Feature on Dattar by Anam Shaikh

  Feature
Anam Shaikh

Datar
Sometimes you find the most amazing thing in the most unexpected places.  (Anonymous)

        Tombs are said to be one of the sacred places where people come in huge crowd. The reasons of arrival of people are different. Many come to see the amazing architecture but many as believers, who believe on saints and their karamat.

       The tomb of Shah Jamil Datar Gurnari is near the shrine of Pir Patho at Thatta district. The saint is said to be the descendant of Imam Moosa Kazima. It is said that Shah Jamil was an ironsmith. He originally belonged to Soratha In Gujrat and had migrated to Sindh on the invitation of Pir Patho. He had married the daughter of Sultan Mehmood Ghaznavi, known by the name of Bibi Amnat.

        It is said that Datar got fully isolated from the world for forty days on a boat for the worship of Allah (chilla), where he died and people buried him on that boat. The isolation of Datar from the world in the love of Allah is Divine.

        Tomb of Datar is constructed on a boat which is surrounded by the water of river Indus. View of a boat with tomb on it is so fascinating. There is a small mosque on the right side of shrine. Entrance door is so huge and the architecture of door enthralled eyes of viewer. Precious chandeliers are hanged with ceiling and fulgent tiles give glaring look. Colorful cloths and threads of votive are tied on a big bamboo. Fragrance of joss sticks (aggerbattis) spread all over the shrine and hit the olfactory sensation as we enter the shrine.

     Tourists come from different parts of the world and enjoy the creativity. There is a play ground for children to play on the left side of entrance. Rooms for tourists or believers are constructed on the same road to the shrine.

    Like Datar several tombs are enshrine in Thatta. Shrine of Noori, a fisher woman and a love of Jam Tamachi a prince of Samma, is in the middle of Kenjhar lack.

      Makli is the biggest necropolis in the world. About 125,000  saints have found their last resting place in Makli. The monuments of Makli also tell the story of external cultural influence in lower Sindh including Hindu, central Asian, Persian cultures. Among the outstanding monuments constructed in Makli are the stone tombs of Jam Nizamuddin II and of Isa khan Tarkhan. The most colorful is that of Diwan Shurfa.

       The shrine of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalander in Sehwan, gives a dazzling look with its Sindhi Kashi tiles, mirror work and two gold doors. The inner sanctum is about 100 yards square with  silver canopied grave in the middle.

      Every year thousands perform pilgrimage to these sides to commemorate the saints buried here.
 Places like Datar’s tomb are often underestimated. Media is supposed to count such places in historical ones so that the beauty of Pakistan increases more and more.

 Feature   Datar
Anam Shaikh
BS -III , Roll number: 2K14/MC/07