Paigah Tombs

The Paigah family, whose heads bore the title Shams-ul-Umara, were nobles of Hyderabad under the Asaf Jahi Nizams, who came to power in 1724¹. Bilgrami (1927) names as its founder Abul Fateh Khan Tegh Jung, whose epitaph records his death in 1205 AH (1790)¹. He describes the family vault beside the tomb of the Sufi saint Syed Hasan Barahna Shah (d. 1654), about two miles north of Sururnagar, where the founder’s successors were buried around his grave¹. Among them are two prime ministers of Hyderabad, Sir Asman Jah and Sir Vikar-ul-Umara, and Sir Khurshid Jah¹.

The founder’s grave also records that Sir Khurshid Jah presented his mausoleum in 1308 AH (1890), and Bilgrami singled out the graves of Shams-ul-Umara III and Lady Khurshid Jah for their fine finish¹. The Hindu (2025) reports decades of neglect and encroachment before the restoration, with holes in the lattice screens². In 2019, according to The Siasat Daily (reproduced by AKDN), the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) began work there at the request of the state’s Department of Archaeology and Museums⁴. The New Indian Express reported that in January 2023 the U.S. Embassy announced USD 250,000 from the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation to restore six tombs, with AKTC doing the work³.

Bilgrami describes the graves in an extensive walled courtyard whose central gate has a Naubat Khana (drum house), with several marble graves under pierced marble screens finished with mother-of-pearl, mosaic and other decoration¹. According to The Hindu (2025), six main tombs stand in a row, each grave open to the sky inside an arcaded walkway, and the complex is known for its incised plasterwork, surface ornament and carved marble². AKTC’s chief executive told The Siasat Daily in 2024 that some minarets combine lime, terracotta and iron⁵.

The Hindu reported in 2025 that, for the lattice screens, AKTC’s craftsmen cut 2 mm terracotta tiles into small pieces, assemble them on a traced pattern and coat them with finely ground lime mortar, adding one foot at a time; working out a method that matched the original work took four to five years². The same report says that the leaking roofs were cleaned and restored with cured limestone mortar and new drainage².