Sandy Sadhu Bela awaits clean-up

All rooms of Sadhu Bela temple have been locked up because the caretakers are afraid that snakes will enter them.

SUKKUR: All rooms except for the main worship hall of the Sadhu Bela temple have been locked up because the caretakers are afraid that snakes, which have appeared in large numbers after the floods, will slither into them.

“There are snakes everywhere,” said Haso Mal, secretary general of the Hindu Panchayat Sukkur. “We have asked the evacuee trust property authorities to send their men to properly clean the temple because we cannot do it on our own.” The rooms will stay shut till the officials appear.

Sadhu Bela, a historic Hindu temple situated in the middle of River Indus on an island opposite Bunder wall, was flooded around a month ago. One of the boundary walls collapsed and the entire complex was filled with five feet of water for more than 20 days. By now, the floodwater has receded but has left behind tons of silt that shimmer inside the temple under the burning sun.

Despite the caretakers’ cleaning efforts, the shrine still looks like a small desert within its four walls.

Damages to the temple

Talking to The Express Tribune, Haso Mal said that when he visited the temple on August 30, there had been water up to his waist. The garden with its lines of flowerbeds was destroyed, he said, adding that the tiled floor of the temple was also damaged significantly by the water and has now become quite uneven.

Two heavy-duty generators, at least 10 water suction pumps and dozens of ceiling fans and pedestal fans were damaged by the water, Haso Mal said, adding that the fans were removed after annual celebrations and stored away. Maunds of flour, rice, cooking oil, sugar and other daily use commodities which were stored at the temple were also washed away.

Federal minister’s visit

Federal minister for labour and manpower Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah came to Sadhu Bela along with Hindu Panchayat president Mukhi Eshwar Lal Makheja, Sukkur DCO Inamullah Dharejo and other officials on Tuesday. The minister went around the sandy temple and assured the Hindu Panchayat of his cooperation.

The minister said that the government was giving equal importance to religious minorities and was spending a ‘huge amount’ every year to maintain their places of worship.

“All efforts to repair and renovate Sadhu Bela will be taken,” Shah said, adding that the repairs will begin with the four boundary walls of the temple.

History of the temple

Eshwar Lal said that Baba Bankhandi Maharaj had come to this place in 1823, either from Kero Khetar near Delhi or Nepal, and had chosen Menak Parbat (the island where the temple stands) as his abode. The eighth Gaddi Nasheen of Baba Bankhandi Maharaj, Sant Harnam Das, started construction of this temple in 1889, when Baba Bankhandi died.

According to Eshwar Lal, the temple is spread over nine acres and comprises a main place of worship (Asthan of Baba Bankhandi Maharaj), abodes for his ‘shish’ (students), a library which houses books on religion and Hindu mythology, separate ‘Bhandars’ (dining rooms) for women and men, separate places of worship for men and women, washrooms and a huge garden.

Although the temple had withstood the floods of 1976, this year’s flood had wreaked havoc in the temple.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2010.