Neo Qutb Shahi (Hyderabad city)

Qutb Shahi style came to an abrupt halt following the Mughal conquest of 1687. The Mughal Governor ruled from Aurangabad. As earlier mentioned, the Mughals started building the city walls and that was similar to Qutb Shahi fortification in massive granite. Early Asaf Jahi rulers preferred European style as seen in Chow Mahalla (older parts 1750 AD). This was followed by buildings in late Mughal style and still later in Indo European style and the composite style in vogue during the days of City Improvement Board. Interestingly, during the later half of the 19th century, there was a revival of the Qutb Shahi style.

Mosques and tombs were built with domes and arches similar to the Qutb Shahi ones.

A typical example is the Afzalgunj Mosque near Nayapul. This was built in 1868 and is said to have been modelled after a Qutb Shahi Mosque. Afzalgunj Mosque has two tall minarets, a facade of three pointed ogee arches, high arcaded parapets with smaller minarets and stucco decorations: all in the Qutb Shahi design.

In some other examples of this style, there are tombs where the entire upper portion, dome etc. are Qutb Shahi but the arcade at the ground floor is of cusped arches in mughal style. A very conspicuous specimen of Neo Qutb Shahi style is the Abdul Haq Diler Jung’s mother’s tomb (1883) and his own tomb (1896), near Secunderabad Boats Club. However one of the tombs has pilasters in European style in the first floor arcade and the proportions are relatively slender compared to typical Qutb Shahi tombs.

This period was one of experimentation. A special feature of this style is that in none of the examples, exposed granite was used. Qutb Shahi revival apparently lasted for only half a century.