not know, but we are told that it was formerly the site of a mud fort built by one of the earlier Rajas of Warangal, or of Vijayanagar, the great Hindu empire of the Peninsula. Of its early history practically nothing is known, and it was probably a place of very little importance until the Qutb Shahi kings made it their capital. In the reign of Muhammad Shah Lashkari, the thirteenth king of the great Bahmani dynasty, which reigned in the Deccan for nearly two hundred years, troubles arose in Telingana, and a Baharlu Turk of Hamadan, Sultan Quli by name, who had been a slave in the household, was, after some hesitation, appointed to pacify the country and to clear the land of the robbers who overran it. He had formerly been employed as accountant-general to the imperial harem, to the ladies of which lands had been assigned in Telingana, and his faithful discharge of his duties in this post stood him in good stead, for, when Telingana was overrun by robbers so that the rents were never regularly remitted, and for long periods together were never received at all, those who suffered most from the anarchy prevailing in that province used their powerful influence to obtain for their faithful servant the post of pacificator. The young Turk's performance of the task thus entrusted to him surpassed the expectations of all, The con-