The islamic Connection Mail-2

Bandar reached the peak of it"s fortunes under the kuthubshahi rulers,...during the ffifteenth century, when it"s port did brisk buisiness with persia and arab merchants,and imported huge piles of priceless teak from Rangoon to decorate the grand edifices of Golconda nawaabs...It formed a subah of the golconda kingdom,and a special officer called Shahbandar was appointed to administer the port and collect revenues....

It witnessed It's own ascendancy at the national scene when, shahjahan, the emperor of India,visited it and camped at green meadows for few days...This place is now called Sultan nagaram, in his honour....

I really don"t know exactly how and when bandar passed into the domain of the golconda nawaabs and how later got into the british hands..It is said,bandar used to be one of golconda "s major ports..almost 400 kms to reach a seaport in those days of the horse and cart?


But we were aware of it even as children we watched rickshaws carrying muslim women with a worn off white curtain of sorts concealing the insiders inadequately while some eager young eyes strained to peep out to have a glimpse of the exiting world without. There was a mosque pretty near to our home at buttaipeta,which we used to pass by regularly on way to school...Come election time,every party or candidate fell over themselves to build it"s walls....I really don't know why it falls off every time to get built up again..or why our politicians seem to feel mere building walls of mosques is going to fetch them votes.Anyway it has a strong mohammedan presence,specially in areas like inukuduru,some of them held high posts in local govts...most of bandar"s flower marketing ,automobile and some big clothes buisinesses are in their hands.

Except for some occassional petty bickerings,both communities..hindu, muslim by and large lived and continue to live in peace with their neighbours..atleast till now... Both have to...as both are mutually dependent on each other....Most of the ganesh images are made by muslims..Those clay moulders know more about which way the ganesh"s trunk should lean, how he wears his yajnopaveetham than most of us. ...This harmony could be seen at it"s best ,at the tomb of KARI MEEDI BABA. He was said to be the desciple of that TAAZ-UL-ARIFIN,- CROWN AMONG SAINTS,-THAAZUDDIN BABA OF NAGPUR,whose life story makes such wonderful reading..It is a very peaceful place in kari agrahaaram,where people of all religions could go and offer services.Every body is welcome there and even lalitha sahasranamam is chanted along with other holy verses.
The unani medicine was popular during past,though not quite nowadays...and bandar boasted of many unani practitioners who gave exotic medicines called by such exotic names like NAMAK-E-SULEIMAN,NAMAK-E-NAMAK.......... Dad used to narrate an anecdote about the unani hakim's funny prescription as a laxative..well..Might be a purgative.You get up in the morning and actually have a good breakfast of rice and moong dal with "thotakoora"..(i don"t recall what it is called in english. garden curry?)Cooked with lots of ASLI GHEE Then one hour later you gulp down the brownish powder the doctor gave you....soon it will be like opening a tap....When you feel enough is enough, you "ve got to take another little sachet of powder and it is like closing the tap tight. No dehydration,no cramps, you dont feel any the worse for wear.A ROYAL TREATMENT i should say...In fact the royals were used to be given this periodic purge....

Another interesting facet of the unani system were the LEACH DOCTORS...Those,my father assured, could be found lounging on their doorsteps or front yards ,leisurely chatting with the passers by and smoking. The entire tools of their trade were just some big cement tubs of water containg the first rate leaches these people imported from the KAKINADA, the local leaches did not quite meet their standards.Anyone with festering abscesses and wounds can head for the treatment...First the DOCTOR would inspect the abscess and decide just how many leaches are going to put up to it.He would then apply the leaches to the wound and soon both the patient and doc would indulge in a bit of good gossip,while the leaches would suck in the blood,pus,and poison ,gorge themselves and drop off after a while...No pain at all for the patient...no septicemia...the patient soon goes home....

One fact that not many know (not even some of the good citizens of bandar) is that their place features prominently among the radar maps of the islamic nations. Even some of the mohammedans themselves are quite blissfully unaware that bandar is the second place in india,after LUCKNOW,to boast of a predominantly Shi'ite community.Probably a legacy from the golconda nawaabs who were shiite.IRAN is the only country in the world where shias are in a majority, while INDIA with a muslim population that exceeds the number of the entire pakistani popullation is predominantly sunni...first LUCKNOW and...next.....yeah...good old bandar is the bastion of shias.This Shi'ite culture is apparent in the grand scale MUHARRAM is celebrated witht There is a place called GUNDALA BAVI, where the devotees jump and walk on fire and mercilessly whiplash themselves in a frenzy of religious fervour.

.....and...cats...even now ,some of the descendants of the much touted PERSIAN CATS could be seen,though over the ages and ongoing hybridization they have lost most of their physical features.