A Sangat of beliefs, a tale of harmony

LUCKNOW: A row of Awadhi-style arches makes a wall around this 445-year old piece of heritage built sometime between 1570 and 1580 AD. The conical dome of the temple of Shri Chand Bhagwan against these arches speaks volumes about the unified Hindu-Muslim society of Awadh of the 16th century.
The worn out but intricately carved dome rises high from behind the golden mud that is warning to fall apart any moment.The spokes, one is told, were made with a concentrated mix of gold, silver, brass, bronze and copper.
“Two years ago, when heavy rains pounded Mahmudabad, the upper storey of this temple washed down like wet mud,” came the voice from the tiny frame of a woman, Pooja Maurya, wife of the temple’s current Mahant, who has been living in the 445-year-old Sangat Quila for the past 16 years.
Boasting of an impressive syncretic culture of Awadh, the Sangat Quila at Mahmudabad houses a temple of Shri Chand Bhagwan (the second son of Guru Nanak Dev) on a 35-acre land. When the ancestors of the present Raja of Mahmudabad moved to the jungles of Sitapur, they converted the land for agricultural and residential purposes and gave away 500 bighas to the Sangat (a body of Sadhus). This land was to be used as per the desires of the Sangat forever.
“Wherever our ancestors had land, they gave part of it to a Sangat. The land was to be used as per their discretion as the faith and ideals of the people were important to them. It became a tradition in itself and the land was not given on rent or lease. The Sangat became the owner,” shared Raja Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan Mahmudababad.
The Raja’s family also took part in the occasional rituals of the temple keeping Islamic boundaries in mind. “En route his trip to Rampur during the Bhakti movement, Tulsidas is also said to have stayed at the Sangat Quila,” added Khan.
While the Quila is important to Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims, it also attracts Christian devotees.
“Puja at the temple of Shri Chand Bhagwan takes place everyday and a special bhandara is organised on Basant Panchmi when around a 100 sadhus converge at the living heritage. Christians also visit it at regular intervals,” said Mahant Arvind Das Maurya.
As Pooja moves around the temple, opening centuries-old locks to historical traditions, the vertical spokes on the dome shine against the winter sun of January.
There are samadhis (memorials) at the temple with ashes of the previous Mahants, secured permanently under square cement structures. Like all buildings of erstwhile Awadh, the temple has glimpses of the Mughal-styled architecture and the typical fishes of Lucknow engraved at the entrance gate. The biggest samadhi, of the first Mahant of the temple, bears the southern Indian architectural form.
Four kilometers away, in contrast to the dilapidated condition of the four-century-old temple at Sangat Quila Mahmudabad, stands a well-maintained mud-housed arched temple at Paintepur. Known as Udaseen Muni Ashram Sangat, the temple is painted in vibrant hues and paintings.
Manoeuvring his way through the arches of the temple, 65-year-old Mahant Pritam Das recollects how the land for the Sangat was given to the first Mahant, Haridas, around 300 years ago by the royal family of Bilehra (maternal side of the present Raja of Mahmudabad).
This temple also has a story, Das says.
“When the Sangat visited the estate for the first time, the follower of the first Mahant went to the Raja with a limited amount of ‘prasad’. With a surety that the small quantity would be enough for all the people in the Raja’s durbaar, he offered it to the Raja. It was a miracle how the prasad served everyone. A surprised Raja gave away some land to the Sangat immediately,” he says.
Sharing another story he says, “Every Ekadashi, a fair is organised outside the temple and it was Rani Kaniz Abid, mother of Raja of Mahmudabad, who had decided that the income from the fair would be handed over to the Sangat as waqf (endowment) for eternity.”
The temple, itself spread across an acre, has a 10-acre agricultural land to its share.
Painted in the most effervescent of colours, a queue of dome-shaped samadhis at the temple speak volumes about the inter-religious harmony in Awadh. Speaking of fishes and the domes, the crown and the arches, and the devotees transcending castes and creeds, the Sangats at Mahmudababad and Bilehra estate are a living heritage, vouching for protection from the calamities of time, tide and people.