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| Bada Imambara,Lucknow, India. flickr,com |
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| Bada Imambara,Lucknow, India. flickr,com |
interior, Bada Imambara,Lucknow, dramline.com
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| interior Bada Imambara,Lucknow,Alam.com |
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| Asaf-ud-Daula,Nawab,Awadh,India en.wikipedia.org |
Bada Imambara, neither a mosque nor a mausoleum, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India was built by Nawab of Awadh, Asaf-ud-Daula. An imambara is a shrine built by Shia Muslims for the purpose of Azadari. It is one of the most fascinating buildings in India and is being visited by thousands of people every day. At 50 by 16 meters and over 15 meters tall, the massive building has no beams supporting the ceiling and is considered as one of the largest arched constructions in the world. There are eight surrounding chambers built to different roof heights, allowing the space above these to be reconstructed as a three-dimensional labyrinth with passages interconnecting with each other through 489 identical doorways. it is possibly the only existing maze in India and came about unintentionally to support the weight of the building which was built on marshy land.The architect was one Kifayatullah from Delhi. He was buried in the main hall of the Imambara.
The compassion and humane nature of the Nawab was brought out during the construction of Bada Imambara. During the reign of Nawab Asaf the whole region was in the grip of famine and hunger. The people, already reeling under poverty and hunger, needed food to stay alive to survive the bad period. The ruler decided to build the great Imambara, on food-for-work basis to mitigate the people's sufferings and hunger.
It was an innovative and grand project ever undertaken with an express purpose of providing employment for people in the region for almost a decade while the famine lasted. He employed roughly 22,000 people to work day and night and built this huge building. An interesting aspect of the construction of Bada Imambara was around one-fourth of the work done by ordinary people during the day was demolished at night by noble men against payment. Thus, there was always scope for continuous employment for the people. The work of Imambara began in 1785 and completed in 1791 It is also said that before distributing muskmelons among the poor, Asaf-ud-Daula, a caring human being as he was, used to get them inserted with jewels.
The Nawab of Awadh was a wonderful human being with a big heart which many rulers lacked. They spent more time in the harem, dallying with the damsels than among their subjects This wonderful historical building is a silent remainder of India's past ruler's affluence and his generosity towards his subjects - both rich and poor who underwent hell during the famine. What a way to take care of peoples' pangs of hunger in times of distress, a noble act that takes the persons near to God.
A ruler of charitable disposition, the Nawab was so popular that there is still a well-known saying in Lucknow that "he who does not receive (livelihood) from Asaf-ud-Dowlah, will receive it from Ali-Moula" (Jisko de Moula, usko kya de Asaf-ud-Doula).
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| Imambara,Lucknow, India. flickr.com |
Total cost of building the Imambara was between half a million rupees to a million rupees. Nawob had spent between four and five hundred thousand rupees on its decoration, embellishments, etc.
(Revised post https://www.navrangindia.in/2014/10/a-humane-builder-of-bada-imambara.html)
Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bara_Imambara
https://www.lucknowportal.com/item/bara-imambara-lucknow/
Meenakshi Khanna (2007-07-01). Cultural History Of Medieval India. Berghahn Books. p. 82. ISBN 978-81-87358-30-5.
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