Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Bidar – Barid Shahi Tombs



Ever since I entered Bidar town, this one monument was so inviting due to its spooky look. Big dome poping out among the grove of   trees was certainly not a popular place like fort. But it was attractive. At the first sight, I felt it is a perfect place for shooting horror movie!!


Just before catching up our train to Bangalore we had a couple of hours left. Along with one of my friends visited this place and believe me we were not in a mood to come out until our other friends started calling and reminded us that we were getting late.
This place is called as Barid Shahi tomb.

Barid Shai tomb is located in the garden on Udgiri road right behind the bus stand,walkable from any part of the town.  There are two main monuments which house both  father and his son’s graves.
Barid Shahi is one of the dynasties who ruled Bidar. Ali Barid Shah was a big lover of  art, architecture and poetry. His tomb is one of the masterpieces of Barid Shahi architecture. He himself had built it when he was alive.


Next to this monument little away  is his son Ibrahim Barid’s tomb. This one is similar to Ali Barid Shah’s tomb, but smaller in size. 



Both the structures are placed on a  platform. Ali Barid Shah’s tomb is a huge vertical monument of 70 ft  with unusually large dome on the top compared to its lower structure. It gives a feeling of something odd with the proportion. 

Outside the building on the platform are cluster of graves.These are graves of  ladies from his harem. I didn’t count but i guess there were more than 50 graves. 


 Inside of the tomb houses Ali Barid Shah’s grave along with his begum's graves. Inside of the tomb is open on all the 4 sides. It is decorated with colorful tiles and we can find few  inscriptions. There are few poems written on this. I could not read any of them though. I guess  it is in Persian language. 




All  these monuments were unattended. I could see people having sound sleep inside the monuments next to graves !!


I understand, recently it has been taken over by ASI(Archeological Survey of India) for maintenance. There were no guides around to understand the history. I wish the government appoints few guides to keep the tales behind these monuments alive.

Apart from these two monuments there are plenty of remains of so many structures.Each of   the remains of  these structures were camera friendly with its pinkish texture and stunning  architecture, and arches.


 It was just giving us the glimpse of its glorious past. Our imagination can go non stop to build it back to its glory.

Have you already been to Bidar ? Pls share your experience...

Related posts which might be of interest to you -

Bidar - Journey to Jharani 

Bidar Fort   

Bidri art work from Bidar


1 comment:

  1. Hi,
    Please remove the photo of the lady sitting on the grave. Islam forbids sitting, walking or praying on graves. It is a sin and an act of disrespect. For God sake remove that photo.

    ReplyDelete