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Kalaburagi, formerly Gulbarga, is a city in northern Karnataka, India, famous as the first capital of the Bahmani Sultanate and for the Sufi shrine of Khwaja Banda Nawaz. Its top sights are Gulbarga Fort and its domed Jama Masjid, the royal tombs of Haft Gumbaz, the Sharana Basaveshwara Temple and the Buddha Vihar.
The name, first recorded under the Chalukyas in the 6th century, means rocky land in Kannada; after 1321 the Delhi Sultanate renamed it Gulbarga, city of flower gardens. In 1347 Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah made it the capital of the new Bahmani Sultanate, which ruled from here until the court moved to Bidar in the 15th century, and in 2014 its monuments were placed on UNESCO's tentative list.
Today Kalaburagi is a divisional headquarters known for its tur dal, grown so widely that the district is called the Tur Bowl of Karnataka. Beyond the city lie the Buddhist stupa of Kanaganahalli, the Ashokan site of Sannati, the Rashtrakuta capital of Malkhed and the Dattatreya temple of Ganagapur.
Gulbarga Fort in Kalaburagi was first built by Raja Gulchand and greatly enlarged in 1347 by Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah, founder of the Bahmani Kingdom. Ringed by a double wall and a 30-foot moat, the 57-acre fort has 15 towers mounted with 26 guns, each 8 m long and still well preserved.
The Jama Masjid Gulbarga stands inside Gulbarga Fort in Kalaburagi and was built in 1367 by the Persian architect Rafi under the Bahmani king Mohammed Shah I. It is unique for being fully enclosed, its prayer hall covered with low domes and a single large dome over the bays before the mihrab.
Haft Gumbaz, the seven domes, is a group of tombs of the Bahmani dynasty in Kalaburagi, built in the 14th and 15th centuries in an early Indo-Islamic style. Four of the seven tombs are those of Bahmani sultans, the largest being the tomb of Firuz Shah Bahmani, set in a garden.
Khwaja Banda Nawaz Dargah in Kalaburagi is the shrine of Bande Nawaz, also called Gisu Daraz, a Chishti Sufi saint who settled in the Bahmani capital around 1400 at the invitation of Sultan Firuz Shah. His mausoleum was built by Ahmad Shah, and his urs draws thousands of people of different faiths.
Sharana Basaveshwara Temple in Kalaburagi is the shrine of Sharanabasaveshwara, a Lingayat saint known for his teaching of Dasoha, giving is earning, and holds his samadhi in its inner sanctum. A lake lies beside the temple, and its yearly chariot festival draws devotees across communal lines.
Buddha Vihar Kalaburagi is a Buddhist temple and spiritual centre in Kalaburagi that began on 7 January 2007. Built in traditional Buddhist style, the complex blends architectural features of the great Buddhist centres of Sanchi, Sarnath and Ajanta and of Nagpur into one striking campus.
Ganagapur Dattatreya Temple is the shrine of Lord Dattatreya at Ganagapura in the Afzalpur taluk of Kalaburagi district. Pilgrims also visit the Nirguna Math with its Nirguna Padukas and the Sangam where the Bhima and Amarja rivers meet, where Narasimha Saraswati is said to have done penance.
Gulbarga Tur Dal is the pigeon pea of the Kalaburagi region, known in Kannada as Kalaburagi Togari Bele and protected by a Geographical Indication tag since 2019. The district is called the Tur Bowl of Karnataka, and its orange-yellow dal is prized for its aroma and short cooking time.
Kanaganahalli Stupa is an ancient Buddhist site on the left bank of the Bhima river in Kalaburagi district, about 3 km from Sannati. Its great stupa, built from around the 1st century BC, bore finely carved panels in the Amaravati tradition, including an inscribed portrait of the emperor Ashoka.
Sannati is a village on the Bhima River in Kalaburagi district, known for the Chandrala Parameshwari Temple. When the roof of its Kali shrine collapsed in 1986, four Ashokan edicts were found, and later excavations uncovered the fortified ancient city of Ranamandal and ruins of a great stupa.
Malkhed, the ancient Manyakheta, is a town on the Kagina river about 40 km from Kalaburagi that was the imperial capital of the Rashtrakutas in the 9th and 10th centuries under Amoghavarsha I. It keeps a historic fort and the 9th-century Jain temple of Neminath beside the Bhattaraka Math.
Bidar Fort is the stronghold of the second Bahmani capital, built up by Sultan Ahmad Shah I when he moved his court from Kalaburagi, then Gulbarga, to Bidar in 1427. Set on the edge of the Bidar plateau, it holds over 30 monuments and was placed on UNESCO's tentative list in 2014.
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