Mind Monsoon: The Imam Bargahs

We visited two Imam Bargahs (or Imambargahs, or Hussainias), a large one (bara) and a small one (chhota).

Imam Bargahs are dedicated to the prophet who was the grandson of the prophet Mohammad. In fact, this is the point where the Sunni and Shiite Muslims disagree- who is the next prophet after Mohammad?

Shia Muslims believe that the next prophet was the Hussain Ibn Ali, the grandson of Mohammad, who was killed in battle. The purpose of an Imam Bargah is to celebrate his life, which they do once a year on the day that he died. On this day (Ashura), everyone goes to the Imam Bargah for a large gathering, and afterward there is a parade when models of buildings are carried through the town. At the end of the parade, the models are buried in the ground.

The bara Imam Bargah has a couple of interesting features.

First, the entrance. You enter in through a huge gate and then through a smaller gate and gardens to get there. Although it may not have been landscaped in the past, the location is still beautiful, and seeing greenspace of any variety here is always comforting.

Here's a picture of the front of the building, including an appropriate "no spitting" sign.

Here's another great sign:

If you can't read it, it says "to spread filth is the nature of animal. We are human"

Second, the Imam Bargah itself has incredible acoustics in its main hall. I took a picture of the ceiling so you can see what’s going on:

In terms of what the acoustics actually do, they allow you to hear someone whisper from across the hall, much like a kissing arch, if you are familiar with those.

Thirdly, it has a labyrinth on the upper floors. I’m not sure exactly what was happening before, but they decided to build the labyrinth (which is really just a collection of tunnels and not much of a large maze) because the building was too top-heavy. I think that they were taking things out of the top, but it also could be for reinforcements from the roof. It was pretty unclear when we were there. However, now it’s just a tourist attraction, and it enables you to go see all of the sights of Lucknow from the roof. Here are some pictures that I took:

Some arches in the labyrinth.

The view of the great outside.

Arches outside and graffiti.

A view of the top of a mosque (aka minaret) and a clock tower.

The last thing that I really liked was the bathing well. Although it is no longer open for bathing, it really is a beautiful place, and the architecture was just phenomenal.

Check out that beautiful stone.

The Chotta Imam Bargah. First, this is in the old part of Lucknow, which has windier and smaller streets.

While this Imam Bargah serves a similar purpose to the other one, it is quite different. One way in which it is different is the landscaping. The Imam Bargah included a pond of water, which is a sign of beauty in architecture (think Taj Mahal).

The building also differed architecturally, as the decorations were in script, which I personally find quite beautiful. This is quite unlike the stonework at the other Imam Bargah.

Something that both of the places shared were the tradition of collecting chandeliers from different places and displaying them there. I took a couple of pictures of the ones that I found to be the most beautiful, and here's one.