The Falaknuma Palace Is Completed

In the absence of regional wars under indirect British rule, many princely states build palaces as luxury residences rather than as accommodations within a fort. European influences are strong, possibly as a way of emulating the new British masters, not unlike the way Mughal art and architecture was still being imitated by smaller regional kingdoms a century earlier.

Of the many palaces that come up during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the Falaknuma palace in Hyderabad will become particularly well known for its opulence and grandeur. Commissioned by the Nizam, belonging to Hyderabad’s Asaf Jahi dynasty, and completed in 1893, it is testament to the wealth he has accumulated during British rule.