By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem

In my last article, I wrote about my visit to the magnificent Falaknuma Palace at Hyderabad. The response from fascinated readers to my article about it was so profuse that I decided to acquiesce to their requests and write this unplanned sequel. Obviously, most people are so fascinated by the lives of our bygone royalty, that they love to know more and more about it. And, so, here I am.

My going to see the Falaknuma, which means, ‘A Mirror to the Sky’ was a ‘journey of longing’ that I was able to fulfil, only more than four decades after I first heard about the existence of the place. As I’ve already said, this was mainly because the Palace that had remained closed for sixty years since 1950, became accessible to the public only after it was converted into a luxury hotel, in the year 2010. Even after that, although I had an occasion to visit Hyderabad a few times, I was somehow not able to visit Falaknuma until a month ago.

Although there are many very impressive things that can amaze a visitor to the Falaknuma, like its longest in the world dining table, that can seat a hundred and one guests and its amazing acoustics that enable guests at one end of the table to perfectly hear and participate in a conversation with those seated at its other end, what impressed me, a book lover, most, was its huge library. It has remained a repository of more than six thousand books, some of them being the rarest among the rare.

I say this because these include the original first edition copy of ‘The Loss of the Titanic: A survivor’s account’ by Lawrence Beesley, one of the few survivors of the terrible tragedy. Surprisingly, this book was published just twelve weeks after the ship sank! While its value may be inestimable now, thankfully, I could order a currently available copy of it, online, for just Rupees One Hundred and Eighty. And I did this, while sitting there on a bench, even before I left the mesmerising place! It is an interesting account, albeit in old-fashioned writing style.

The library also has an original album of photographs of the Palace, taken by Raja Lala Deen Dayal, the renowned royal photographer, about whom I have made a mention in my previous article. It also has the first edition of The Ruling Princess and Chiefs of India, a three-volume book with photos. Very understandably and not very surprisingly, the sixth Nizam, the owner of the Palace, was the first to be mentioned in this book which was published in 1903!

A specially designed wooden book rack there, holds the entire set of the first edition of The Encyclopaedia Britannica. While most of the books there are in English, massive tomes of Persian and Urdu literature can also be found, with poetry taking the lead. Almost all the books that one can see there have been kept in a remarkable state of preservation, with dried neem leaves sprinkled above and below them. This very ancient, Indian practice for preserving manuscripts and even food grains, seems to have worked remarkably well in ensuring the well-being of the books there. However, I was told that prior to the renovation of this Palace, a good many of its books were lost to termites and silverfish, due to lack of care.

In the limited time at my disposal during my brief visit, I could only scan the titles of some of the books that were at eye-level, with a sense of longing to flip open their pages and sniff them. Yes, sniffing the quaint characteristic smell of old books is most intoxicating, an experience known only to book-lovers! Even for the non-book-lovers, the library, done up in rich rosewood and mahogany, is a place that will force anyone to pause, if only to admire its fine furniture, spread out there for the readers and its richly carved, high, walnut roof.

The last is supposedly an imitation of the one at Windsor Castle and having seen the latter, I am inclined to agree with this view. The library is almost the size of a large banquet hall and it occupies the central portion of the Palace and acts as the main passage to its other parts, including the dining area. The monogram ‘VO’ of Sir Viqar ul Oomra, its builder and first owner, can be seen on the furniture, walls and ceilings of the Palace. The graciousness of the Nizam, who bought the Palace from him, deserves a mention here, for having left them as they were, without replacing them with his own initials or even effacing them.

It is said that of the only two such identical billiard tables, designed and crafted by Burroughs and Watts from England, one stands at the Buckingham Palace while the other found its way to the Falaknuma. Designed by the English architect William Ward Marret, the Palladian-style Palace is located on the promontory of a thirty-two acre, once barren, hillock called the Koh-E-Toor, after the hill of the same name in Egypt, better known as Mount Sinai, where the Prophet Moses is said to have received The Ten Commandments.

The Palace is laid out on a plinth that is in the shape of a scorpion, perchance because Nawab Vikar-ul-Umra, who built it in 1893 for himself, was a Scorpio. Its construction nearly bankrupted the man who was then the Prime Minister of Hyderabad. Fortunately for Sir Viqar, the Nizam bought the Palace from him for an agreed sum of sixty-eight lakhs. It is a different matter that very reliable sources say that the Nizam paid only twenty lakh rupees out of this sum.

The Palace somehow proved unlucky for the Nizam as well. It was the place where death embraced him at the rather young age of forty-five, in the year 1911. After his father’s very untimely death, the seventh and last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, believed to be the richest man in the world, who used the fabled 185 carat, Jacob Diamond, worth fifty million dollars, only as a paperweight on his writing table, preferred not to stay there. So, he ended up using the Falaknuma only as a guest house for foreign dignitaries. And, the Palace in turn, offered its guests varied entertainment, including billiards, chess, cards, grouse and deer hunting on the estate, fine dining and, of course, the library I have just written about.

The distinguished guests who have spent time here include the Grand Duke Alexander II of Russia, King George and Queen Mary, the Prince of Wales (King Edward VIII) and at least a dozen Viceroys. They might certainly have watched balls and dances and listened to the soulful music emanating from the Barrel Orchestrion; a huge, two ton, manually operated organ. The last guest to reside there, before the place was abandoned by the Nizams, was the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, in 1951.

However, after being an abode of royal living and playing host to royalty and dignitaries from all over the globe, the Falaknuma strangely fell silent and desolate after the 1950s. The Jacob Diamond too, which was found in the shoe of his father, at the Chowmahalla Palace, was sold by its owner to the Indian Government for an estimated sum of 13 million dollars, along with the other jewels of the Nizam, in the year 1995. It now lies unseen, unsung and untouched, in the main vault of the Reserve Bank of India, at Mumbai!

The Falaknuma boasts of rare, ornate, inlaid furniture, more than seventy large Venetian chandeliers, a grand marble staircase and marble statues, priceless figurines and customised artefacts, stained-glass windows, portraits and paintings in ornate frames and a sparkling crystal and jade collection. Unlike most Palace hotels that have been redone, this one has undergone painstaking restoration by The Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, under the very guidance of Princess Esra Jah, the wife of Prince Mukarram Jah, the Eighth Nizam, who passed away, barely a month ago on 15th, January.

Although the tradition of restoring many of our royal Palaces and converting them into luxury hotels is not new to our country, the restoration of the Falaknuma was perhaps the most extensive and elaborate, with a near perfect result. And that is why this glittering jewel in the wilderness, which stands all alone as a mute witness to an era that is gone forever, merits a visit !

e-mail: [email protected]