THE CHARMINAR IS a tall four-sided tower in the centre of Hyderabad (India). It was constructed in an Indo-Islamic style in 1591, soon after the capital of the Golconda Sultanate was moved to Hyderabad by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah (c1565-1612). Today  this impressive, elegant building is surrounded by market stalls and many shops. Whenever we visit Hyderabad   we spend some time around the Charminar.

 

Since the first time we visited the city (2012), there has been what looks like a makeshift Hindu temple attached to one corner of the Charminar. During our most recent visit in January 2025, it was still present and looking as makeshift as when we first saw it. On one of our several visits to Charminar,  the square in which it is located was surrounded by armed police and many armoured vehicles. It was during Ramazan and the police had erected barriers around the makeshift temple. The atmosphere was tense.

 

This January (2025), the Charminar area was peaceful and felt as relaxed as can be in a busy Indian market place. As we strolled along, I heard loud rhythmic tapping coming from a small shop. We wandered over to see what was going on.

 

The small shop had four men squatting on its floor. Each one held a hefty mallet. They were rapidly banging the mallets on small square, thick leather pads, which they supported with fingers. How they managed to avoid crushing their fingers with the mallets amazed me. We asked them what they were doing. They told us that they were flattening silver and gold to produce sheets of silver and gold leaf/foil. These ultra-thin (0.2-0.8 microns) metal sheets, which are edible,  are sold to caterers, who use them to decorate Indian sweets and other food items.

 

Known as ‘vark’ (also varak  Waraq, or warq) , these thin foils are made by putting silver or gold particles between two sheets of thin paper, and then pounding them with mallets as we observed. Later, the papers support the incredibly fragile foils, and can be peeled off when they metal is applied to foods.

 

We had never seen vark being made before. Had we not visited Charminar once again, it might have been a long time before we saw that process elsewhere.