The forgotten Bahmani capital, 145 km from Hyderabad
The Bidar guide
Photo: Varun Wudayagiri · CC BY-SA 3.0
For a century Bidar was the capital of the Bahmani sultanate, the power that ruled the Deccan before Golconda and Bijapur split its inheritance. What it left behind is astonishing and almost unvisited: a fort with three rings of walls and palaces of lost tilework, a Persian-style madrasa with a minaret still standing, and a necropolis of great domed tombs on the town's edge.
It is our favourite kind of day trip — two and a half to three hours out, the whole round trip inside a single charge, and sites where you will often have a Bahmani palace entirely to yourself. The sights are spread across and beyond the small town, so the waiting car sets the rhythm.
Distance
145 km one way
Drive time
2.5–3 hours
Charging
No stop needed
One-way fare
about ₹5,300
Best time
October to February, when the Deccan plateau is at its clearest and the fort's open walks are a pleasure rather than a penance
Worth the trip
Photo: iMahesh · CC BY-SA 4.0
01
Bidar Fort
One of the largest forts in the Deccan and one of the emptiest: triple walls cut into red laterite, the Rangin Mahal's surviving tilework and mother-of-pearl, the Solah Khamba mosque, and ramparts with views over the plain. Give it two to three hours; it will take more if you let it.
Photo: Sngmsh8666 · CC BY-SA 4.0
02
Mahmud Gawan Madrasa
The great Persian merchant-minister's university of 1472, once three storeys of lecture halls and library around a courtyard, its surviving minaret still carrying bands of coloured tile. A ruin now, but an eloquent one — ten minutes' walk of pure Samarkand in Karnataka.
Photo: Praveenakumara · CC BY-SA 4.0
03
The Bahmani tombs at Ashtur
A row of monumental domed tombs of the Bahmani sultans a few kilometres east of town, including Ahmad Shah's with its painted interior and the lightning-split tomb whose broken dome shows the brickwork like anatomy. Haunting, and usually deserted.
Photo: Dev Raj V C · CC BY-SA 4.0
04
Gurdwara Nanak Jhira Sahib
The gurdwara at the spring that tradition holds Guru Nanak brought forth for a parched town, now a major pilgrimage centre with its white domes against the hillside. Heads covered, shoes off, and the langar is open to all.
Photo: Footlooseinme · CC BY-SA 4.0
05
Bidriware
The town's own metalcraft: blackened zinc alloy inlaid with silver, worked here since Bahmani times and named for the city. Watch it being engraved and buy from the workshops — the genuine article has real weight and real silver.
The itinerary, with Shoffr
Built around the real drive: 145 km via Zaheerabad, two and a half to three hours each way, and the whole round trip on one charge — by design, since Bidar district has almost no fast charging. One full day covers everything below.
The Bidar day
7:00
Leave Hyderabad
NH44 to Zaheerabad, then west across the Karnataka line. The dhabas at Zaheerabad are the traditional pause if breakfast calls.
10:00
Bidar Fort
The main event, in the cool half of the day. Rangin Mahal and the ramparts are the must-sees if you have to choose.
13:00
Lunch, then the madrasa
Mahmud Gawan's tiled minaret is minutes from the old town's eating places — twenty minutes of wonder between courses and the afternoon.
14:30
The Bahmani tombs at Ashtur
The necropolis east of town, at its best as the light starts to slant across the domes.
16:00
Nanak Jhira Sahib
The spring, the sarovar and the calm of the gurdwara as the day cools. Cover your head; scarves are available at the entrance.
17:30
Bidriware, then home
An hour at the workshops for the real thing, then the road. You are back in Hyderabad by about 21:00 on the same charge you left with.
Travel notes
- Do the fort first and give it real time — it is the reason to come, and its open stretches are far kinder before noon.
- Nanak Jhira asks the standard gurdwara courtesies: head covered, shoes off, tobacco left in the car.
- Genuine bidriware is heavy, cold to the touch and inlaid with actual silver — buy where you can watch the craftsmen work, not from the highway stalls.
Do it in a Shoffr
A BYD e6 electric SUV, a chauffeur trained and paid on guest care, and a fare fixed the moment you book. The road facts — fares, tolls, the charging plan and its backup — live on the Hyderabad to Bidar route page.
Book the Bidar trip