GOL GOMBADH
It was in 1984, I came to know about this
wonderful dome while working at a Cylinder Plant in Belgaum. This tomb is
located in Bijapur(Karnataka). Belgaum is around 500 Kms from Bangalore and Bijapur is around 4 hours from
Belgaum.
Those days I used to be
posted at Belgaum from Bangalore for cylinder inspections normally for one week. Sometimes Office would extend my stay
for another week and the message would reach on the last day when I was making
my preparations to return. This became intolerable
later especially after my marriage, I
used to count the days, hours for returning home and then like a torpedo, the message would arrive for extension. I used
to get totally disappointed. I felt those
days in Belgaum were longer,
longer than 36 hours/day. Imagine, except letters, there was no other means of communication. Tomorrow’s generation may not be
believe that there was a time
when people on this earth lived without mobile.
In one of those weekend holidays in Belgaum, I
along with 3 other local friends decided to visit this wonder structure. Ambassador was a luxury
car those days and somehow we managed to get an old one. We all started off
after lunch.
Gol Gombadh meaning "circular dome" is the mausoleum
of Mohammed Adil Shah, Sultan of
Bijapur. I googled out some information and photograph of this
monument , as I do not have the photographs of those days. The tomb,
located in Bijapur, Karnataka in India, was completed in
1656 by the architect
Yaqut of Dabul. Although "impressively simple in design", it is the
"structural triumph of Deccan
architecture".[2 Imagine such a big tomb being constructed 4 centuries ago. On the time
scale, it is even today a marvelous wonder. This dome is also called "Whispering Gallery". Because whatever you whisper on one side, it can be heard on the exactly
opposite side of the mausoleum. I also tested it and found true.
While returning from Bijapur, the car slowly came to a halt and driver said
the clutch is not functioning.
Driver was not able to engage the gear. It was around 8 Pm. We
looked around and could not see any shop or house. Totally lonely place and not a single person around.
In addition it was cold and dark. Once in a while some vehicle would pass by. We
tried to stop a car showing signs of emergency but the car did not stop.(probably
they would have considered it as a
danger). Finally we spend the night in the car itself. Early morning on the first bus, my friends allowed me to go to Belgaum as I had
to reach office immediately.
Visit to this special monument coupled with the night stay at highway Ambassador made it a memorable experience. But I still wonder the creativity
of whispering Gallery .