Sufi Roshan Ali Shah and his Imambara at Gorakhpur

Sufi  Roshan Ali Shah and his Imambara at Gorakhpur
Sufi Roshan Ali Shah’s Imambara (abode of Imams) is a well known landmark of Gorakhpur and is famous for its Muharram rituals. Its history dates back to 1974 with the arrival of Syed Roshan Ali Shah. He had tremendous love for the progeny of Prophet Hazrat Mohammad and the tragedy of Karbala had a deep impact on his personality. His father Syed Ghulam Ashraf had arrived in India from Bokhara during the rule of Mohammad Shah. He left Delhi and settled at Shahpur after Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded India.   Syed Roshan Ali Shah however left his father and reached Gorakhpur where he inherited a sizable land from his maternal grandfather in  Daud Chowk area now known as  Mian Bazar.  

Out of his love for Ahle- Bait, He decided to build an Imambara on the inherited land and changed the name of Daud Chowk to Imamganj. He built an Imambara and a small mosque adjacent to it in 1780 and started performing doing Azadari in Muharram. As his popularity grew by leaps and bound, a number of influential persons turned his devotees. One of them, Raja Pahalwan Singh of Satari donated  Kusmi village  along with the jungles in 1793 for Niyaz of Imam Saheb.

Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula, the ruler of Oudh, offered a grant of 16 villages, Rs. 10,000 cash and a silver Tazia in 1796 to Roshan Ali Shah. An interesting story is linked with the encounter of the Sufi and Nawab. Roshan Shah The Sufi had literally no interest in worldly affairs. His world was confined to the praise of Allah, the beneficent and merciful, his Prophet and his progeny. He dedicated his life to prayer and began wandering in jungles with hardly any possessions to call his own.  Soon his fame began as a fakir who could talk to wild animals, tame the lion and cure people with his prayers. People flocked to him to request to him to pray for them, for they believed that his prayers would surely be answered by the Allah.

Imambara Sufi Roshan Ali Shah( Miyan Saheb) at Gorakhpur

It is said that once Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula happened to see the Sufi during a hunting expedition in a jungle, on a spine chilling cold night. The mystic was sitting by his dhooni with literally bno clothes on his body Nawab offered Roshan Shah his own expensive shawl to the fakir to brave cold but the Sufi threw it in his dhooni. Surprised at the strange behavior of Sufi , Nawab asked for an explanation. The mystic replied to the bewildered Nawab that the shawl was kept in the safest of places and could reproduce it on demand. Then, he took the shawl out from his ‘dhooni’ unburnt.

Amazed at his spiritual power, Nawab offered him a handsome grant but Hazrat Roshan Shan simply asked him to enlarge and expand his Imambara. With the resultant generous grant,

Shah built a ‘pucca’ enclosure around the central Imambara and added other edifices to it. Later, the raja of Rudrapur granted nine kos( 18 miles) of jungle land to him. More grants came from his queen and other local rajas and zamindaars. More so, Nawab Asaf-Ud-Daula also sent from Lucknow gold and silver plated tazias for  Imambara. These are still extant there. It is believed that the Sufi had promised to conduct azadari on behalf of the Nawab. Roshan Shah kept his words and every year he arranged for the tazia processions and other rites related to Muharram.

With love for all in his heart, regardless of caste, creed and religion, he continued his spiritual life with unflinching devotion to Azadari. He led a simple life with constant worship and   imposed rules of celibacy upon himself. As if this was not enough, he secluded himself from the world. He made a public appearance only during Muharram to lead the procession and remained elusive and inaccessible to people otherwise. He wore white robes and a white turban and never cut his hair. His Muharram procession that originate from and terminate at the Imambara is today an elaborate affair. Caparisoned horses and elephants wend their way to the streets  to the drum beat of a uniformed band. Gold and silver alams and tazias also accompany the procession that is witnessed and watched by multitude of people of all religions. Rooms, balconies and windows are occupied by the devotees to have a glimpse of holy relics accompanying the procession hours before its  arrival.