Hyderabad: Century-old photographs of the historical Devarakonda fort and the village in the Nalgonda District of Telangana are out for public viewing from December 11 to 18 at the foyer gallery in Ravindra Bharathi.
The exhibit is aptly named ‘Gods own fort- Life in a century’ since the word ‘Devarakonda’ means the hill of the Gods.
These pictures were taken by Christian missionaries that travelled to the region more than 100 years ago. Younus Farhan, a young history enthusiast put efforts into researching on these photographs with the help of Mamidi Harikrishna, the director of Telangana department of language and culture and more than 600 photographs of that period are available with the government because of this effort.
The Devarakonda kingdom was ruled by Padma Nayaka Veluma Rajas between 1278 to 1482 AD. Maada Naidu was its first ruler. Historians and scholars believe that even though Singama Bhoopala Nayaka had started the construction of Devarakonda fort, majority of work was completed by Maada Naidu during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Devarakonda is at a distance of nearly 117 kms from Hyderabad on Nagarjuna Sagar road from where tourists need to take a small diversion from Kondalpahad. It takes approximately 3 hours to reach this place by road. There are buses from Santosh Nagar and MGBS in Hyderabad to reach the village and the fort. From Nalgonda town, the fort could be reached in an hour.
“People are mostly interested in the fort and the story of its rulers. The photography exhibit is an attempt to put out historical evidence of the Devarakonda village and the common folk that lived just next to the magnificent fort,” said Yonus Farhan speaking to Siasat.com . There is a ‘Devarakonda fort protection committee’ comprising mostly of villagers with a mission to safeguard and promote tourism of the fort. Younus runs a Twitter handle that updates followers on the latest happenings of the fort.
