The Shrine of Abandonment: The "Rat Children" of Shah Daulah, Pakistan
Words by Azania Imtiaz Khatri-Patel
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The Shrine of Abandonment: The "Rat Children" of Shah Daulah, Pakistan
There is a story in my aunt’s family, of how their lineage begins to dwindle every other century. The family, the story goes, has ill fate in its veins. Every few generations the people of the family are unable to have children. If by some miracle, a child is born, it's a girl, bound to marry into another family, unable to in a traditional setup, carry forward the family’s legacy.
Four generations ago, this thinning of the family tree happened again. Between the many brothers and their wives, the family had no heir. An odd solution was proposed. A local Sufi shrine was known for its miracles. The family’s matriarch made the trek to the sacred grave and spoke to the caretaker. He encouraged her to make a mannat, a prayer with a promise of doing something in return if the desire was fulfilled.
She made a mannat, that if she was blessed with heirs, she would have the septum of the firstborn male pierced. Whether by coincidence or uncanny intervention, her prayer was answered shortly thereafter. The family grew, and keeping her word- the matriarch had the septum of her firstborn grandson pierced. It is said the boy wore a nose ring well into his pubescent years, to keep the family’s infertility away.
Such beliefs and mannats are not uncommon. As a child, my baby brother was often sick. Frightened by his frequent hospitalizations, my mother vowed to donate his weight in jaggery at Ajmer’s Moinuddin Chishti dargah when he turned eighteen. Apparently, it was after praying at this same shrine that Mughal Emperor Akbar was blessed with a son. A friend’s family wrapped a black thread blessed at a shrine around her ankle to keep the evil eye away. My uncle makes it a ritual of getting pens and pencils blessed at a shrine for all his nephews and nieces before board examinations.
But sometimes, these mannats take a nefarious turn. The body modification of piercings turns horrific, with young children being mutilated. The thin line between belief and fanaticism is crossed. A terrifying example of this comes from Gujarat City, in Pakistan. Home to the shrine of Sufi pir Shah Daulah, the city also has a staggering number of children and adults suffering from microcephaly, called by the locals as “chuhas” or rats.