Turbans, Titles, and Tigers: Symbols of Rulership

Abstract

By the late nineteenth century, the petty warring among Hyderabad’s elites had subsided. As the samasthans had survived by the military support they could provide and the armed forces they controlled,what would now fill the vacuum created by a more peaceful Deccan? The answer to this predicament had already been in play for centuries, but now took on fresh importance. The samasthan families as well as other participants in Hyderabad’s nobility capitalized on ceremony, pomp, and bluster. These ceremonial activities began to absorb the attention and wealth once expended on military adventures.¹ This occurred concomitant with the “high noon” of the Raj, which brought its own need for ceremony and imperial display. The ways in which these processes materialized was a form of “ornamentalism” or, “hierarchy made visible.”² A composite court culture emerged that contained elements of Hindu, Muslim, and European practice. The samasthan families used a variety of strategies to take advantage of this increasingly ceremonial world. Recognizing status, reaffirming rank, exchanging gifts, and other negotiations over power were largely meted out in the durbars held at different levels of power in Hyderabad State, and in British India as well.