Restoration of Domakonda palace fuels weaving, literature and community life

Conservation architect Anuradha Naik remembers the place as a site filled with debris and tall grass where snakes thrived. “I would travel back from Domakonda in Kamareddy district with a bag of snakes caught by the Friends of Snakes Society, and they would release them in the Narsapur forest,” says Ms. Naik about the 10-year restoration effort of the core of the Domakonda palace complex.

The restored interior of Pendli Bhavanti at Domakonda palace.
| Photo Credit:
Serish Nanisetti

At the same spot, now restored into a shimmering alabaster-white interior adorned with luxuriant stucco work, New York-based poet Mir Ali Husain recites lines from the group that called itself the Progressive Writers Movement (Anjuman Taraqqi Pasand Musannifin-e-Hind).

“Janey waley sipahi se pooch

Woh kahan jaa raha hai,”

written by Urdu poet Maqdoom Mohiuddin on the futility of war, the lines are soaked in with “wah-wahs” from the audience.

As he recites the lines, men and women drawn from all walks of life— ranging from newly elected panchayat members to college students — gather around the twin courtyards of the palace to listen to the shaiyaris. The session harks back to a time when Raja Rajeshwar Rao, with takhallus Asghar (pen name), crafted his words and lyrics.

“I sold about 55 books that were lying around in the house. They were gathering dust and I needed to clear up space. They had clear writing in Urdu and I sold them to an optician near Niloufer Hospital in Hyderabad,” says Someshwar Rao, one of the great-grandsons of Raja Rajeshwar Rao. The books were part of ‘Qaamoos-ul-Hind’, a lexical marvel with 16,000 pages and 2,50,000 entries of words, phrases, idioms and proverbs. They have now found their way to Karachi in Pakistan. The 55-volume dictionary remains unpublished and is preserved at the Dr. Mahmood Hussain Library of Karachi University. He also compiled ‘Ganjeena-i-Amsaal’, which has 1,000 proverbs in Urdu and Persian. Besides crafting words and their meanings within the palace, Asghar also wrote ghazals, much of it lost to the world.

Restoration works

A decade earlier, a scene like an Urdu ghazal session or Telugu kavitvam recital could hardly be imagined at the ‘Pendli Bhavanti’, or the wedding hall of the Domakonda Fort. The restoration works began in 2006 with the Kakatiya-era Shiva temple that had sunk to the ground. Then, in 2011, Anuradha Naik got involved. This was around the same time the engagement of Upasana Kamineni with actor Ram Charan was celebrated at her home.

“I spoke to Anil Kamineni’s father, Kamineni Umapathi Rao, about how the ‘Pendli Bhavanti’ looked from inside, and using information from the debris and the surviving Addala Bangla, we began work. It took a decade as we sourced materials locally and trained local artisans,” informs Ms. Naik.

This transformation has now set in motion a village rejuvenation effort by the Kamineni family. “Many people don’t know that the Gollabhama sarees were first crafted in Domakonda. But the weaver families shifted to Bhiwandi, Sircilla and other weaving towns. The villagers turned to beedi-making. Now, we are training families, without looking at their caste, anyone willing to learn,” says Babji Jaladi, who manages the day-to-day activities at the palace. Now, the village trust has a tie-up with Blue Lotus for technical support and Fabindia for sourcing finished woven products tailored for modern demands.

“The restoration is part of an effort to turn the village into a cultural hub. We have had Telugu and Urdu literary festivals. On Sivaratri, we had a Muvva dance performance. We have no plans to turn it into a hotel. But people can visit with permission and partake in the activities being organised by the village trust,” says Anil Kamineni, scion of the family and the moving force behind the transformation of the palace.