Imam-E-Zamana Shrine at Karbala Gharwali in Lucknow

Gharwali Karbala- Shrine of Living Imam in Graveyard

 

 By Prof.Mazhar Naqvi

Gharwali Karbala is a lesser known shrine among the Imami sites in Lucknow but its association with awaited or living Imam Mehndi makes it unique in Indian sub- continent. It is perhaps the only graveyard containing a shrine dedicated to the living Imam in India. Michael Paparozzi, a scholar of Arizona University in his recent study ‘Reach Me, My Imam!: South Asian Perspective of Imamate, Martyrdom and Divine Intervention, has lamented that no one could tell him during his visit to the holy place as to who built it or How the shrine earned the name Gharwali (Cave having) Karbala and why was it associated with Imam Mehndi? But Husainabad and Allied Trust (HAT), criticized severely for the utter neglect of the shrine, has answers to all the queries of Paparozzi.

HAT officials reveals that Gharwali Karbala was erected by Malika Afaq who was the wife of third king of Awadh Muhammad Ali Shah (1837-42) -the builder of famous Chota Imambara and creator of the endowment that later on came to be known as Husainabad trust. The queen built the shrine under her personal supervision on a sprawling complex near Shia Degree College in Daliganj area. She built an Imambara on one portion of Karbala and erected Rauza- Samra in the sacred memory of Imam Ali Naqi and Imam Hasan Askari on another part. After Malika’s death, the custody of shrine was passed to her son- in- law Nawab Sir Mohsinuddaula Bahadur and thereafter in the hands of Mirza Ali Qadar. It also remained under the custody of Almaroof Wazir Begum, the daughter of Nawab Sir Mohsinuddaula Bahadur. In 1921, she however handed it over to Husainabad Trust for its upkeep and maintenance.

The trust however remained somewhat indifferent to the shrine and a large part of the shrine caved in and anti- social elements grabbed it.HAT woke up from its slumber when the Media raised the issue. At the initiative of district administration, HAT constructed a boundary wall and two gates. It also spent some amount on the renovation of the structure over the steps that lead to the cave where alams are installed on a beautifully carved out shelf in the small but wall- to- wall carpeted enclosure. The major part of the shrine is still in ruins and even Rauza Samra and Imambara are not in a good shape.

After renovation, the number of devotees has been swelling and people leave money, flowers and sweetmeats. Religious gatherings are also organized now more frequently. This is indeed a welcome change. It is strange as to how Lucknow based devotees of Imam Husain who claim to surpass everyone in Marasim-e-Azadari ignored the dilapidated condition of a place dedicated to their living imam whose divine intervention they seek always for getting rid of their all sorts of problems. Their apathy appears to be more brazen when one looks at the poorly white washed Rauza Samra and Imambara adjacent to it. Imamis hold Imam Ali Naqvi and Imam Hasan Askari in high esteem. Mausam-e-Aza ends with the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hasan Askari in Lucknow through ‘Chup Tazia’ procession on 8^th Rabi-Ul-Awwal.

Malika Afaq had done a great job by preserving the cave (Ghar) and erecting Rauza Samra near it. Prior to her endeavor, Lucknow has shrines in memory of Hazrat Ali, Bibi Fatima, thousands of small and large Imambaras dedicated to Hasnain and Hazrat Abbas, Imam Musa Kazim and Imam Muhammad Taqi but no Dargah was exclusively dedicated to Imam Naqi and Imam Hasan Askari who was the father of Imam Mehndi Akhiruzzaman and martyred at the young age of 28.Similarly, no one before Malika Afaq had strived to erect a replica of the original Ghar (Cave) in Samra from where Imam Mehndi had disappeared to avoid persecution of the ruling monarch.

The modern city of Samarra is located on the bank of the river Tigris about 100 kms from Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. The city is a popular place of pilgrimage being the last resting place of Imam Naqi and his son Imam Hasan Askari. The golden dome on one shrine was presented by Nasr al-Din Shah and completed under Muzaffar al-Din Shah in the year 1905 A.D. Beneath the golden dome are four graves, those of Imam Ali Al-Naqi (10th Imam) and his son, Imam Hasan Al-Askari (11th Imam), Janab-E- Hakimah Khatoon, the sister of Imam Ali Al-Naqi Janab-E- Nargis Khatoon, the mother of Imam Mehndi. The second shrine marks the place where Imam Mehndi went into concealment. It has a dome that is decorated with blue tiles, and beneath it is the Sardab (cellar) from where the Imam is believed to have disappeared. Devotees perform the Ziarat of Sardab by a flight of stairs.

Gharwali Karbala also has the similar pattern and devotees enter cave by the flight of stairs. Arrangement for holding Majlises has also been made by erecting a hall over the cave but the old Imambara is in a state of utter neglect even today. Similarly, the row rooms believed to have been constructed by Malika as a remembrance of prison where Imams were kept in custody at Samra is almost in ruins and calls for immediate repairs and return to their original shape. Imambara’s gross neglect is quite surprising as Banmali Tandon mentions it as a derivative of world famous Bara Imambara with striking resemblance to the entrance of the latter. In his  book ‘The Architecture of Lucknow and its Dependencies 1722-1856’ Tandon has given a detailed description of the elaborate plan of Imambara and says “It appears to be a part of a large ensemble with a huge enclosure that contains an outer entrance gateway on its north-eastern end  and has yet other rectangular courts to its eastern side, containing a Karbala, a mosque and sundry  structures. Of these, the outer most gateway is a modest rectangular block penetrated by foliated arch which is at once flanked  and surmounted by little chambers….a tank (now unused) with fountains extends from the gateway to the Imambara”.

The accounts of Tandon and Paparozzi are enough to exhibit the importance of Malika Afaq Karbala in the wake of its association with the living Imam and also being the only place in the country having shrines dedicated to as many as three Imams, it however remains to be seen as to when HAT or devotees realize the fact and strive to restore the lost glory of the holy complex to offer solace to the soul of Malika Afaq.( Reference available on request)