When you are one of the richest men in the world, a ruler of a princely State where diamonds are measured in kilograms and pearls by acres, and have an obsession for fine clothes, lots of fine clothes—this is what your wardrobe looks like. 🙂

Made of the finest Burmese teak, the wardrobe of His Highness Mir Mahbub Ali Khan Siddiqi Bayafandi Asaf Jah VI, the 6th Nizam of Hyderabad State (1869 – 1911), is 176 feet long and built on two levels. It remains housed to date in the old palace or Purani Haveli in Hyderabad’s Old City. Post India’s independence, the palace is now a school and a museum; the latter packed with the silver and gold gifts encrusted with diamonds presented to the 7th Nizam on his silver jubilee celebrations in 1936.

The 6th Nizam is said to have never repeated his clothes. Once worn, they were given away. Some claim he bought entire bales when getting his clothes stitched and had the unused fabric burnt to ensure there was no other outfit remotely like his. Sherwanis [long coat-like garment worn by men in South Asia], shirts, coats, socks, shoes, headgear; he could just not have enough of them. Aah! The lives of the rich and famous in 19th Century India. 😀

Factoid: The Nizams, an abbreviated version of Nizam-ul-Mulk meaning ‘Administrator of the Realm,’ were of Turkish origin from Samarkand region. They were the sovereign rulers of Hyderabad State for 224 years, from 1724 to 1948, an area that spread over 214,190 sq. kilometres populated by 16.34 million people at the time of India’s independence.

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[This post is a re-post. It was first published on ramaary.blog on 18 July, 2017. Due to COVID 19 restrictions, I am unable to generate new travel content. In its place I am reposting some of my favourite posts which I had blogged about earlier.]