English: The Golconda Fort from near the Fateh Darwaza (Gate of Victory, named so after Aurangzeb laid siege to the fort in 1687 CE). The earliest ramparts of Golkonda were built by the Kakatiya King Prataparudra Deva in 1143 CE upon the suggestion of a shepherd. Hence the name 'Golkonda', from the Telugu words 'Golla' meaning 'shepherd' and 'Konda' meaning 'hill'. From the Kaktiyas, the hill and its bulwark fell into the hands of the Bahmani Sultans in 1363 CE, who did not make many improvements over what the Kakatiyas had done. One after the other, the Subedars (Governors) of the five provinces, including Golkonda, held by the Bahmanis declared independece from the Bahmanis. Golkonda, thus came under the aegis of Subedar Quli Qutub-ul-Mulk in 1518 CE. Quli Qutub-ul-Mulk later came to be known as Sultan Quli Qutub Shah, the founder of the Qutub Shahi Dynasty. Golkonda became their capital. The Qutub Shahi Kings were the ones who built almost all of the structures we see in ruins today. In 1590 CE, the fourth Qutub Shahi Sultan, Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah, moved the capital from Golkonda to the newly built city of Hyderabad, where he commissioned the building of the Charminar, a year later. In 1687 CE, after several previous attempts and a final eight month long siege, the zealous and over-ambitious Mughal emperor Aurangzeb finally captured Golkonda and imprisoned the last Qutub Shahi King, Sultan Abul Hasan Qutub Shah, aka. Tana Shah. He was imprisoned in the Daulatabad fort in Maharashtra, where he died in 1699 CE. After a brief period of chaos following the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 CE, the Mughal empire all but crumbled and its influence rapidly declined. In 1724 CE, the Viceroy of the Mughals in the Deccan, Nawab Mir Qamaruddin Khan Siddiqi, declared independence from the Mughals (although acknowledging the supremacy of the Mughals). He founded the Asaf Jahi Dynasty (later known as the Nizam ul-Mulk of Hyderabad/the Nizams of Hyderabad) and ruled as the first Nizam. He ruled from Aurangabad until the second Nizam, his son, Mir Nizam Ali Khan Siddiqi Bahadur, Asaf Jah II, moved the capital back to Hyderabad in 1763 CE. The Asaf Jahi Dynasty ruled Hyderabad, Golkonda and the rest of the Telangana region of today's Andhra Pradesh along with the northern areas of modern Karnataka, central and eastern regions of modern Maharashtra, and built the richest and largest princely state on the Indian subcontinent. Their reign lasted until military action by the Indian Army on September 17, 1948, under the name of 'Operation Polo', effectively ended monarchy in the newly independent India and forcibly acceded the Hyderabad State into the Indian Union.