NAGORE DARGAH

One night Fatima begum had a dream that she will be blessed by a son who would be saviour of people and will spend his lifetime to spread Islam. The famous saint was born in Manikpur near Ayodhya in 910 AD as per the vision. At an young age Hameed was intelligent and learnt Arabic and mastered the same. He was embodiment of wisdom and divinity.

At his parents insistence he sought a religious teacher who could unravel the various mysteries of the world. He went to Gwalior, where he met his teacher Hazarath Syed Muhamad Ghouse. After a decade of training, he travelled back to his home town with a bunch of 404 disciples. Together they toured extensively to Afghanistan, Baluchistan performing miracles curing the sick of disease, making the dumb speak, deaf to hear, and blind to see.

Enroute to Mecca, Hameed was approached by a noble to bless his wife Johara with a son. The saint gave Nooruddin betel leaf to be chewed by his wife. He ordered seperation with his wife for 40 days and than carry out martial bliss. She ultimately conceived a son who was named Syed Muhammad Yosuf. He followed the holy saint to Mecca as ordained.

The saint travelled extensively from Mecca,Medina to all parts of the Indian sub-continent including Sri Lanka to propagate Islam. Towards the end of his religious tour he visited Thanjavur, where the king Achutappan Nayak was afflicted by pro-longed illness. The saint was invited by the royalty to cure his disease. After deep meditation he discovered it was due to the effects of black magic by his enemies. He found out that a dove was pricked with pins making it suffer. He removed the pins from the body of the dove one by one, and thereby got rid of its suffering. The king was cured of his affliction gradually and in turn offered him some gold jewellery, which he refused to accept. Instead the saint requested the king to grant him a small land bank on the shores of Nagore.

The king happily allotted 30 acres of land opp the sea shore in Nagore, on which the present Dargah stands. The Qadir Wali dargah now symbolises secular tradition with the visit of people from all religious leanings. On every thursday people from all over show up at the dargah and what a coincidence we too showed up on a Thursday.

Kandoori festivity is celeberated during the first fortnight of the Islamic month of Jamathul akhir. Piligrims from all over the world visit the dargah to participate in the festivity.

LOCATION Nagore is located on the ECR route just after Kariakal enroute to Velankanni. One can reach this destination from Pondicherry or Chennai via the ECR road. Otherwise the nearest railway head is Nagapattinam which is scheduled for inaugration from Jan 2010. Otherwise one can reach this destination from Maylatdurai railway station. It is hardly 50 kms. The nearest airport is Trichy 140 km.