Whats in a Name? Apparantly, a wealth of History!!

Revisiting History - An Etymology of Hyderabad City's Street and Area Names.  

• As modern city dwellers, we lead such busy lives, that we rarely stop to think of the history of the city we live in or the about the people who shaped its past. 
• And certainly we do not really ever pause to think why our individual history of the areas they live in  and the historical significance of the area names.
• In this section, i invite readers to take some time off their busy schedules and take a walk into the past to catch a glimpse of the people who lent their names to the areas or look at some interesting features of a place that ended up lending their names to the areas.  A case in point being a mosquito infested lower tank bund area which came to be famously called after the mosquitoes that plagued its resident - yes you are right, its Dommalguda, dommal in Telugu meaning mosquito or the infamous mutri galli where people urinated in public. 
• Moving to less unsavory origins, Lets begin with hyderabad itself. It was named after lady Hyder Mahal, the wife of Muhammed Quli Qutub Shah, the founder of the city. The Other popular belief is that the city originally called bagnagar was named after Bhagmati, the beloved of a Ibrahim Qutub shah.
• Across the husseinsagar lake, lies the other twin city- secunderabad. Secunderabad is an anglicized version of the name sikandarabad. It was named after Sikandar jah, the third Nizamof the asaf jahi lineof kings who expanded, developed and ruled over the city of Hyderabad from .... To ....
• The basheerbagh area was home to huge palace and garden built by the paigah nobleman Sir Asman Jah, the Prime Minister of Hyderabad state. neither the palace nor the bagh remain but the name has lingered on. It was pulled down by the state government after police action. 
• St George's Grammar school perhaps gets its name from the one hundred and thirty odd years old St George's Church, built by the english resident George Yule on a piece of land donated by the Nizam. The church now stands on the school grounds in the locality of Abids.
• Abids area was originally a market known as mustafa market. This was before the sixth nizam mahbub ali pasha invited an american jewish store keeper, he had met in calcutta to open a store in hdyerabad.
• The old people of hyderabad city used to call this place abid ki dukaan or abids shop and this was a reference to the businessmans name abid evans.
• Down the road from abids is the area of kings kothi which was a palace built by a certain mr khader khan. The palace was gifted to the nizam and the owners name which was etched into the gatesways as KK was renamed as Kings Kothi, over a period of time the area also came to be called king kothi.
• The buidling that currently houses the Kothi women's college was actually the residence of the british resident James Achilles Kirkpatrick. Its construction was started in 1803 by Lieutenant Samuel Russell of the Madras Engineers. It is famoulsy believed that this huge Georgian palladian style mansion was built by james for his beloved wife khairunnissa. The love story of james and khairrunnisa was the stuff of legends and many historians of hyderabad have alluded to it in their works, the most famous and recent example being of william dalrymples magnum opus white mughals.
• Moving away from kothi women college and towards charminar side, we came across a beautiful granite structure housing an array of stores. 
• This market is called moazzam jahi market and it was built by the 7th nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan in 1935. He was so impressed by the arc de triomphe avenue on his visit to paris, that he decided to have something like that here and so the maozzam jahi market was conceived. He named it after his second son Moazzam Jah Bahadur. 
• Forming a natural division between the twin cities and a popular tourist and receation spot is the hussein sagar. This beautiful lake is actually a man made lake constructed in the year      It was  Commisined By the quli qutub shah ruler and built by hussein shah wali who hailed from gulbarga. The area dargah which lies ahead of toli chowki is named after the dargah that was built for hussein shah wali the builder of hussein sagar.
• The nanal nagar area is named after Govind Rao Nanal, a Congress leader hailing from hyderabad. His name was given to this area, because the first AICC session was held here in 1953 after hyderabad was absorbed into the indian union.
• Somajiguda  is named after a pandit called Sonaji, which over a period of time got distorted to somaji.
• The Khairatabad area was named after khairatunnissa the daughter of Sultan Ibrahim Qutub Shah.
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•  Erramanzil is actually a corruption of the word Erram Manzil. It referred to a palace built by Nawab Safdar Jung Musheer-ud-daula in 1870. It was taken over by the state government after police action. 
• Musheerabad takes it name from tNawab Arastu Jah Mushir-Ul-Mulk. This land was given to him as a jagir by the second Nizam. Arastu jah built a palace and a garden here in 1785. 
• The Chaderghat bridge or Oliphant bridge was built by A british colonel named Oliphant during Nizam Nasir-ud-Daulah's rule.
• Close to the southern bank of the Musi, off the highway to Vijayawada is the 100 years old Malakpet Gets its name from Malik Yakoot who was Sultan Abdullah Qutub Shah's faithful servant.
• The area saidabad is corrupted from syedabad and gets its name from Syed Mir Mommin, the Prime Minister of golconda in 1591. 
• Saroornagar, at its inception was suroornagar. It was named after Suroor Afza Bai, the wife of Hyderabad Prime Minister Nawab Arastu Jah Bahadur. He built a palace and a tank and called it suroornagar meaning the abode of happiness. 
• The area nampally was actually a small hamlet called neknampally. It was named so after Raza Ali Khan, the Dewan of Hyderabad in 1670 who was awarded the title Nek Nam Khan. 
• Dabeerpura gets its name from the nobleman Abdul Sannad Dabirio-UI-Mulk.
• Humala Begum, wife of Nizam Ali Khan Bahadur lent her name to the begum bazaar a piece of land she graciously donated to the public for carrying on trade.
• The siddhis or african arabs who were brought to hyderabad by the nizam lent their name to the Siddiamber Bazaar, a market where amber or perfumes was sold. 
• They also served as cooks and palanquin bearers. 
• Noor Khan Bazaar was named after an administrator from the 2nd nizam goverment.  
• The britishers in hyderabd have also left their mark. The trop bazaar near ramakrishna theatre was an exclusive market catering to the british soldiers 
• The fishermen who fished in the musi river, sold their fish which is known as  chapal in telegu  in the Chappal Bazaar situated in Kothi,
• Mehdipatnam takes its name from mehdi nawaz jung a congress member. 
• Banjara Hills gets its name from the itinerant and nomadic banjara community that had come from rajasthan and settled in the hills and eventually gave their name to it. 
• Gowliguda was the area where gowlis or milkmen lived.
• Feelkhana was the site of the nizams elephants stables. In persian feel means elephants.
• The area AC guards refers to the African Cavalry guards. This was the nizams guard consisting of Abyssinians and Somalis. In 1910 they settled in an area cllose to lakdikapul and the area came to be called AC Guards over a period of time.
• The area Masab Tank, is a corrupted version of the original name Ma sahiba tank. This was a title given to the quli qutub shahi princess Hayat Bakshi Begum, who incidently also lends her name to the area hayat nagar. Today the area masab tank, does not have a tank anymore. In its place there is a park called the cha cha nehru park on the reclaimed land. 
• On the other side of masab tank is the area vijaynagar which was originally an open ground on which military drills would take place. 
• When Bashir Unnisa Begum the daughter of the second Nizam got married, the land that dhe received in dowry came to be called begumpet. 
• Kulsumpura was named after Kulsum Begum, the daughter of Muhammad quli Qutub Shah.
• These are reasons behind the names of our localities and areas.