Half way up the Golconda fort is ‘Ramdas prison’.
The year was AD 1673. Kancherla Gopanna was a Tehsildar (revenue collector) in the court of Sultan Abul Hassan Tana Shah, the last of the Qutub Shahi Sultans (of the sovereign kingdom of Golconda in Deccan). An ardent devotee of Lord Ram, he was very loyal and dedicated to the Sultan. People were also fond of him for his charitable ways and affectionately called him Goparaju.
It was festival time in the local temple at Badrachalam and Goparaju was invited. Some of us might know that Badrachalam on the banks of the Godavari is a very auspicious place as Lord Ram with Lakshman and Sita is believed to have stayed there during their exile. The sight of the deities of Ram, Lakshman and Sita, beautifully decorated and taken in a procession with soulful chanting of sankirtana, invoked deep emotions in Goparaju sending him into a trance.
Deeply touched by the love and devotion of the people and saddened by the dilapidated state of the ancient temple, he was determined to renovate it.
He poured in all his savings, but was not enough. His family contributed a fortune, still fell short. People pooled in their best, it was insufficient. That was when the villagers requested him to spend the revenue collections with a promise that they would repay after the harvest. Convinced that he was doing it for a noble cause and that he would be able to explain to the Sultan, 6 lakhs worth silver coins were diverted from the revenue collections as the final lease for construction. Within a month, on the Ram Navmi day of AD 1674, the grand Sita Ramachandra Swamy temple of Badrachalam was consecrated.
The harvest failed. People were apologetic. Sultan was enraged. Goparaju was sentenced to solitary confinement for life.
Considering Goparaju’s honest service record and also his uncle being a senior bureaucrat in the administration, the Sultan offered to let him free (but stripped from service) on his repayment of the diverted funds. But he and his family had already exhausted all their wealth on the temple.
In AD 1674, Goparaju walked into… nay, crawled into the dreaded rock prison, a hundred ton monolith with a carved inside and a single entrance of the size of a small kitchen ventilator on the roof. Armed with the courage of conviction and faith in Ram he accepted his fate to spend rest of his life in the 9 ft by 4 ft rock cut prison.
The legend has it that:
After 12 years, on a Ram Navmi two young warriors entered the bed chambers of the Sultan in the middle of the night. Introducing themselves to be the emmisaries of ‘Badrachala Ramadasu’, they presented Sultan with six lakh worth of gold coins imprinted with Lord Ram’s seal. Their demand was to accept it as a compensation for the fund Ramadasu diverted from the royal treasury and to order his immediate release. A bewildered Sultan on realising that Bandrachala Ramadasu mentioned by the young warriors was none other than Goparaju (who considered himself as the servant of Lord Ram of Badrachala) obliged to the demand. He also identified the young warriors as Lord Ram and Lakshman.
On his release, a surprised and totally unaware Goparaju met Sultan only to be wrapped in a loving embrace for enabling him the darshan of Lord Ram and Lakshman. The Sultan also returned the entire gold to the Badrachalam temple.
Since then, it has been the royal custom of the Sultans of Hyderabad to send gifts to the Sita Ramachandra Swamy temple of Badrachalam on the occasion of Ram Navami celebrations every year!
Thus goes the legend of the Ramdas prison at the Golconda fort.
—
Srinath Mohandas
January 18, 2017
Śrīnāth Mohandās 