Dolay Shah Ke Chohay!“Rambling thoughts”
Shrine of Pir Shah Daula, GujratA saint of Suhrawardi School, during the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb, Shah Daula in Gujrat, is said to have the power to punish disobedient parents in the shape of children with small heads (Microencephalic Children). These children, who then; serve at the shrine, are called “Rats of Shah Daula”.
Thousands of worshippers, specially barren women who supplicate for children, come to the saint invoking his blessings for the fulfillment of their wishes. The first born, usually with a very small head, is called the "mouse of Shah Daula" and is offered to work as a servant at the shrine. Subsequent births produce normal children.
According to a centuries-old tradition, barren women who worship at the shrine of the Sufi saint Shah Daula, will become fertile. But unless they donate their first-born child to the shrine as an oblate, all their subsequent children will be born disabled.
Claims are made that the tradition has been used as the foundation for a trade in the donated children, who are deliberately disfigured and sold to professional beggars by the shrine's guardians, although the shrine is now controlled by the government of Pakistan. It has been claimed that the disfigurements are caused by a genetic abnormality, but studies show that the children are unrelated to each other.
There may be as many as 10,000 of these people, most in the Punjab province & the city of Gujrat
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