Bidar: Its History and Monuments

The town of Bidar, some eighty miles from Hyderabad, flourished as the capital of the Baihmani kings during a hundred years from about the middle of the fifteenth century. It afterwards experienced sundry vicissitudes, and fell into complete decay in the later part of the nineteenth century, its once beautiful palaces and public buildings, formerly the envy of the great cities of India, becoming a neglected mass of debris. Dr. Yazdani, who visited Bidar for the first time in 1915, drew up a comprehensive programme for the thorough repair and conservation of the monuments at Bidar, and the work has been carried out through the enlightened policy of the Nizam’s Government by whose authority the present magnificently illustrated record has been made available. It surveys the physical features, history, and architecture of Bidar in Chapters I-III and thereafter treats in detail of the numerous historical monuments, which include rare masterpieces of architecture and ornament in the palace buildings, temples, mosques, and tombs.