A court in Rajasthan’s Ajmer has issued notices to several authorities including the ASI, on a petition seeking a physical survey of Ajmer Dargah. The petitioner cited a book to say that the Ajmer Dargah was originally a Shiva temple. What does the book and other documents on the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti suggest? – Sushim Mukul
A court in Ajmer on Wednesday issued notices to the Union Minority Affairs Ministry, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and the Ajmer Dargah Committee seeking their response to a petition that sought a physical survey of the renowned Dargah Sharif. In the legal petition, Hindu Sena chief Vishnu Gupta claimed that the mausoleum of 13th-century Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was originally a Shiva temple. What does the evidence provided by Gupta and books on Ajmer suggest?
In his petition, Gupta also demanded that the Ajmer Dargah be declared the “Sankat Mochan Mahadev Temple” and called for “Hindu worship to be reinstated” at the site.
To back his claim and demand, Gupta and his lawyer, Yogesh Siroja, referred to a book by Har Bilas Sarda (1867–1955), an Ajmer-based judge-turned-politician. Gupta alleges that Sarda, in a 1910 publication, “wrote about the presence of a Hindu temple beneath the dargah”.
In this context, it’s worth taking a look at the book by Har Bilas Sarda that Gupta is referring to and what observations the author made in it. Of equal significance are other books that delve into the history of Ajmer and its renowned dargah, also referred to as Ajmer Dargah.
What Har Nilas Sarda’s boo says about Ajmer Dargah
The 1910 book cited by Vishnu Gupta is Har Bilas Sarda’s Ajmer: Historical And Descriptive, which was published by the Scottish Mission Industries Company Limited in 1911.
In his book, which serves as an encyclopaedia on Ajmer, Sarda talks about an underground cellar and a “tradition” connected to “Mahadeva” at the Ajmer Dargah.
“As already stated, the remains of the Khwaja lie in an underground cellar, covered with a few bricks, several feet below this tomb. The tomb is in white marble inlaid with pieces of coloured stone, and it is said that near the place corresponding to the heart is fixed a ruby-like stone of the size of an eight anna silver piece,” wrote Sarda in Ajmer: Historical And Descriptive.
“Tradition says that inside the cellar is the image of Mahadeva in a temple, on which sandal used to be placed every day by a Brahman family and still maintained by the Dargah as gharhyali (bell striker),” he wrote.
Sarda, however, doesn’t shed more light on the “destruction” of the shrine.
Mahadeva lingam hidden by leaves and rubbish, says 1841 book
British historian P.M. Currie delves into the history of Ajmer Dargah in his 1989 book, The Shrine and Cult of Mu’in al-Din Chisti of Ajmer.
Currie cites R.H. Irvine’s work, Some Account of the General and Medical Topography of Ajmeer (1841), and notes in the footnotes about an “ancient sacred shrine of Mahadeva” that existed during the time of Sufi Saint of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.
“At one place there was an ancient shrine sacred to Mahadeva, the lingam of which was hidden by the leaves and rubbish. To this wood the Khwaja had retired to contemplate for forty days; and every day he hung up his small mussuq of water on a branch of a tree overhanging the lingam. The water constantly dropped on this. At length Mahadeva became highly pleased, both at the sanctity and unexpected libation of the saint, and spoke out of the stone commending his virtue. From this tradition (related by one of the most learned khadums) the Hindus equally venerate the Khwaja with the Mahomedans,” noted Currie in his 1989 book, citing R.H. Irvine’s work.
Then, Currie, gave another version. “The present writer [Irvine] heard a further variation on the same theme; this time the lingam was located beneath the grave of Muunaldin,” Currie, the civil servant-scholar, wrote in his 1841 document.
This document hasn’t been cited by the petitioners seeking a physical survey of the dargah.
Hindu elements in the Ajmer Dhargah’s Buland Darwaza
Har Bilas Sarda, in his 1911 book, Ajmer: Historical And Descriptive, also notes about spotting Hindu elements on the north side of the 75-feet gateway of the Darwaza, called the Buland Darwaza (not to be confused with Buland Darwaza in Fatehpur Sikri, Agra).
“It [Buland Darwaza] is 75 feet from the ground to the top of the two chatrees over the gate. Towards the north, this gate is supported on either side by three-storied chatrees of carved stone, the spoils of some Hindu building. The materials and the style of these chatrees plainly betray their Hindu origin. Their excellent surface carving is unfortunately hidden from view by coats of colour and whitewashing, which should be removed. It is also stated that these chatrees and the gate—which is of red sandstone, (raised higher and arched by Mussalmans) with the eastern cell continuation of it—formed part of an old Jain temple, which was demolished,” writes Sarda.
After the second Battle of Terrain in 1192, Ajmer, along with a large part of north India, fell into the hands of Muhammad Ghori.
After Ghori’s death in 1206, Mamluks or slaves he used to rule parts of India established their direct rule. Qutubuddin Aibak was the first, and the founder of the Slave Dynasty.
The construction of the Ajmer Dargah started during the reign of Mamluk Sultan Iltutmish (1211-1236), while several additions were made during the rule of Mughal emperors Humayun and Shah Jahan. This is the decades-old controversy surrounding Ajmer Dargah that has made national headlines because of the petition by Vishnu Gupta. The annual Urs of Ajmer Dargah is popular across the world and will be held in January. The dargah, visited by people of all communities and faiths, is held up as an example of syncretism in India. The next hearing on Gupta’s petition for survey at Ajmer Dargah is scheduled for December 20. – India Today, 28 Novemeber 2024
The following references have been extracted from Sita Ram Goel’s books Hindu Temples: What Happened To Them, Vol. I & Vol. II.
RAJASTHAN
I. Ajmer District.
[Ajmer] was a Hindu capital converted into a Muslim metropolis. The following monuments stand on the site of and/or are built with materials from temples.
1. ADhai-Din-kA-Jhonpra (1199).
2. Qalandar Masjid at Taragarh.
3. Ganj-i-Shahidan at Taragarh.
4. Dargah of Mu’in al-Din Chishti (d. 1236).
5. Chilia-i-Chishti near Annasagar Lake.
6. Dargah and Mazar of Sayijid Husain at Taragah.
7. Jahangiri Mahal at Pushkar.
8. Shahjahani Masjid (1637).
9. Annasagar Baradari. – Extracted from HT, Vol. I, Page 126.
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Shykh Mu’in al-Din Chishti of Ajmer (d. AD 1236)
Ajmer (Rajasthan)
Although at that time there were very many temples of idols around the lake, when the Khwaja saw them, he said: If God and His Prophet so will, it will not be long before I raze to the ground these idol temples.
It is said that among those temples there was one temple to reverence which the Raja and all the infidels used to come, and lands had been assigned to provide for its expenditure. When the Khwaja settled there, every day his servants bought a cow, brought it there and slaughtered it and ate it.
So when the infidels grew weak and saw that they had no power to resist such a perfect companion of God, they went into their idol temples which were their places of worship. In them there was a dev, in front of whom they cried out and asked for help.
The dev who was their leader, when he saw the perfect beauty of the Khwaja, trembled from head to foot like a willow tree. However much he tried to say Ram, Ram, it was Rahim, Rahim that came from his tongue The Khwaja with his own hand gave a cup of water to a servant to take to the dev. He had no sooner drunk it than his heart was purified of darkness of unbelief, he ran forward and fell at the heaven-treading feet of the Khwaja, and professed his belief.
The Khwaja said: I also bestow on you the name of Shadi Dev [Joyful Deva].
Then Shadi Dev suggested to the Khwaja, that he should now set up a place in the city, where the populace might benefit from his holy arrival. The Khwaja accepted this suggestion, and ordered one of his special servants called Muhammad Yadgir to go into the city and set in good order a place for faqirs. Muhammad Yadgir carried out his orders, and when he had gone into the city, he liked well the place where the radiant tomb of the Khwaja now is, and which originally belonged to Shadi Dev, and he suggested that the Khwaja should favour it with his residence.
Muin al-din had a second wife for the following reason: One night he saw the Holy Prophet in the flesh. The prophet said: You are not truly of my religion if you depart in any way from my sunnat. It happened that the ruler of the Path fort, Malik Khitab, attacked the unbelievers that night and captured the daughter of the Raja of that land. He presented her to Muin aldin who accepted her and named her Bibi Umiya.
British Historian P.M. Currie comments
The take-over of pagan sites is a recurrent feature of the history of the expansion of Islam. The most obvious precedent is to be found in the Muslim annexation of the Hajar al-Aswad (Black Stone) at Mecca. Sir Thomas Arnol remarks that in many instances there is no doubt that the shrine of a Muslim saint marks the site of some local cult which was practised on the spot long before the introduction of Islam.
There is evidence, more reliable than the tradition recorded in the Siyar al-Aqtab, to suggest that this was the case in Ajmer. Sculpted stones, apparently from a Hindu temple, are incorporated in the Buland Darwaza of Mu’in al-Dins shrine. Moreover, his tomb is built over a series of cellars which may have formed part of an earlier temple. A tradition, first recorded in the Anis al-Arwah, suggests that the Sandal Khana is built on the site of Shadi Dev’s temple. – Extracted from HT, Vol II. Page 150.
References
- Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them – Vol. I – Sita Ram Goel
- Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them – Vol. II – Sita Ram Goel
- Some Account of the General and Medical Topography of Ajmeer – Robert Hamilton Irvine
Filed under: india | Tagged: ajmer dargah, indian sufis, islamic iconoclasm, shiva temple, temple-breaking |
BHARATA BHARATI 