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Bidar | |
|---|---|
    (clockwise from top)Bidar Fort; One of theBarid Shahi tombs;Guru Nanak Jhira Sahib; Ruins of theMahmud Gawan Madrasa | |
| Nicknames: | |
 | |
| Coordinates:17°54′43″N77°31′12″E / 17.912°N 77.520°E /17.912; 77.520 | |
| Country |  India |
| State |  Karnataka |
| District | Bidar district |
| Founded by | Bommagondeshwara |
| Named after | Bidri |
| Government | |
| • Type |
|
| • Body |
|
| Area | |
• Total | 55.6 km2 (21.5 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 710 m (2,330 ft) |
| Population (2011)[1] | |
• Total | 216,020 |
| • Rank | |
| • Density | 3,890/km2 (10,100/sq mi) |
| • Sex ratio | 938♀/1,000♂ |
| Demonyms |
|
| Time zone | UTC+05:30 (IST) |
| Pincode(s) | 585401/02/03 |
| Area code | +91-(0)8482 |
| Vehicle registration | KA-38 |
| Official language | Kannada[4] |
| Literacy | 92.88% |
| Planning agency | Bidar Urban Development Authority |
| Website | bidarcity |
Bidar (Kannada:[biːd̪əɾ] ) is a city and the headquarters of theBidar district inKarnataka state of India. Bidar is a prominent place on the archaeological map of India, it is well known for architectural, historical religious and rich heritage sites. Picturesquely perched on theDeccan Plateau, theBidar fort (Bidar Kote) is more than 500 years old and still standing strong.[5] According to the book "Bidar Heritage" published by the stateDepartment of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage, of the 61 monuments listed by the department, about 30 aretombs located in and around Bidar city.,[6] explaining its nickname, "City of Whispering Monuments". The heritage sites in and around Bidar have become the major attraction for film shooting in recent years, withBollywood making visits apart fromKannada film industry[7]
Bidar is home for the second biggestIndian Air Force training centre in the country. TheIAF Station Bidar is used for advanced jet training of prospective fighter pilots onBAe Hawk aircraft.[8]
Bidar city is known for itsBidrihandicraft products, and its rich history. Bidar is also considered one of the holiest place for Sikh pilgrimage. Unlike other places in the region, Bidar is the coldest and wettest place in north Karnataka. For the year 2009–10, Bidar was ranked 22nd among the cleanest cities in India, and 5th cleanest in Karnataka.[9]SH4 passes through Bidar and the whole city is integrated with 4 lane road.
The name Bidar appears to be derived from Kannada word ‘bidiru’, which means bamboo.[10] It was also referred asBhadrakot.[11]
Legend has associated Bidar with the ancient kingdom ofVidarbha, to which references are found in early Hindu literature likeMalavikagnimitra,Mahabharata, theHarivamsa,Bhagavata, and a few otherPuranas.[12]: 3 Its association can be seen apparently on account of the similarity in namesBidar andVidarbha. This has been mentioned inFirishta's writings.
The traditional tales reveal thatVidura lived here; hence the place was earlier calledViduranagara and also as the place whereNala andDamayanti (Daughter ofRaja Bhima, the King of Vidharba) were meeting.[13]
Bidar under the rule of theBahmani Sultanate was known as Muhammadabad.
The recorded History of the city goes back to the third century B.C. when it was a part of theMauryan Empire. After the Mauryas,Satavahanas,Kadamba andChalukyas of Badami and later theRashtrakutas reigned over Bidar territory. The Chalukyas of Kalyana andKalachuris of Kalyanis also regained the area. For a short period after Kalyani Chalukyas the area of Bidar was under the rule ofSeunas ofDevagiri andKakatiyas ofWarangal.
TheDelhi Sultanate invaded the area first byAllauddin Khilji, and later,Muhammed-bin-Tughluq took control of entireDeccan including Bidar. In the middle of the 14th century, the Sultan of Delhi's officers that were stationed in Deccan rebelled and this resulted in the establishment ofBahmanid Dynasty in 1347 A.D. at Gulbarga/Hasanabad (presentKalaburagi). There was frequent warfare between the Bahmanids and theVijaynagar Kingdom.[14]
The history of the present fort at Bidar is attributed to the sultanAhmed Shah Wali Bahmani, the sultan of the Bahmani dynasty till 1427, when he shifted his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar since it had better climatic conditions and was also a fertile and fruit-bearing land. The earliest recorded history of its existence as a small and strong fort is also traced to prince Ulugh Khan in 1322, whereafter it came under the reign of theTughlaq dynasty.[15]
With the establishment of the Bahmanid dynasty (1347), Bidar was occupied by Sultan Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah Bahmani. During the rule of Ahmad Shah I (1422–1486), Bidar was made the capital city ofBahmani Kingdom.[16][17] The old fort was rebuilt andmadrasas,mosques, palaces, and gardens were raised.Mahmud Gawan, who became theprime minister in 1466, was a notable figure in the history of Bidar. Bidar remained under theBarid Shahi dynasty until conquest by theBijapur Sultanate in 1619.Aurangzeb came to Bidar after his father,Padshah (emperor)Shah Jahan, appointed him the Prince of Deccan.[18][19] In 1635, during this campaign led by of Aurangzeb, Bidar was ravaged by Khan Dauran. In the end of 1656, andMahmud Gawan Madrasa was entered by Aurangzeb himself. The historians of this time describes ″he entered the city and proceeding to a mosque which had been built 200 years before, in the reign ofBahamani Sultans, he ordered thekhutba to be read in the name of his father, Shah Jahan.[20]: 43 The madrasa was principally appropriated asbarrack for a body ofcavalry, while a room (or rooms) near the leftminar were used to storegunpowder which exploded in an accident. It blew up fully of one-fourth of the edifice, destroying the tower and entrance.[20]: 43 Finally, in 1656 Aurangzeb then wrested the Bidar Fort from the Adil Shahis after a 21-day war. With this, Bidar became a part of theMughal dynasty for the second time.[19] Bidar then was made asubah (imperial top-level province) in the same year, whichTelangana Subah was merged into the next year.[21]
In 1724, Bidar became a part of the Asaf Jahi Kingdom of theNizams. Third son of Asaf jah l ( Nizam l )Mir Sa'id Muhammad Khan, Salabat Jang ruled fromBidar fort from 1751 to 1762, till his brother Mir Nizam Ali Khan Asaf Jah III imprisoned him in this fort, and was killed in Bidar fort on 16 September 1763.Mohammedabad old name of Bidar is also on his name. It was connected to Hyderabad by rail in the early 20th century.[22] After India's independence, in 1956 all Kannada speaking areas were merged to form the Mysore State and Bidar became part of the new Mysore (now Karnataka) state.[19][23][24]
AncientKarez System in the city have been recently discovered. The Karez (Qanat) is an underground network of aqueducts for water supply. The Bidar Karez, built in the 15th century, is more than 3 km (1.9 mi) long with 21 air vents.[25] Underground canals, built to connect underground water streams, were meant to provide drinking water to civilian settlements and the garrison inside the Bidar fort. This was necessary in a city where the soil was rocky and drilling wells was difficult.[26] The Bidar karez systems, believed to be the earliest ones in India, were constructed during the Bahmani period. According toGulam Yazdani's documentation, Bidar has three karez systems: Naubad, Shukla Theerth, and Jamna Mori. Among these, Shukla Theerth stands out as the longest karez system in Bidar. The origin well of this karez was found near Gornalli Kere, a historic embankment. Jamna Mori, on the other hand, primarily served as a distribution system within the old city, with numerous channels intersecting the city streets.[27]
Restoration efforts began in 2014, focusing on the desilting and excavation of the Naubad Karez.[28] In 2015, this initiative led to the discovery of 27 vertical shafts connected to the Karez. The rejuvenation of these systems has had a significant positive impact on Bidar, a city facingwater scarcity. Additionally, in 2016, during a sewage line excavation, a seventh line of the system was uncovered.[29]
Bidar is located at17°54′N77°30′E / 17.9°N 77.5°E /17.9; 77.5,[30] lies at a central position in Deccan, a plateau at an elevation of 2300 ft from the sea level. It has common boundaries withMaharashtra andTelangana which is, with the districts ofNizamabad andMedak inTelangana on the East and the districts ofLatur,Nanded andOsmanabad inMaharashtra on the west. On the south lies the districtGulbarga ofKarnataka.[31]
The uppercrust of theplateau is oflaterite, a soft porous rock with limonitic surface. This crust varies in depth from 100 ft (30 m) to 500 ft (150 m) and rests on a bed of trap, which is of much harder texture and less pervious to water. The volume of water filtered during themonsoons through the laterite stratum is arrested by the trappean bed, and a nursery ofsprings is formed whose natural level of effluence is the line of contact of the two strata along the base of thecliffs of the plateau. The water in course of time frets out for itself an orifice and macerates and loosens portions of its rocky channel till arift is produced. The rift gradually dilates into aravine, and the ravine expands into avale.
TheKarez System is built along ageological fracture. Such fractures are formed at the intersection oflaterite andbasalt rocks and form lineaments orsprings that yield water.[32]
Bidar soils are deep (>100 cm), well-drained gravelly red clayey soils developed on plateaus of laterites. They areslightly acid to neutral (pH 6.6) in reaction with lowcation exchange capacity. They are highly gravelly soils with gravel content (60 to 10%) that decrease with depth.[33]
The winter season is from November to middle of February. Bidar is one of the coldest cities (by southern standards) in Karnataka as the minimum temperature during winter nights regularly hovers around 11-12 during December, which is the coldest month with mean daily maximum temperature of 27.3 C and mean daily minimum of 13.4 C. From the middle of the February, both day and night temperatures begin to rise rapidly. May is the hottest month with mean daily maximum temperature of 38.8 C and mean daily minimum of 25.9 C. With the withdrawal of southwest monsoon in the first week of October, there is slight increase in day temperature but night temperature decreases steadily. After October, both day and night temperatures decreases progressively. The highest maximum temperature recorded at Bidar was on 8-5-1931(43.3-degree C) and the lowest minimum was on 5-1-1901(2.9-degree C, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Karnataka).[34]
Present day Bidar covers an expanse of 5448 square kilometres of land and lies between 17°35' and 18°25' North latitudes and 76°42' and 77°39' east longitudes.
| Climate data for Bidar (1991–2020, extremes 1901–2020) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 36.2 (97.2) | 39.4 (102.9) | 41.7 (107.1) | 43.8 (110.8) | 44.0 (111.2) | 44.0 (111.2) | 38.8 (101.8) | 36.1 (97.0) | 36.7 (98.1) | 36.7 (98.1) | 36.1 (97.0) | 36.8 (98.2) | 44.0 (111.2) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 29.6 (85.3) | 32.6 (90.7) | 36.1 (97.0) | 38.4 (101.1) | 39.3 (102.7) | 34.3 (93.7) | 30.2 (86.4) | 29.2 (84.6) | 30.1 (86.2) | 30.6 (87.1) | 29.6 (85.3) | 28.3 (82.9) | 32.5 (90.5) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 15.6 (60.1) | 17.7 (63.9) | 21.3 (70.3) | 23.9 (75.0) | 25.1 (77.2) | 23.0 (73.4) | 21.6 (70.9) | 21.2 (70.2) | 21.1 (70.0) | 20.2 (68.4) | 17.7 (63.9) | 15.3 (59.5) | 20.3 (68.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 6.2 (43.2) | 9.4 (48.9) | 10.2 (50.4) | 12.6 (54.7) | 14.2 (57.6) | 17.2 (63.0) | 15.0 (59.0) | 18.0 (64.4) | 16.7 (62.1) | 12.6 (54.7) | 10.2 (50.4) | 5.6 (42.1) | 5.6 (42.1) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 7.5 (0.30) | 1.0 (0.04) | 15.8 (0.62) | 26.2 (1.03) | 24.5 (0.96) | 118.8 (4.68) | 155.3 (6.11) | 185.7 (7.31) | 155.8 (6.13) | 119.7 (4.71) | 23.6 (0.93) | 3.0 (0.12) | 836.9 (32.95) |
| Average rainy days | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 7.4 | 10.0 | 11.0 | 8.3 | 5.6 | 1.5 | 0.2 | 50.2 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%)(at 17:30IST) | 45 | 38 | 36 | 37 | 37 | 57 | 68 | 72 | 67 | 61 | 56 | 50 | 51 |
| Source:India Meteorological Department[35][36][37] | |||||||||||||
| Religion | Percent | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hinduism | 54.63% | |||
| Islam | 34.53% | |||
| Christianity | 6.68% | |||
| Buddhism | 2.10% | |||
| Other or not stated | 2.06% | |||
| Distribution of religions | ||||
At the time of the 2011 census, Bidar had a population of 216,020. Bidar city has a sex ratio of 938 females to males and a literacy rate of 85.90%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 14.11% and 4.73% of the population respectively.[39]
At the time of the 2011 census, 52.23% of the population spokeKannada, 33.32%Urdu, 5.54%Marathi, 3.67%Hindi and 3.33%Telugu as their first language.[40]
Once a home to many cottage industries, such as cotton and oil-ginning mills,[41] there are now few industries that draw on local raw materials or skills. Even the well known form of local articrafts,bidri ware, is in a state of decline. Increasing prices of materials, especially silver, and declining sales have meant that many of the hereditary artisans are no longer employed in the production of such ware.[42] Bidar city has a large industrial area known as Kolhar industrial area.[43][44]
Bidar is symbolically described asCity of Whispering Monuments.[45] The mountaintop city that served as the capital of medieval Deccan, has 98 monuments of whichfour national monuments are protected by theArchaeological Survey of India and 14 by the State Archaeology Department, Karnataka.
Bidar earned a place on theWorld Monument Watchlist 2014.[46] Of the 741 proposals received from 166 countries, 67 sites from 41 countries were finally selected which were announced byWMF presidentBonnie Burnham in New York on 8 October 2013.[47] Along with "the historic city of Bidar", two other sites in India to figure in the list were the house ofSheikh Salim Chisti inFatehpur Sikri andJuna Mahal inRajasthan.
The WMF in itscurrent watch site for "the historic city of Bidar" says ″challenges to the site include a lack of integrated conservation and maintenance, environmental pollution, and the construction of new developments and roadways that encroach on the historic fabric. Current land use regulations also threaten the economic livelihood of many of the city's residents, and it is hoped that revised, context-specific planning policies would both protect Bidar's historic assets while also supporting the future of its local population. It is hoped that Watch-listing will spur documentation and analysis of the city's conditions, followed by policy development and applied conservation interventions that will reveal and maintain Bidar's rich heritage, as well as support a robust and sustainable tourist industry.″[48]
This grandiosemadrasa was built by the prime-minister of the Bahmani empire,Mahmud Gawan in the late 15th century. Its only the most imposing building of theBahmani period, but in its plan and in the general style of its architecture it is a unique monument of its kind in India. The Madrasa, amulti-disciplinary university he set up, which had alibrary of around 3,000 valuable manuscripts, was severely damaged whengunpowder stored inside the rooms went off during a 27-day siege of the city byMughal kingAurangazeb in 1656. TheMahmud Gawan Madrasa is protected by theArchaeological Survey of India.[49]
Bidar Fort is considered one of the most formidable forts of the country. Bidar city was distinctly planned and built. The main citadel complex housed the royal places. Mahals and Mosque. Adjoining to this on the southern side, the city was built for the people. Both the citadel complex and city had separate forts for protection the plan of the Bidar city fortification is pentagonal. There are five gateways for entry into the city fort. It is main citadel complex fort which is stronger.It is built on the brink of the plateau. Engineers and architecture of various countries were employed on its design and construction.A Museum is preset there having old armor, old sculptures. including many of the ancient stones,[50][51][52][53]
Apart from the fort Bidar houses several historical structures consisting of a couple of tomb complexes, a madrasa, a tower and a few gateways along with the fortification wall topped with battlements.[58]
Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Sahib is considered one of the holiest places for Sikh devotees in India. It is believed that the first Sikh Guru, Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, visited this site during a famine in the region.[65]
Bidriware, one of the rarest and most intricate art forms is now unique to the city.[66] This native art form has obtainedGeographical Indications (GI) registry.[67] The various art forms created by artists from Bidar city centuries ago are now major attractions in museums such asVictoria and Albert Museum, London, theNational Museum in New Delhi andIndian Museum in Kolkata.[66]
The Karnataka tableau at the 2011Republic Day Parade at Rajpath in New Delhi featured Bidriware and Bidri artisans from Bidar.
Rehaman Patel did an extensive research in Bidri Art from Gulbarga University. His book in Kannada version (2012) and English version (2017) also published on Bidri Art.
All the dignitaries & guests ofXIX Commonwealth Games 2010 were presented withmementos hand crafted inBidri art. This art form is the Union government's choice for souvenirs at theWorld Economic Forum inDavos. The Kingfisher company ownerVijay Mallya has a bidri dining table with floral designs made of nearly 3.5 kg silver.[68]
Bidar has connectivity withBangalore,Hyderabad, SainagarShirdi,Parbhani Jn,Aurangabad,Latur,Nanded,Manmad,Mumbai,Visakhapatnam,Machilipatnam,Vijayawada andRenigunta (according to railway budget 2014–15) Construction of the Gulbarga-Bidar link is completed which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.[69][70]Bidar-Hyderabad inter-city train service became operative in September 2012.[71] A Bidar-Yeshwantpur (Daily) express train[72] and Bidar-LTT Mumbai express train[73] service has been started recently. Another train starting from Bidar through Latur to Mumbai started, which runs on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Bidar Airport, also known asBidar Air Force Station, (IATA:IXX,ICAO:VOBR) is a military airbase cum Domestic Airport in Bidar,Karnataka,India.[74]
The city is home to anair force station. Star Air operates 3 days a week flight between Bidar (IXX) andBangalore (BLR).
Frequent KSRTC buses to Kalaburgi (Gulbarga), Hyderabad, Latur, Udgir, Nanded, Solapur. Also Volvo services to Bengaluru, Hubli, Belgavi, Davangere, Mumbai, Mangalore and Pune.
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 Historical Places inNorth Karnataka | |
|---|---|
| Badami Chalukyas | |
| Western Chalukya | |
| Rashtrakuta | |
| Kadamba dynasty | |
| Vijayanagara Empire | |
| Bijapur Sultanate | |
| Bidar Sultanate | |
| Bahamani Sultanate | |
| Princely states | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
