An illustrious saga

It was a fortuitous and pleasant meeting with Zareena Parveen, the modest Director of Telangana State Archives and Research Institute — a leading Archives of India and well known among ‘Research Fraternity’ all over the world. The occasion was the book release function of ‘Telangana Land and People: from 1724-1858’, (Volume III) on August 26, 2023 in Dr MCR HRD Institute. This book, including previous volumes, is authored by a retired IAS Officer and former Advisor to the Telangana Government, AK Goel — a native of Haryana, with Telangana being his ‘Karma Bhoomi.’ Academic experts Rekha Pande, Ravulapati Madhavi, and Zareena Parveen co-authored the book.

Zareena Parveen, well known to the worldwide research scholars as a multidimensional professional in the fields of history, archives, codicology or manuscriptology and Persian and Urdu languages, as well as gifted with a ‘brilliant academic background,’ shared the book release platform. Other dignitaries were MCR HRD Director General Shashank Goel and Chief Guest B Vinod Kumar — the State Planning Board Vice Chairman. Zareena Parveen, in her address, revealed historical and invaluable information about Chanda Bibi, a brief account of which formed part of Goel’s book, especially about the land owned by her turning as an education edifice, the Gigantic Osmania University (OU). Very interesting indeed!

Chanda Bibi, or Mahalaqa Chanda, born in 1768, and groomed under the patronage of Arastu Jah during Nawab Nizam Ali Khan Asaf Jah II period, was a great poetess, horse rider, swords woman, archer, master classical dancer, beautiful singer, and lady of great honour and repute. God bestowed her with a melodious voice and height appropriate for dancing. Contemporary artists never dared to compete with her in dance.

She was also a powerful courtier, present-minded and sharp-tongued speaker, and a spiritual personality. As a highly respected philanthropist, Mahalaqa earned millions of rupees and spent them lavishly on welfare of her workers, servants, adopted children, sadhus, saints, and religious heads as well as common people and peasants. Mahalaqa Chanda was a cool, forthright, serious person exhibiting her well-groomed manners, sense of protocol and aristocratic family background, conforming to the high stature of every word and every act of her.

Chanda Bibi knew Persian, Arabic, and Brij Bhasha besides her mother tongue Urdu. After falling in deep love with Urdu, she sacrificed her life, mind, time, and money on Urdu, and with absolute mastery over it, wrote poetry. She spent most of her time in the library reading books. Mahalaqa Chanda had already compiled her first collection of poetry and attained fame when legendary Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib was just a year old. Mahalaqa Chanda’s ‘Divan,’ a compilation of Urdu Ghazals, published posthumously, is a precious treasure of Urdu literature with historical details for future generations.

Mahalaqa Chanda’s grandfather and father were noble, decent, and brave persons. Her mother was a mirror of Gujrati beauty. Grandmother of Mahalaqa Chanda, who also bore the name Chanda Bibi, was one-in-a-million beautiful woman. All three daughters of her grandparents, who were from equally illustrious background, namely, Noor Bibi, Polan Bibi, and Maida Bibi were also equally beautiful. And among them, the youngest Maida Bibi was the most beautiful. Mahalaqa was born to Bahadur Khan who too belonged to an illustrious family and Maida Bibi or Raj Kunwar Bai — the courtesan who migrated from Rajputana. Mahalaqa Chanda inherited ancestral qualities. History recorded that Mahalaqa Chanda’s maternal side belonged to the illustrious family of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz of Ajmer and her paternal side was rooted in the Sadaat-e-Bahara of Sadat Zaini Dynasty.

Mahalaqa Chanda was named at birth as Chanda Bibi. When she was born, the room became full of bright light, a rare phenomenon. Asaf Jah II issued a Farman that Arastu Jah, Diwan (Prime Minister) of Hyderabad, will take the Khichdi on the elephant for the Celebration of Chatty. It was the first great honour given to Chanda Bibi by the Nizam. Mahalaqa Chanda’s life started from the Cabinet of Ministers and ended in the Royal courts. After the demise of Asaf Jah II, whom she used to accompany in his travels, including battlefield, from her 15 years age, Nawab Asaf Jah III was seated and crowned. Nevertheless, Mahalaqa’s privileges continued. She was faithful to Nizam and paid back in kind her obligation as a bread-winner from the Court of Nizam.

Her jagir and estate were spread over Syedpally, Chanderguda, Chandapeth, Ali Bagh, Palle Pahad and several other areas in Hyderabad. Hyderguda, where the renovated old MLA quarters exist now, was owned by Mahalaqa. Adikmet, premises of OU and English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), too, was her estate. A three-storied step well on the North west side of EFLU built by Chanda is still in good condition. The OU site was a plateau with 1,600 acres and 1,725 feet above the mean sea level. It once formed part of Jagir of Mir Jumla, a noble of the Qutub Shahi period, which was later purchased by Mir Hasan and subsequently sold by his inheritors to Mahalaqa.

The sprawling campus with an enormous chunk of land of OU, constructed in 1930s, stands as an ‘exuberant testimony’ of ownership of Mahalaqa Chanda. The Board of Intermediate Education is also located on land originally owned by her. Before her death in 1824, Chanda Bibi donated her landed properties, granted by Nizam II to those who served her. A century later, in 1928, Mir Osman Ali Khan acquired land from the Jagir of Mahalaqa Chanda at Adikmet and Tarnaka for the Arts College building of OU. Receipts of compensation paid to pattadaars in Urdu are available in state archives. Some sellers received compensation as less as Rs 67.

Mahalaqa Chanda’s palace known as ‘Khasa Mahal’ or ‘Khas Haveli’ had walls and roofs painted by great masters of those times, with multicolour photos on different themes, and fixed in the walls decorated with fine and delicate glass work. In the Mushairas conducted by her in the palace, all master poets participated. Upholding of the Hyderabadi culture, public manners, party behaviours, and sitting traditions were greatly depicted during mushairas.

After her death in 1824, Mahalaqa Chanda was buried next to her mother’s tomb. On a carved teakwood over the door of her mausoleum, an inscription in Urdu, that reads in English as 'Alas! Mahalaqa of the Deccan Departed for Heaven’, is seen. AK Goel in his book, in the chapter on Mahalaqa, concluded that, ‘posterity would remember her as Haseena-e-Jamal’, meaning the ‘most beautiful creation of the Almighty on the planet forever.’ What a great tribute by Goel!

Zareena Parveen sourced this entire information from Telangana State Archives and Research Institute headed by her. The institute was originally established as ‘Daftar-I-Diwani-Mal-O-Mulki’ in 1724. Besides India, hundreds of research scholars from all over the world, including countries like the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, and West Asian countries, visit the institute on a regular basis in pursuit of exploring the glorious and historical past of Telangana as part of their research work. Such a historical institute with three centuries of existence needs rejuvenation for extraordinary care to preserve and protect archived documents from decay. Maybe it would be a great idea if this institute is shifted and integrated with the Centre for Telangana Studies, housed in MCR HRD Institute, under one roof, with advanced technical support including digitization of every paper.

75 years ago in 1951, historian RC Majumdar, with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s support, started editing ‘Indian history, from Vedic Period to Independence’ which would be published after 26 years in 11 Volumes. With technology in place now, and retrieval of information becoming easier, in a shorter time, AK Goel's multi-volume work on Telangana, is no lesser effort than that of Majumdar!

The writer is Chief Public Relations Officer to Chief Minister Telangana. Views expressed are personal