Stories of Ashtur

At Ashtur, the home of the tombs of Ahmed Shah Bahmani, Makhduma-e-Jahaan and their children, I spoke to the guard who was responsible for the security of the place. At the first glance itself, I could tell that not much was done for the security of the place. The guard spoke to me about many problems of intrusion and trespassing by young men who used the spot to drink and would vandalize the space. He told me a story of how just a day ago, he was attacked by those very men by a bat, and sustained an injury on his right shoulder during the altercation.

He explained to me how every year, within the grounds of Ashtur, a festival was held, where around fifteen to twenty thousand people attended over five days. When I asked him the purpose of the festival, and why it was celebrated, he narrated the story of how the name Bahmani came into being. Ahmed Shah, as a young man, once went into the forest and took a nap. A five-headed snake came up to him, as he was asleep, and gave him shade with the help of its multiple hoods. A Brahmin passing by saw the whole incident, and went on to tell Ahmed Shah that he would one day become a Sultan. Not believing the Brahmin, Ahmed Shah exclaimed that if he ever did become a sultan, he would change his name to the Brahmin’s. In the following years, when the prophecy was fulfilled and Ahmed Shah became the sultan of Bidar, he took up the name ‘Bahmani’, a slight modification of the word ‘Brahmin’. The festival, in turn, was a celebration of this very tale.

I was also told that there was wild cat living in one of the tombs for the last ten years or so. But the wild animal had not been seen for the past couple of days, and the guard concluded that it was probably dead.

-Rudradutt Ranade