That it lies close to the ancient site of Pushkar, and is mentioned in epics like the Mahabharat, Ramayana and various Puranas, tells us also the geo-political importance of Ajmer (Mewar region) through history. Ajmer’s location on ancient trade routes that brought in horses, silver and other goods in exchange for cotton, textiles, etc., as well as it being on the route from Delhi in the north to Gujarat in the south-west meant that those kingdoms who could control this vast, strategically located but largely arid region exercised disproportionately expansive influence.

The earliest extant records about Ajmer date back to the 11th century around the Ghurid raids into north- India. It is also at this point that the historicity of Moinuddin Chishti begins. However, while verifiable records cannot be evidenced, there is enough textual material to surmise that the region became a stronghold of the Chauhans who colonised the area and subjugated local tribes like the Bhils and others around the 7th century.

Khwaja Gharib Nawaz or Moinuddin Chishti

In the first five centuries after Islam emerged as a religion in the West Asia, the religion had spread to a large part of the Indian subcontinent where its more egalitarian nature found instant acceptance among large sections of people left out of the Brahmanical caste system. Legends surround Moinuddin Chishti, from him being a grantor of boons to a practitioner of extreme austerities, many of them are clearly inventions of a later age.

Quoting Nizamudding Auliya, the great Sufi saint of 13th century Delhi, S A A Rizvi writes in the History of Sufism in India, “The Sultanu’l-Masha’ikh (Shaikh Nizamu’d-Din Auliya’) believed that when Khwaja Muinu’d-Din reached Ajmer, India was ruled by Pithaura Rai (Prithviraj Chauhan) and his capital was Ajmer. Pithaura and his high officials resented the Shaikh’s presence in their city, but the latter’s eminence and his apparent power to perform miracles, prompted them to refrain from taking action against him.”

“A disciple of the Khwaja’s was in the service of Pithaura Rai. After the disciple began to receive hostile treatment from the Rai, the Khwaja sent a message to Pithaura in favour of the Muslim. Pithaura refused to accept the recommendation, thus indicating his resentment of the Khwaja’s alleged claims to understand the secrets of the Unseen. When Khwaja Mu’inu’d-Din (the spiritual King of Islam) heard of this reply he prophesied: We have seized Pithaura alive and handed him over to the army of Islam. About the same time Sultan Mu’izzu’d-Din Muhammad’s army arrived from Ghazna, attacked the forces of Pithaura and defeated them. Pithaura was taken alive, and thus the Khwaja’s prophecy was fulfilled!”

After Moinuddin Chishti’s death in March 1236, he was buried near the Taragarh hill where he had spent most his life. His grave was a simple one, made of bricks, which was later covered with a stone cenotaph. According to Rizvi, another Sufi saint from nearby Nagaur (a Sufi centre) got a tomb built over it.

The Chishti saint’s appeal cut across genders and class. To the conservative sultan Feroz Shah Tughlaq, this was a source of annoyance. Carl W Ernst writes in Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Asia and Beyond, “We know this from the highly critical account of Feroz Shah Tughluq (1356-1387), which is set forth in a lengthy inscription of the late fourteenth century. There he complains about the large numbers of women travelling by all sorts of conveyance outside of the city of Delhi to visit the tombs of saints, where (he believed) they were exposed to the lascivious attentions of rogues and profligates. His solution was to issue a royal decree forbidding women to perform pilgrimage to these tombs, since he regarded this as a religiously prohibited activity for them”.

Not all rulers agreed with Tughlaq’s view. Mahmud Khilji (1436-69 CE), the Sultan of Mandu in present day Madhya Pradesh, sought to increase his religious merit by commissioning a Khanqah (Sufi monastery) and the imposing Buland Darwaza at the now fast developing shrine. His successors also built a mosque which was later extended by Mughal emperors Akbar (1542-1605) and Jahangir (1605-1627).

Akbar’s devotion to the Ajmer shrine has been well-documented. The great emperor made many pilgrimages to the shrine and came to believe that the wisdom of the Vedas and that of Sufism is essentially the same. After three sons were born — as prophesised by Salim Chishti, another Sufi saint — the Chishti order in India became stronger than ever. As the pre-eminent emperor of India after Ashoka, it was Akbar who perhaps imbued the shrine with the spiritual power that all rulers have since respected. In today’s terms he was perhaps their biggest brand ambassador.

On royals and laity alike, whether they were Hindu, Sikh or Muslim, the shrine exerted an influence beyond what the traditional clergy was capable of. Moinuddin’s immense popularity based on his miracles and spiritual power made the entire spectrum of medieval society congregate at the shrine.

Jahanara’s giving up of her leopard skin bed

Jahanara Begum, emperor Shah Jahan’s favoured child and one of the most noteworthy women of the 17th century, has left an account of her self-deprivation driven by her devotion for the Chishti saint. Carl Ernst quotes Jahanara’s account of her trip in Oct-Nov 1643 CE. “When I entered the building on the shore of Anasagar lake, I was committed to this idea, that every day in every station I would perform two cycles of optional prayer. For the several days when I stopped in the above-mentioned buildings, from extreme courtesy I did not sleep on a leopard skin that night, I did not extend my feet in the direction of the blessed sanctuary of the revered saving master, and I did not turn my back towards him. I passed the days beneath the trees…Finally with my own hand I put the highest quality of attar on the perfumed tomb of that revered one, and having taken off the rose scarf that I had on my head, I placed it on top of the blessed tomb”.

A similar sight greets visitor till today at the dargah in Ajmer with thousands of pilgrims offering perfume, scarves and other items.

Recent controversy over the Dargah

The legend of there being a ‘shivling’ at the site of the grave has been found quoted since the 19th century. It is present in vague details as is the case with most anecdotes recorded by colonial and communal British writers. For instance, quoting an unnamed Khadim, Robert Irvine wrote in his vaguely titled Some Account of the General and Medical Topography of Ajmeer (1841). “At one place…there was an ancient shrine sacred to Mahadeva, the lingam of which was hidden by leaves and rubbish. To this wood the Khwaja (Moinuddin Chishti) had retired to contemplate [for] forty days; and every day he hung up his small mussuq (vessel) of water on a branch of a tree overhanging the lingam. The water constantly dropped on this. At length Mahadeva became highly pleased… [and] spoke out of the stone commending his virtue”.

Har Bilas Sharda was a key member of the Ajmer unit of Arya Samaj, the reformist Hindu movement that emerged in the colonial era in India. One tiny paragraph of Sharda’s 1911 book Ajmer: Historical and Descriptive has been relied on by a lower court judge to order a survey of the Sufi shrine. However, his book too acknowledges at the outset the unignorable and enduring importance of Khwaja Garib Nawaz or Moinudding Chishti. He writes” “The Kingdom of Ajmer in its days of prosperity was famous for four things as the popular lines say: Ajmera ke maayne, Chaar cheez sarnaam, Khwaje sahib ki dargah kahiye, Pushkar ka Snan, Makrane mein patthar nikale, Sambhar looga ki Khaan (Translation: “Four things are famous in the territory of Ajmer. 1. Khwaja Sahib-ki-Dargah. 2. Pushkar Lake. 3. Makrana Marble. 4. Sambhar salt mines.”)

HistoriCity is a column by author Valay Singh that narrates the story of a city that is in the news, by going back to its documented history, mythology and archeological digs. The views expressed are personal.