Bara Imambara Short Story

752 Words4 Pages

Standing alone in a narrow passage, I’m lost, wondering which of the dark mysterious paths in front of me would lead me to my destination. The voices are echoing around me, but I cannot see anyone. Behind me is a corridor that opens to a door that takes me to another corridor with a door. I look around me and see no one. I hear a familiar voice and my guide emerges out of a dark corner. For a moment, I realise that I was almost close to being lost in a labyrinth with 1,000 passages and 489 doorways that clone each other — the famous Bhool Bhulaiya of Lucknow’s Bara Imambara. Grander story If there is one monument in Lucknow that fills me with awe, it’s the Bara Imambara. But it’s the story behind it that leaves me even more speechless. We go back in time to the 18th century — 1784 to be precise — when the province of Awadh was ravaged by famine. The Nawab of Awadh, Asaf-ud-Daula, hit upon an idea to find employment for his starving populace, both the rich and the poor. That’s how the Bara Imambara was born. It was neither a mosque nor a mausoleum, but was meant to be a prayer hall where the Shia Muslim community could congregate for mourning during Muharram. …show more content…

While the labourers worked brick by brick every morning, building the monument, the elite would start their work in the night, tearing down the entire structure, razing it to the ground. The cycle continued for 11 years until the monument Asafi Imambara or Bara Imambara was completed. Over 20,000 people worked on this project, which was based on the design of a Delhi-based architect, Kifayatullah, who apparently won the project through a

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