Here’s where you can spot royal Bengal tigers in Madhya Pradesh with the royalty of Bhopal while savouring the lost recipes of their family

For someone whose only reference point for Bhopal was Soorma Bhopali from Sholay, there’s precious little we knew of the capital city of Madhya Pradesh. A statue of Raja Bhoj greeted us at the airport, which is named after him. The 11th-century Parmar king who ruled over Malwa built a series of dams and Bhojtal, the artificial lake constructed by him — still the largest lake in Madhya Pradesh. The city that developed around the lake became known as Bhopal.

Explore Madhya Pradesh’s tiger reserves and discover Bhopal’s forgotten royal recipes

The area came under the Gond dynasty between the 14th and 18th centuries. In 1707, Gond Queen Kamalapati enlisted the services of Dost Muhammad Khan, an Afghan mercenary, to avenge her husband’s assassination. Dost was a Pashtun in the Mughal army, who became a soldier of fortune after Aurangzeb’s death. The region around present day Bhopal was gifted to him as jagir, which he skilfully expanded into a princely state. Unlike the Persian-Turkic origins of most medieval Muslim dynasties, Bhopal stands out as a rare principality with Afghan roots.

The Nawabi Hotels

Interestingly, Bhopal State was ruled by a series of four Nawab Begums between 1819- 1926. They set up railways, universities, hospitals and did more for women’s empowerment and feminism before such terms were even coined! Jehan Numa Palace was built in 1890 by general Obaidullah Khan, the second son of Nawab Sultan Jehan Begum and commander-in-chief of the Bhopal State Force. Jehan Begum’s third son, Hamidullah Khan, was the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal and his daughter, Sajida, married Saif Ali Khan Pataudi’s paternal grandfather, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi.

In 1983, Jehan Numa Palace opened as a heritage hotel with just 16 rooms. Over the years, it was expanded to a hundred rooms with stables and trotting tracks for their thoroughbred horses. The old foraging grounds on Bhopal’s outskirts, where fodder was grown for the royal horses, were transformed into a 12.5-acre oasis called Jehan Numa Retreat.

Lost Recipes of Central India

Every Jehan Numa property has an iconic tree reserved for bespoke lamplit dinners under starry skies. So, we headed there “Bhopal’s cuisine has Afghan and Frontier influences and the dishes are not too spicy or rich”, explained Saleem Quraishi, who also belongs to Bhopal’s royal family.

At Under The Jamun Tree (the restaurant) he recounted stories while we savoured the Lost Recipes of Central India — pilfora (pounded meat), chicken rezala (green coriander based gravy), jangli maas (mutton curry), chapli kebab and gulab ki kheer. One dish relished by general Obaidullah Khan’s wife was Parindey mein Parinda, where up to seven birds were stuffed into one another like an avian matrushka. A sparrow was stuffed inside a quail, which went into a partridge that was put inside a jungle fowl, in turn loaded into a goose, which was stuffed into a peacock! We restricted ourselves to enjoying birds in flight.

Big cats of Bhopal

Bhopal is the ideal base to explore the ancient cave drawings of Bhimbetka and wildlife safaris in Satpura National Park. Google ‘Tigers of Bhopal’ and you’ll discover that 11 tigers roam around the forested city. It was while hunting for Tatya Tope after the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny that captain James Forsyth stumbled upon the Satpura Hills. Pachmarhi was declared the first reserve forest in India, though Satpura was notified as a tiger reserve as recently as 2000. Unlike Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Panna and Pench, Satpura is perhaps Central India’s best-kept secret. The Tawa River and its tributary Denwa, snake through the forest with a reservoir forming the western boundary of the park and adjoining Bori Wildlife Sanctuary.

After a magnificent sighting of a leopard by the riverbank and a sloth bear in the bush in the core area, we spotted a tigress with three cubs on the tracks of the buffer zone, thanks to our guides. Back at our hotel, Reni Pani Jungle Lodge, we celebrated at the Gol Ghar with a Bhopali thali and tendu ice-cream made from foraged fruits and flowers. Summers are warm but great for tiger sightings. After a brief lull of the monsoon, the park reopens with the additional charm of horse riding holidays in winter.