Hyderabad Municipal Maps, City Area, Sheet No - 68 Front
Leonard Munn, A.F Chinoy, and A.T Mackenzie
Kalakriti Archives
Hyderabad, India
The Panj Mahla Road heading towards the Panj Mahla Place of Nizam and to the left side of it lies the residence of Nawab Mir Tahawur Ali Sahibzada adjoining to a Shadi Khana are visible on the map. Shadi Khana is a separate house usually constructed within the Palaces to conduct marriage celebrations. Below, there is Roshan Darwaza (Gate) from the Panja Mahla Road towards the east of it, where areas are completely occupied by small mansions such as Tahniyat Mahal, Aftab Mahal, and Afzal Mahal, the mansion of Manjhli Begam Sahiba are visible on the map. These were the mansions of Begums and some of them are named after them only like Manjhli Begam Sahiba. A thickly inhabited area can be seen to the right side of Panj Mahla road, where many residences of prominent people are identifiable. Apart from these, Masjid, Temple, Dargah, and Chilla are visible. The word Dargah means court in Persian, is a shrine, built over the grave of a holy figure like a saint or Sufi, becomes significant after the death of the saint, and devotion towards the saint leads to the transformation of his grave into the center of pilgrimage and annual ceremonies, are seen as the popular places of worship over a period of time. And, the word Chilla has many meanings like 'retreat' in western religious terms, whereas both in Arabic and Persian literally means forty. It is a spiritual practice of penance and solitude in Sufism. The Sufi/dervish isolated from any human contact and remain in a practice of meditation without food for forty days and nights within a small room like the ritual of Arbaeen, an observance take place for forty days after the Muharram 10, especially of Shia Muslims. So, here the building also seems such one.
- Title: Hyderabad Municipal Maps, City Area, Sheet No - 68 Front
- Creator: Leonard Munn, A.F Chinoy, A.T Mackenzie
- Date Created: April, 1913
- Provenance: These sets of maps were created by the Hyderabad Municipal Survey during 1912-1915. The devastation caused by the flood of 1908 in the river Musi, prompted the Nizam’s administration to devise a plan for urban Hyderabad. This was led by an engineer Leonard Munn (1878-1935). The other people, who were part of the survey under Munn, was A.F. Chinoy as the assistant and A.T. Mackenzie as chief engineer from the P.W.D. What makes these maps much more precious is that each and every thing are depicted in it. The names of streets, landmarks, and even residents appeared prominently on the map. The dominant opinion on the creation of the municipal maps is the 1908 flood, which took over many lives as well as even merged some areas into one. After the flood, Nizam decided to change the future of the Hyderabad city, who could realize the pitfalls of unplanned growth, resulted in the formation of a planning body called city improvement Board (CIB) in 1912 under the able guidance of M.Vishveshwarya from Mysore. The following years marked by the development activities by the CIB such as improvement of the Musi river banks, slum clearance, construction of houses, construction of bridges and lakes, road and sewerage, and stormwater drainage etc. Also, M. Vishveshwarya submitted a comprehensive planning and some recommendation for the future modification of the city in 1930. The net result also included the idea of Municipal Survey, because without survey modification of the city would be impossible. Thus, survey became inevitable and became the base for everything. The original survey which was started in 1912, done using trigonometric methods with reference to Global Telecommunication System (GTS) points, took over three years to complete it. The origin of the survey was the S.E minaret of Afzal Ganj Masjid. The survey divided the city into 848 parts, which were grouped into 16 sets and each map showing 1000 feet north to south and 1400 feet east to west. Since the maps are at a scale of 50 feet to 1 inch, showing each and every building that existed then.The survey divided the city into 848 parts, which were grouped into 16 sets (area). These 16 areas were Chadarghat & Residency; Mir Alam & Bahdurpura; Asaf Nagar; Falak Numa; Khariatabad, Karwan; Golconda; Chilkalgura; Lingampalli; Malakpet & Chanchalgura; North Hussain Sagar Tank; Begampet; Saifabad & South Hussain Sagar Tank; Hughes Town & Mushirabad; Phisal Banda, and City area. The number of sheets from each of these areas were more in number. Since the maps are at a scale of 50 feet to 1 inch, showing each and every building that existed then. The main roads along with streets and branch roads; building footprints like whether the building has one or more than one stories; bungalows, and gardens whether it is major or tiny like laid out along with homes or with graves, and finally even minute details. The minute details are interesting because it did not leave even to mark fire plugs, dust bins, letter box pillars, urinal, latrines, baoli, water trough, well, hills, cart tracks, drain channels, hedge, ponds, and lakes etc. The landmarks like the Temple, Mosque, Church, Dargah, Police Station, Dhobi Ghat, Brick Kiln, Tanneries, etc are also well depicted. The residents of prominent people in the form of vestibules along with stables always attached to it are also noted. Also, the graveyards are well marked based on the names given like cemetery, kabristan, masan, and samadh, which makes one easily understandable to which community it belongs. The nature of the soil is also marked well by indicating whether the land was wasteland or else hilly, marshy, and cultivable land etc. Another interesting thing is that the flood level of 1908 also marked by highlighting high and low water marks areas.The general index to the areas, those were the core places of the survey, are given on the back of the map. The index to the sheet numbers from the particular area is also given back of the map. And, it is even mentioned that some sheets have not been printed, because those were blank sheets and showing only water surfaces. Also, 60 symbols and abbreviations are listed on the back indicating whatever things and places come under the survey. Apart from these, the methods used to conduct the survey, Hyderabad Municipal Survey office seal along with reproduced sheet numbers, and even marked whether it is the special edition or not, are also showed clearly on the back of the map.
- Subject Keywords: Shahi Makan Rag Mala, Tahniyat Mahal, Hauz, Aftab Mahal, Afzal Mahal, Tennis Court, Bawan Darrah, Shahi Shadi Khana, Deorhi Nawab Mir Tahawur Ali Sahibzada, Roshan Darwaza, Dargah Sayad Shah Mir Auliya, Shahi Gaddi, Deorhi Manjhli Begam Sahiba, Masjid, Panj Mahla Road, Deorhi Nawab Mir Fateh Ali Khan Sahibzada, Sajida Begam Kaman Street, Deorhi Nawab Zabardast Khan, Chilla Khwaja Sahib, Zabardast Khan Ihata Street, Shahi farash Khana, Shah Jarub Mastan Lane, Mufti Sahib Lane, Dr Itimad-ul-Mulk, Dispensary, Bagghi Khana Nawab Masih-ud-Din Khan Br, Dewal, Makhan Lal, Bal Mukund Lane, Deorhi Raja Hira Lal, Deorhi Sayad Wahid-ullah Shah Kadiri, Deorhi Nawab Mir Hassan Ali Sahibzada, Masjid, Makbarah, Sayad Abdullah Shah Kadiri, Kabristan, Deorhi Raja Raghotam Rao Jagirdar.
- Type: Map
- Rights: Karen Leonard
- Medium: Paper
- Survey: 1912/1915
- Publishing House: Hyderabad Minicipal Survey
- Map Size: 69 x 102 cm
- Creator's Lifetime: 1878/1935
- Creator's Bio: Leonard Munn, an engineer, who was the chief inspector of the mines under the Nizam rule. Munn was born in Madresfield village in Worcestershire in England on May 31, 1878. He graduated as a mining engineer and had worked in the mines in Australia and Africa well in the 1890s. Munn arrived in India in 1902, worked first for a private firm as a gold prospector and then became the chief inspector of mines under the Nizam's government. He worked as a mining engineer with Municipal Survey Department during 1909-1919. Then he became the special officer in charge of Well-Sinking and Geological Department and even served as the Director of the Geological Survey in 1928. In 1929, Munn shifted his residence to the Lingsugur, a place in the northern Karnataka, was part of Nizam's dominion in those time. Munn died at Lingsugur on October 21, 1935, and buried in an old British cemetery. An inscription found from his gravestone about his achievement especially on supervising the construction of 1200 wells in the famine zone of Raichur district.
- Commissioned by: 7th Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan
- Collection: Kalakriti Archives_Karen Leonard's collction
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