A treasure hunt clue referring to Hyderabad in Telangana as 'Bhagyanagar' by the Secunderabad Club has sparked a controversy as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been advocating to rename Hyderabad as "Bhagyanagar" after the Bhagyalakshmi temple adjacent to the Charminar. "Residence of the rulers of Bhagyanagar," the clue read. Some of the other clues include, “Father of our constitution takes holy class here” and “Anjali recites holy book of Hindus in this school.”
While he was campaigning for the BJP during Telangana assembly elections in 2018, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath said that Hyderabad would be renamed as Bhagyanagar if they were voted into power in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too referred to Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar when he was in the city in July, 2023.
According to the coordinator of the game, there was no specific reason to refer to Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar in the clue for the event ‘Treasure Hunt 24 Wonder on Wheels' on January 25. “It is a fun game. There is nothing political about it,” he added.
The Charminar was built in 1591 by Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah, which serves as the foundation of Hyderabad located on the southern banks of the Musi river.
According to reports, the origin of the name Bhagyanagar is often associated with Quli Qutb Shah's marriage to Bhagmati which led to the naming of the city as Bhagnagar. The city was believed to have been renamed as Hyderabad after Bhagmati converted to Islam and adopted the name Hyder Mahal. However, there is a debate among historians about the existence of Bhagmati.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), in an Right to Information (RTI) reply, had said that the Bhagyalakshmi temple was an ‘unauthorised construction’ which was built after 1959. ASI also furnished photographs taken over a period of 53 years. While the picture taken in 1959 does not show the presence of any temple structure, the picture taken in the early 1980s negates BJP’s claims that the structure does not predate the Charminar.