What to buy in Hyderabad

Hyderabad has drilled, strung and traded pearls since the Nizams. Two areas hold the trade: the lanes around Charminar and Patthargatti in the Old City, and the jewellery houses of Punjagutta and Basheerbagh. Mangatrai, trading since 1905, gives a certificate of authenticity with everything it sells; its prices run above the Charminar stalls, and the difference buys certainty. Most affordable strands are freshwater cultured pearls; a simple strand can cost a few hundred rupees and a fine matched necklace tens of thousands. Ask for a receipt that states what you bought, and keep big purchases for the established houses.

Laad means lacquer, and the bazaar on one of the four roads out of Charminar has sold lac bangles since the Qutb Shahis. They are made by hand in family workshops in the lanes around Talab Katta: a stick of lac softened over a small furnace, rolled into a hoop and studded with stones. Bangles are sold by the set, from simple dozens to bridal sets encrusted edge to edge.

Oil-based perfume, distilled by the deg-bhapka method: flowers boiled in a copper still, the vapour caught in sandalwood oil. Perfumer families blend it at counters around Charminar and Laad Bazaar; rose, oud and khus (vetiver) are the classics. A small phial of a simple blend costs from about ₹200, real oud many thousands. Ask which bottles are oil-based attar and which are alcohol-based perfume: the price difference is large.

A Deccani metal craft named after Bidar: pure silver inlaid into a metal alloy that is then blackened, so only the silver stays bright. Hyderabad and Bidar are its main centres, and bidriware has had a geographical indication since 2006. Old City workshops cluster around Allampalli; demonstrations also run at Shilparamam.

Ikat is dyed on the yarn before weaving, so the pattern is calculated before the loom starts. In Bhoodan Pochampally, about 50 km east, sarees, dupattas and plain fabric are sold by weavers and co-operatives directly; the Pochampally sari has had a geographical indication since 2005, and the UN named the village one of its Best Tourism Villages. Nearby Puttapaka weaves Telia Rumal, a double ikat with its own GI.

Cheriyal scrolls are Telangana's painted narrative panels, made by Nakashi families, with a GI of their own; the hereditary workshops are at Cheriyal, about 100 km north-east. In Chatta Bazaar, near Laad Bazaar, master calligraphers still letter Urdu by hand with a reed pen and will write out your name as a keepsake if you ask.