India Guide
Rajasthan
Dargah Khwaja Sahib
Website: www.dargahajmer.com
Price: Free; no cameras allowed inside
Opening time: Daily 5am– midnight; tomb closed daily 3–4pm, except Thurs when it's shut 2.30–3.30pm
Muslim India's most revered saint, Khwaja Muin-ud-din Chishti, was born in 1156 in Afghanistan, and began his religious career at thirteen, when he distributed his inheritance among the poor and adopted the simple, pious life of an itinerant Sufi fakir. He soaked up the teachings of the great Central Asian Sufis, whose emphasis on mysticism, ecstatic states and pure devotion were then revolutionizing Islam. His reputation snowballed after he and his disciples settled in Ajmer. Withdrawing into meditation and fasting, he preached a message of renunciation. More radically, he insisted on the fundamental unity of all religions: mosques and temples, he asserted, were merely material manifestations of a single divinity, with which all men and women could commune. After he died in Ajmer in 1236, his followers lauded the Bhagavad Gita as a sacred text, and encouraged Hindu devotees to pray using names of God familiar to them, equating Ram with "Rahman", the Merciful Aspect of Allah. That spirit explains why his shrine continues to be loved by adherents of all faiths.
The small brick tomb in which the saint was buried is today engulfed by the large Dargah Khwaja Sahib, or Dargah Sharif, complex. The dargah became India's most important Muslim shrine under the patronage of the three great Mughals – Shah Jahan, Jahangir and, crucially, Akbar.
To reach the tomb, you pass through three succesive gateways: the lofty Nizam Gate, the smaller Shajahani Gate, and the imposing, blue-and-green Buland Darwaza.Beyond the latter stand two immense cauldrons, into which pilgrims throw money to be shared among the poor.
The Tomb of Khwaja Sahib lies in an inner courtyard, inside a domed mausoleum, the marble Mazar Sharif. Nightly recitations of qawwali are held in the courtyard, an exuberant form of religous singing accompanied by harmonium and drums which aims to lull the participants into a trance-like state called mast. Surrounded by silver railings, the tomb inside is surmounted by a large gilt dome. Devotees file past carrying brilliant chadars, gilt-brocaded silk covers for the saint's grave, on beds of rose petals in flat, round head-baskets.