India Guide
Rajasthan
Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra
Address: 400m west of the Dargah Khwaja Sahib
Often overlooked by visitors, the Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra, or "two-and-a-half-day hut", is the oldest surviving monument in Ajmer, and unquestionably one of the finest examples of medieval architecture in Rajasthan. Built in 660 AD as a Jain temple, and converted in 1153 into a Hindu college, it was destroyed forty years later by the invading Afghan chieftain Muhammad of Ghor, who later had it renovated as a mosque.
Tradition holds that its name derives from the speed with which it was constructed, but in fact the reconstruction took fifteen years, using materials plundered from Hindu and Jain temples; the name actually refers to a fakirs' festival which used to be held here in the eighteenth century, a jhonpra (hut) being the abode of a fakir (Sufi mendicant). Defaced Hindu motifs are still clearly discernible on the pillars and ceilings, but the mosque's most beautiful feature is the bands of Koranic calligraphy that decorate its seven-arched facade. The monument is reached via a small and easy-to-miss alleyway off the main bazaar; by the time you can see the shrine's walls rising on your right, you've already walked past the entrance.