Hyderābād City (Haidarābād) (, ), headquarters of the district of Sindh province of Pakistan traces its early history to Neroon, a Sindhi ruler of the area from whom the city derived its previous name, Neroon Kot. Its history dates back to medieval times, when Ganjo Takker (Barren Hill), a nearby hilly tract, was used as a place of worship. Lying on the most northern hill of the Ganjo Takker ridge, just east of the river Indus, it is the third largest city in the province and the eighth largest in the country with an expanse over three hillocks part of the most northerly hills of the Ganjo Takker range, 32 miles east of the Indus with which it is connected by various routes leading to Gidu Bandar.
Hyderabad, as the historic capital of Sindh, is the centre of all the provincial communications: road, rail, waterways and air. From the date of its foundation (1768), its manufactures-ornamented silks, silver- and gold-work, and lacquered ware-have been the chief in the province, and during its heyday had gained prizes at the industrial exhibitions of Europe. Some noteworthy antiquities are the tombs' of the Kalhora jagirani and Talpur rulers.
Early history
The early settlement
The area around Hyderabad was an agricultural region with forests during the Indus Valley civilization.
Under the rule of a local ruler Neroon, this small fishing village thrived upon the banks of the mighty Indus river. A nearby hill tract called the Ganjo Takker or the bald (barren) hill, later attributed to as the Ganjo Range by British occupants, protected the town raising it above the level of the water and safe from flood calamities that were regular in neighbouring regions. Of popular tradition, the place came to be known as Neroon Kot نيرون ڪوٽ. Neroon Kot literally means the place where Neroon came from.
The Ganjo Takker ridge lay on a low limestone range and was used as a place of worship by the most adherent religious priests that blessed the city believing their meditation may result in excellent trade networks the city was developing at the time. But these very particular popularity traits in the areas of trade led the city vulnerable to outside sieges. Equipped mostly with farming equipment, the locals were attacked by the conquest of Islamic armies circa AD 711 and surrendered. Neroon was dethroned.
Hindu and Buddhist past
Rai Dynasty (c. 489 – 632 AD)
The Rai dynasty of Sindh was a Buddhist dynasty of Sindh and at its height of power ruled much of the Northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent. The dynasty reigned for a period of 144 years, c. 489 – 632 AD, concurrent with the Hun invasions of North India. The names of rulers might have been corruptions of Sanskrit names — Devaditya, Harsha, and SInhasena. The origins of the dynasty, caste status, and how they rose to power remains unknown. They apparently had familial ties with other rulers of South Asia including Kashmir, Kabul, Rajasthan, Gujarat, etc. — Aror is noted to be the capital of both Hind and Sindh. Alexander Cunningham had proposed an alternate chronology (? – >641 AD) — primarily on the basis of numismatic and literary evidence — identifying the first two Rais as Hunas and the later three as rulers of Zabulistan and Khorasan. However, there exists little historical evidence to favor the proposition of Hunas ever making to Sindh and the individual bases of his hypothesis stands discredited in modern scholarship. Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya supported Cunningham's chronology (? – >641 AD) but held the Rais to be descendants of Mauryas and Shudra, by caste.
Chacha dynasty (c. 632 – c. 724 AD)
The Brahmin dynasty of Sindh (), also known as the Chacha dynasty, were the Sindhi Hindu Brahmin ruling family of the Chacha Empire. The Brahmin dynasty were successors of the Buddhist Rai dynasty. Most of the information about its existence comes from the Chach Nama, a historical account of the Chach-Brahmin dynasty.
Chinese traveller, Hieun Tsang, who had visited the Sindh region during the start of the Chacha rule, described in his work that Buddhism had declined in the region and Brahminical Hinduism had once again gained the majority dominance.