India Guide
Rajasthan
Taragarh Fort
Address: 3km south of Ajmer
Just visible on the ridge high above Ajmer, Taragarh (the Star Fort) was for two thousand years the most important strategic objective for invading armies in northwest India. Any ruler who breached its walls, rising from a ring of forbidding escarpments, controlled the region's trade. The fort is now badly ruined but pilgrims still flock to pay their respects at one of the world's few shrines devoted to a tax inspector, the Dargahof Miran Sayeed Hussein Khangsawar – Muhammad of Ghor's chief revenue collector was slain in the Rajput attack of 1202 when the fort's entire Muslim population was put to the sword.
The best way to get to Taragarh is to take a ninety-minute hike along the ancient paved pathway from Ajmer, which offers superb views across the plains and neighbouring hills. To pick up the trailhead, follow the lane behind the Dargah Khwaja Sahib, past the Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra and on towards the saddle in the ridge visible to the south. Alternatively, you can take an auto (Rs150–200 return) or one of the Jeeps (Rs20) that leave from behind the Plaza Cinema on Diggi Chowk, west of the train station; ask for the "Ta-ra-garh jeeps", pronouncing all the syllables clearly, or you may end up at the main Khwaja Sahib Dargah. To return to Ajmer, you can either follow the path back downhill, or catch a Jeep from the lot at the northeast side of the village, near the Dargah.