1687: When Aurangzeb finally took Golconda
After 8 months of siege, treachery brought down the Qutb Shahi dynasty.
Aurangzeb's siege of Golconda ran for eight months and only ended when an insider opened the gate. The Mughal era of the Deccan began that night.
By 1687, Aurangzeb had spent over a decade trying to bring the Deccan sultanates under direct Mughal control. Bijapur fell in 1686. Golconda — defended by its formidable walls and an elaborate water-and-acoustics system — held out longer.
The legend is that an officer named Abdullah Pani opened a gate from the inside in exchange for promises that were never kept. Sultan Abul Hasan Tana Shah was captured, dressed as a beggar in the Daulatabad fort prison, and fed there until his death.
Most of Golconda's wealth — the diamond trade alone had funded a third of the dynasty's revenue — was carted to Aurangabad and Delhi. The Hope Diamond, the Koh-i-Noor, and the Regent Diamond all came from the Kollur mines in this region. Hyderabad became a Mughal province until the founding of the Nizam dynasty in 1724.
